The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Take a Low-Paying Job That I Love?

Episode Date: May 13, 2022

George Kamel & Ken Coleman discuss: Should you take out a mortgage later in life? Does it make sense to stay in a high-paying, high-stress job? Similarly, should you take low-paying job that you love? Should you join the military? Thinking through leaving a job, Training bootcamps vs. traditional degrees. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Oh From Ramsey Network, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help you get control of your money, get ahead in your career, and get on the path to being well. I'm George Campbell, your host, joined today by Ken Coleman, and we are here for you this hour, America. Give us a call, 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Kay Nichelle kicks us off in the Philadelphia area.

Kay Nichelle, welcome to the show. Hi, and thank you for taking my call. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Okay, I hope everyone's doing well. I'm just returning to work. It'll be three years in September. Absolutely. I just call it savings or anything like that. And I'm trying to make a decision about where to live. I live in an apartment right now, but I'm kind of scared to take on any type of mortgage. 15 years means I'll be 75.

I do have to not pay any debt, about $60,000 in credit cards. I have a student loan that's about $120,000. So I had spoken to someone about a co-op, and in theory it sounded, I'm not sure what I should do as far as housing is concerned. Okay. Speak directly into your phone for us as we continue here, but I think I got most of it. How much total debt do you have? Well, with the student loan, which is $120,000, it would be $126,000 total.

How do you have $120,000 in student loans at 60? Okay, well, I started grad school in New York, and the week I got there, I got into an accident, and they were student loans. They weren't excused, despite the fact it was partially their fault. They asked them out again. So when I became a caregiver, I went back to school online, and I lived off the loans because I wasn't living off my parents, you know, the savings for my mother.

So that's where the large student loan comes from. Oh, I'm so sorry. Well, I mean, this is a mess to clean up, especially at your age. What are you going to be making with this job with the city? Well, I top out at my grade, which will be $50,000 next year. However, I am working on another addition side job, but it requires some training, which is in project management. Okay. Well, here's the thing. As long as you're able to work, you've got some hope here.

But you could live to 90. Statistically speaking, if you've made it to 60, you could live another 20 years. And so what you can do is get rid of this debt and retire with dignity. I don't know that a house is going to be in your near future, to be honest with you. So I want you to get your income up. Did you graduate from the program that you were in? I graduated with a master's in library science, my undergrad was in journalism, and I haven't gotten my project management certification,

but I'm working on that. Okay. I want you to make sure that we're utilizing whatever programs you're certified in to make sure we get your income as high as possible, which is what Ken Coleman would want you to do, is get that income up as high as we can. Yeah, I'm just curious, how much more do you anticipate that you'll be able to make on the side with this project management certification? I plan on probably doing a change as I go up the ladder with my job so that my income will increase. It's just a matter of the timing that I'll do this. You know, with working for the city, you have certain steps just like you do with the federal government. Yeah.

But I foresee, you know, it bringing up from 60 probably to maybe 80 or so. Okay, yeah, and I would really encourage you to look outside of city government, state government, certainly with that project management certification because project management is one of the hottest, let's call it a trade for our conversation right now, an opportunity for you to really grow, and you can do this across industries. So it's a very flexible, very, very, I think, upward moving opportunities for you. And right now, you've got to make as much money as possible. And so you called and started to ask about a house.

No, the answer is you're not. Oh, no. You can't even think about a house. I knew I couldn't afford a house. No. Yeah, I knew I couldn't afford a house. No. Yeah, I knew I couldn't afford a house, but I was projecting in the future it would be a sound thing, a house or a co-op or just staying in an apartment or even a condo. Whatever is affordable and safe.

