The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Take a New Job Across the Country? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 12, 2021

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Music Music Music Music Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the 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, King Coleman.

Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Claudio is in West Palm Beach, Florida. Hi, Claudio. How are you? I'm well, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Sure. How can Ken and I help? So, Dave, I started your plan a little while ago because my wife and I, when we got married, she had some student debt. And to us, $6,000 was a lot of money, not knowing how to do it. But we paid it off, and I'm so thankful that she had it because that got us on a budget. That got us thinking financially smart and it put us in contact with uh your team and and we followed your principles along the way we have uh paid off the debt and we have uh we actually saved up a year emergency fund just because of some you know things we're seeing in the world uh going on. But I'm actually to baby step 3B. But being so passionate, like about

not being in debt and having this freedom, we truly, as a family, we do not want to get a mortgage, we would like to buy a house in cash. And we're also very patient people, and we're willing to save over the long run. So my question to you, sir, was how can we do that? Because we know we shouldn't just have our money sitting in a savings account. So where do we park our money during this time? How much are you trying to save? Our goal is to save up $200,000. Okay. And what's your household income?

$50,000