I mean, I want you to try to keep this thing around 25% of your take-home pay going towards rent. That may be hard to do in this market, but whatever you can find that's affordable in a safe area, that's what I'm going with for now as we try to get your income up. But this is a tough situation. You've got six figures in debt at almost 60 years old. And so I love that you're thinking about the future, but we need to have been thinking about this long-term in the past as we try to tackle these student loans, tackle the debt. So here's the thing. Stop the bleeding. We're not going to touch debt anymore. We got to get on a plan, get your income up so that we can start attacking this debt from smallest to largest,

regardless of the interest rate. That is baby step two, using the debt snowball method. So put $1,000 aside. The rest of the money you have goes towards the debt. Once we're done with that, let's build up this emergency fund of three to six months of expenses so that you can breathe and so that you can retire at some point. I don't know when that will be for you. As long as you're able to work, I think you got to keep working. Yeah. And I mean, selling anything and everything. I mean, it's like you have to get some margin. And I'm going to tell you something, in this situation, if she can add that project management certification with not much more time or money, that is a good move to give her some professional options. And look, okay, government work, a lot of people love government work.

There's good jobs, good people doing things in government work. But you don't have the upward mobility that you can have in the private sector. And so I really would encourage her to look outside of city government, state government work for the purposes of she's got to maximize her income, and I mean quick. Yeah, well, part of the issue I have with the public student loan forgiveness program is you got to stay in those public service jobs for a decade. Yeah, well. Which means your income would not be as high as if you were in the private sector. And so to hang on to that, all for them to hopefully forgive your student loans is a bad idea. But you brought it up,

George. So I feel like here's a mini rant. I opened up a can of worms. There's not going to be student loan forgiveness. You heard it here first, folks. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. I mean, look, you got to understand how much money the federal government makes off of those loans and the interest on those loans. It's a big business. And this is a political year, and they're going to dangle it out there as a possibility. And the reality is, if you look at the numbers of the amount of people in the United States that don't have college degrees, it's now like 64% of Americans. Wow. Okay?

Then you look at, wait a second, the taxpayers are going to pay for your student loan forgiveness? You went and got the education. You signed up for the debt. And now we're just going to wipe it away? It's actually not the winning political issue that they think it is. So for a myriad of reasons, I'm trying to dash people's hopes, not to be unkind, but to put this into perspective. The government is not going to come riding in on the glorious white horse and Uncle Joe's not

going to wipe your student loan debt away. It's not going to happen. I think they need to put their hope in someone who can actually help themselves, the person in the mirror. Well said. That's what we should focus on. This is The important than ever. While some circumstances can't be controlled, there are items within your budget you can take charge of,

such as your health care costs. For nearly 40 years, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, has provided a budget-friendly means of sharing for medical bills when our members need it. Learn more by visiting chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Christian's chministries.org slash budget. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey-trusted provider. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined today by Ramsey personality Ken Coleman. And we are taking your calls, 888-825-5225.

Sarah joins us up next. She is in San Antonio, Texas. Sarah, welcome to the show. Hi, George. Hi, Ken. Thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. I'm hoping you can help me with this.

I'm not really happy with my job. I want a career change and what I'm interested in will make me substantially less money because of my salary and the lessons I learned from Dave Ramsey. You guys, I feel like I'm in a good place financially right now, so I don't know if I'm about to go off on the wrong track. Give me a snapshot. Give me a snapshot of your financial picture. So I have a house paid off worth about $350,000. Whoa, that's awesome. Way to go. And I have about $500,000 in retirement. Wow. How old are you? I'm 42. Wow, excellent.

Way to go. You should say, how young is she, George? Well, you know, I'm sorry, Ken. I'm not good at this. And Sarah, so I guess you've gone through all the baby steps, right? I'm on baby step eight. Yeah, you are. There we go.

I like the sound of that. Well, this gives you options. I'm hopeful. Yeah, you have options. How big of a pay cut would this be? From what to what? Right now, I make about $110,000, but I want to be a teacher. Good for you. What do you do now? Oh, I'm an accountant. Okay, great. Okay, so what about going down? So where, let's see, you are, do you plan to stay in San Antonio? You know, I don't know. Right now, I guess I could go anywhere. I mean, I like San Antonio. Right now, it's just mainly the pay cut that I've only been kind of worried about.

Right. Well, the reason I asked you if you're going to stay in San Antonio is because if you've not done your homework on what the teacher pay in your area is, that would be a good piece of information to get. Have you done that? Oh, yes. Yeah. I would be going down to like between like 50 to mid-60s. Okay. Have you run an exercise on what that would look like,

how that would affect your lifestyle with that new salary? Well, right now I don't even spend that much. I mostly eat at home and I go out with friends, but we don't go out to like fancy restaurants. Yeah. So the point is that you can handle it. It's not even going to hardly affect you at all as it relates to what you feel and your normal rhythm of life, correct?

I guess my only concern is right now if I leave my current job that there's pretty much no going back. Well, wait a second. Why would we want to go back to something that you don't enjoy well mainly for financial stability like it i guess it's don't you have that sweetheart you are you are very stable yeah yeah i guess it's just after all the years of working it's you know ingrained in me to kind of keep making money and the idea well you are but you are going to get a lot of anxiety. I get it, Sarah. And it's because you're so wise with money, you are dealing with the

emotion of sticker shock from 110 to let's call it 55,000, split the difference between 50 to 60. And you look at that and everything in your brain is telling you that that is silly and crazy to do, which is why you called us. Am I right? Yeah, because, I mean, it just goes against, like, everything. Right. Everything that I've learned from you guys. Well, no, it doesn't. No, it doesn't.

Because you have walked through the baby steps, you do have financial peace. And do you know that Ramsey Solutions a few years ago did the largest study of net worth millionaires that has ever been done? Any guess as to what the third largest group of net worth millionaires was in the United States and is? I don't know. Teachers. Oh, wow. And number two was accountants. So either way, you're going to be a millionaire. Yeah. So let's not worry about financial stability. Yeah, you're 42. You're going to keep investing your salary. It's going to be less. Even if you didn't invest another dollar, that $500,000 over the next 20 years, you're going to be a multimillionaire. So here's

the, no pun here intended, but the million dollar question is why do you want to be a teacher? What's the why? I guess I've always enjoyed teaching. One, I'm sick of the desk job right now. I've been, like, my spine is starting to hunch over. I feel like I'm in a position. Who do you most want to teach? Oh, I guess, like, kids between, like, I would say the junior high school level. Now, see, that's very interesting. That's very specific, and I'm glad.

So that's middle school. Yes. See, as a teacher, someone who wants to teach and instruct, you could be a corporate trainer and make six figures. So I'm challenging you a little bit on this to say, does it mean you have to be a public school teacher? But if that's what you want to do, the great news is, Sarah, you have walked out the baby steps.

You're in baby step seven. You can work like no one else because you're on your path. You've done all the hard work. So this is, it's counterintuitive to say, all right, I'm going to go from making 110 to 55. I get that. But the reality is for you, it doesn't matter. It won't even hardly affect you at all.

So who you want to teach and why you want to teach has to be your focus. Yeah, I guess I just wanted to make sure I'm not in a grass is always greener situation. Okay, I'll give you a test for that. Have you hung out with any teachers and talked to them, people that are teaching on the junior high or middle school level, and talked to them about the ins, the outs, the good, the bad, the ugly? Yes. And? Yeah, I feel like I would enjoy it. It's just that financial aspect.

George? I grew up in a poor family, so I'm just really scared of that. Sarah, you've done so well, and I know it's hard to make the shift where you go from intense to intentional, but you've done so, so well. And guess what? If you're a teacher making $55,000, guess what you can do on nights and weekends if you're really strapped financially? You can do some freelance accounting.

You can do some tutoring. There's always going to be ways to increase your income. But right now you're saying, I hate my life. I hate my job. And yet I'm doing so well financially. So that's not worth it. You're worth more than that. And you're 42 years old. You could have another 20 years plus in your working career to have an impact, to have that joy that you're craving. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's kind of why I was calling because I know that the show has said that money's supposed to help you live a life of purpose. And right now I don't feel like I'm living that, but I mean, so I just wanted to make

sure. Sarah, you are on the right path. You have been on the right path. You're exactly where, when we talk about this idea of financial peace and then working on purpose, you're there. You were created to fill a unique role, Sarah, in your work. That means you are needed, and it also means you must do it. And your soul is slowly slipping out of your body every day you go back to that job. Is that true or false? Oh, yeah. I do not like it. Well, then life is too short to live that way. Life is too short to work that way. You're fine. Sarah, write down all of your financial fears and then write down worst possible scenarios and then figure out what the solution would be for that. Worst case, you lose your job. Worst case, the stock market goes down for a few years. Whoop-dee-doo. You're going to be okay. You have a paid-for house. You don't owe anyone any money. Yeah. And you're in great fields of work that we're always going to need.

Yeah, that's right. I didn't know this, but I'm pretty much a millionaire. I want to celebrate. Let's go out. Yeah. And then let's talk about what this next step looks like for you to get this education to become a teacher and step into that role. Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate the help, the advice. Thank you, guys. Sarah, you're amazing. Hold your head high.

You're amazing. I want you, Sarah, to think about the kids that you're going to have the opportunity to come in contact with, who you will shape, who you will influence in a way that maybe no one else could. That's your why. And, Ken, you and I have both had amazing teachers in our lives who have impacted us, and we could sit here all day and tell stories. That's right. But we need teachers who really want to teach, who want to instruct and impact this next generation. And I'm grateful for people like Sarah who've done the financial work to have options to

get to switch career paths at 42. That's inspiring. Listen to that song. We're in to fly. There it is. More of what you love coming up. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Welcome back, America. This is The Ramsey Show.

I'm George Campbell, joined by Ken Coleman. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why they are the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. And you all know I love a good deal, so use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. Today's question comes from Colin in New Hampshire. I'm 23, engaged, and the only debt I have is student loans and a car payment. I currently work in a job with a big company that I don't like.

I don't plan on making a career there, but I earn $60,000 and will soon get a 15% raise on top of a $4,000 bonus this year. The work-life balance isn't great, and the job is exhausting. I've been offered a new job with a smaller company doing something that excites me. They have a great company culture, and the position is more aligned with my career goals. The problem is their pay range is only $55,000 to $60,000 with small annual raises. Do you think taking that job that pays less but is more fulfilling and aligns with my career goals is the right choice? Okay, so I wouldn't take the job.

They're already very close to what you make with the 60. And that doesn't include your 15% raise that you're getting and you think you're getting. You hope you get, but you never know. And the bonuses. So I wouldn't take it unless they matched your current 60. You can just say, hey, thanks for the bonuses. So I wouldn't take it unless they matched your current 60. You know, you can just say, hey, thanks for the offer. But, you know, I'm not going to switch jobs for less. And so, you know, if they're in the 55 to 60 range, I would think they would at least meet you at 60.

And so from that standpoint, yeah, I would take it. I mean, you're not going to last long at this other big company. You've already said it here uh you know you don't like it work life balance isn't great although i gotta tell you for a 23 year old who's been working for maybe a year i i question he's already worn out i question why you're exhausted and what does work life balance look like for a 23 year old i'm sorry i'm sorry i don't have a whole lot of empathy on that one yeah uh but that's neither here nor there the answer is i'd leave for 60 um i wouldn't leave for less than 60 but you're not going to stay at this big company long so the fact that you can go to this other company and assuming get the same amount 60 000 and then get the occasional bumps but that doesn't include you getting promoted so the

reasoning in this entire question is is a little bit all over the place. You don't stay for a bigger paycheck when you've verbalized the fact that you can't stand it and you're exhausted because eventually that bump in pay wears off. After about two checks. We just recently took a call where this woman's making great money and hates it and now is willing to take half the money in order to step into what she loves. So, Colin, you told me you've got debt, and this is a trigger word for me, Ken, when people say, the only debt I have is student loans and a car payment. Which we don't even know what that equals to. That could be 50 grand, 60 grand. So let's own up to the fact that we've got a mess to clean up.

So on top of maybe taking that new job, I might be getting a side hustle or two until I can clean up this debt so that I'm not in pain for a longer period of time making payments with my income. Because guess what? The pay cut doesn't matter that much when you don't have payments. It's amazing how that works. But I've got to warn you, you might be exhausted. That is part of it. Buckle up, Colin. This is adulting. This is how that works. But I've got to warn you, you might be exhausted. That is part of it. Buckle up, Colin. This is adulting. This is how it works.

Well, appreciate the question, and congrats on the impending wedding, and good luck with your career move. Joining us next, Osiris is in Colorado Springs. Osiris, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you for taking my call. I truly appreciate it. We're honored to take it. How can I help? So this question I've had for forever now. I'm 34 and I have two teenager kids and obviously you can only do so much, so either the kids or a career.

I have the kids, and I'm still thinking pursuing a career in the medical field. But I'm debt-free except for my mortgage, and I don't want to go into debt. I don't want to go into debt. I don't want to risk it. So one of my passions is being joined in the military. And why is that? So that's kind of, I'm very money conscious. I don't want to say frugal, but I'm more conscious about cost, expenses, and being or using the money in the most productive way, similar with a career or a job. But why military?

You said you were passionate about joining the military. I'm curious, what is behind that passion? For me, when I say I love a job or I love a career or I love anything in relation to what brings me income, it has to be productive to me in several ways. The military comes because I find it the most productive. There's a lot of productive work you could do out there, though. What kind of work would you do in the military let's just fast forward this and assume that the military said come on osiris you get any job you want in the military what kind of work would you want to do for the military in the military that is really hard question for me so the way i am and i know it's probably hard to believe the way I am is that I tend to love any job that just practically pays. Like, I'm grateful to have a job that helps me.

You said you love any job that pays, but this is most jobs then. Yes, most jobs. I'm going to give you four categories to choose from, okay? I'm going to try to make this multiple choice. When you think about work that you would really love, now I want you to suspend this current thinking, which, oh, I have a great attitude. I love any job that gives me a paycheck. No, you don't. You're very grateful for it, but there's a difference between gratitude and love. Like, love is a strong, bold word. Like, is like the root word of passion in the Latin is pati, which means to suffer.

It means I'm willing to suffer, sacrifice, and eat on rice and beans, right, to get out of debt. That's what we see, passion on the debt-free stage when people do their debt-free scream. So being grateful for a check is not passion. So let me ask you this. I think there's four basic categories of work, okay? There's people work. There's ideas work. That's kind of the space George and I are in. We think about ideas and conduct. That's kind of the work we do. There is process-type work, where it's very administrative, organizational, process-driven, project-managed, that kind of stuff. And then the last category would be things. So think mechanical, building, fixing, designing, something of a physical nature.

So when you think of people work, idea work, process work, or things work, what sticks out to you? What made your heart go, ooh, when I gave you that? Anything? It would be public speaking. Okay. All right. So that's people. I'd put that in the people or ideas work. It's probably a combo. Okay. So what do you love about communicating? Teaching, teaching people. There we go. I like learning when I teach. Okay, so here's my thing.

If you're going to go the military route, you would want to see what are instructional type jobs within the military. But you see the theme here? Because we're not going to limit you just to public school teaching. We're not going to limit you to corporate training. We're not going to limit you. But anything that is of an instructional nature, that's something that you know corporate training. We're not going to limit you. But anything that is of an instructional nature, that's something that you know you enjoy. And so now you can be grateful, but also love the work. And that needs to be the decision that we make, not just join the military and then figure

out what they give me. You know, if you're going to join the military, what's an instructional position that I could eventually work my way into. Yeah. And take into account, Osiris, where are the teens at? How soon are they going to be out of the house? I don't know that you could get deployed and be able to find childcare for the teens. What happens to them? Yeah. And so there's something to think about.

And I don't know that it's military because everything you told me, it started with medical, we jumped to military, then it was public speaking. So here's what I want you to do. We're going to send you Ken's Get Clear career assessment to help you get a little closer. And that multiple choice quiz you'll take will really narrow it down and give you a purpose statement that shows you how your passion, your talent, your mission all interact. So hang on the line. Kelly's going to pick up. We're going to get you a code to take that Get Clear assessment.

I hope it gets you a step closer and gives you a little more homework to do as you navigate what this new career path looks like. Yeah, a couple fun questions when you get your results. Who do I want to teach? Where do I want to teach? How do I want to teach? It's going to open up a lot of creativity and ideas that you can begin to then test and formulate. Thanks so much for the call, Osiris.

This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day comes from Ecclesiastes 7.8. The end of something is better than its beginning. Patience is better than arrogance. Edmund Hillary said, It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. Good stuff there. This is The Ramsey Show. Jake joins us up next in Chicago, Illinois.

Jake, welcome to the show. Hey, George. Hey, Ken. How are you? We are great. How can we help today? All right. Well, I'm kind of at a crossroads financially, and work-wise and relationship-wise this week, I started a new job about five weeks ago in a totally different career path. I'm about halfway through my 10-week trainingwise this week, I started a new job about five weeks ago in a totally different career path. I'm about halfway through my 10-week training with this company,

and I'm not getting the direction or leadership I need from my team manager. And then also in about two weeks, I'm going to be closing the deal on my house. I'm going to be selling it. The house is paid off, and I'm going to be moving it back in with my parents. And I just don't know what to do with my money or if I should be holding on to it and The house is paid off, and I'm going to be moving it back in with my parents. And I just don't know what to do with my money or if I should be holding on to it and trying to look for the next deal in the real estate market or just trying to invest it. I just don't know what to do. Okay, I'll let Ken hit the career part first, then we can get into the financials.

Yeah, what makes you think that you're not getting what you need in this training process? Well, there's two parts to the training. One's done through the corporate office remote, and then one's done with my actual team manager in my region. And the remote part's going great. I'm getting all the necessary tools that I need from my training advisors. But as far as my team manager uh i've been doing my due diligence to reach out to that person and uh like last week i was sent out or yesterday i

was sent out wild goose chase and kind of set up for failure and she admitted to it too later in a phone call with me that like hey i just kind of set you up for failure to see how you would uh react to it it's like I'm five weeks on the job. I have no idea. Like, this is totally new to me, totally different industry than what I'm coming from. I'm like, I was not expecting this. Well, how did you handle it? I did have to make a decision.

Was it the right one? And like right now, it's resolved the issue, but it's just delaying it for another five weeks. Okay. So, I I mean are you just, I mean so this was a technique of hers. It may be a horrible leadership technique, but it was a technique. She owned it.

She did it on purpose to see how you'd handle failure or indecisiveness or whatever. So do you believe that or do you not believe that? Because you could believe that and go, I still think that's just horrible bossery. Or you could go, I don't believe her. It could be her technique because I have reached out to some of my team members. They're like, yeah, this is kind of how she operates.

And it was just something new to me, I guess. But you feel whipped. Yeah, especially only being on the job five weeks. Yeah, but, I mean, you're not going to get demoted. I guess what I'm saying is I want to understand what has just whipped you. You feel whipped emotionally, like, oh, my gosh. Like, it was a technique. She does it to other people.

Was there any learnings from it? Do you feel like there's no going back? I mean, what has caused you to be so deflated? I guess just the communication aspect. It's just really hard to communicate with this team manager, whereas where I'm used to, you know, I'm used to face-to-face interactions, too. This is totally new to me, the remote learning and remote work. Yeah, but you said the remote learning is doing well. It's the face-to-face learning that you're having issues with.

Yeah. All right, so my point is, George can handle the money stuff pretty quickly on this, but, I mean, which way do you lean in here? Are you done? Are you willing to give this thing a chance and give yourself an opportunity to learn and grow here? I would like to give myself an opportunity to learn and grow here. I just, I don't, it's just, I don't know. Did you talk with the leader about this in detail about, hey,

I understand this was a goose chase to see how I reacted to this. Is this going to be normal? I'm feeling like I need a little bit more attention and training on this. Have you expressed that? I have not yet, no. You need to express that. You need to give yourself a chance. Okay.

You chose this career path on purpose, or did you fall into it? No, I chose this career path on purpose. Why'd you choose it? Well, I came from a blue-collar background. I'm 26, by the way, but I came from a blue-collar background right out of college. I got my degree in finance. And the industry I went into now is insurance claims. And I felt that it was a good aspect for my skills because I've worked with contractors in the past,

but I also love working on small projects. I like dealing with details and numbers. And I thought that this would be a great career avenue. Well, can it still be? I believe so, yes. Good. So my point is you're not an indentured servant here. You don't have to stay at this company forever.

Let's stick this thing out and get some good skills, get some good experience. Stick this thing out. Yeah. I'm going to grow my hard skills and soft skills while I'm here. And, hey, six months, a year down the road, if you still don't trust and respect the leadership, then move on. But you're 26. You're going to be okay. And on the house side, you said you had a paid-for house that you sold? Yeah. In about two weeks, I'm going to have right around $295,000. And why'd you sell it?

For this new career, it's a proximity job, so I have to live in a certain region of Chicagoland. So where my house is located, I'm actually in the city of Chicago, so now I've got to move out. And your parents happen to be in that area? Correct. Okay. So what's the long-term plan? The long-term, well, this might sound stupid, but I was planning on, was planning on a serious relationship. I was planning on possibly buying a house with that said person in where my parents' area is, that suburb.

But I was looking like that's not going to work out either. The relationship's not going to work out? Correct. What makes you think that or know that? Just dishonesty on a couple different levels and just not getting rid of it. One more reason to not buy a house with someone you're not married to, for sure. So let's take a pause here. I'm going to park that money in a savings account, a high-yield savings account.

We're not going to get fancy and put it into the market and invest it right now because we just don't know what your future looks like. You may turn around and get a home six months from now, a year from now, and so that's not enough time to be investing this money, so just park it in savings, let it sit there, it's okay. Okay. Thanks so much for the call, Jake. Appreciate it. Justin joins us up next. He's in Dallas, Texas.

Justin, welcome to the show. Hey, guys. I'm basically calling because I've hit a crossroads like the last gentleman when it comes to, like, kind of my career and making a good living and trying to follow the baby steps and everything. I've been kind of Dave-ish on and off a year and a half ago. I've paid off, like, $20K in the last year and a half. Good.

How much is left? It's kind of just like a personal debt to my parents at this point. I mean, I owe my mom like 9,000 for a car that I'm currently driving, and I owe them more money that they haven't spoken with me and said, like, all right, this is how much you owe us. Okay. Hey, Justin, we're coming up against our break here, so get right to your question. Basically, I spoke to my mom about doing, like, a data boot camp to try and get into the data industry and get a job, and she thinks it's not a good idea because a lot of those jobs require bachelor's degrees,

and I don't have a degree of any kind. No, that's not true. Have you done your own research so you can show mom with a lot of respect, hey, mom, the kind of tech jobs I want to do, data jobs, they don't require a bachelor's. Have you done that? I haven't seen that, actually Cause when I, when I, I mean, when I go on like indeed, I do see like these positions, like the qualifications for the positions are like a bachelor's degree or whatever. But I know that for data jobs, like data analytics, for instance,

is what I'm thinking of. I know that if you have certain skills that like maybe like even at Ramsey solutions, if you're looking for someone to comb through data and figure out what products you're doing well and stuff, if I know how to do that, then you guys will hire me regardless of where I am. A lot of companies will. I appreciate you're going to job sites, but you actually need to do a little bit more research so that mom can get some buy-in, and then you get some confidence.

It's your decision, not mom's, first of all. But secondly, I understand her influence influence and she's trying to protect you but it depends on the tech job but you need to do your research trust me my friend uh betheltech.net go check them out and on the other side we got to make sure we cash flow whatever education comes next i know you got a pile of debt that might mean pausing on this but you got to do it all with cash so we don't have regret and payments in our life thanks for the call that. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. I'm George Campbell. That's Ken Coleman. Thank you to everyone in the booth making the show happen and to you, America. Until next time, spend wisely, save intentionally, Ken Coleman here.

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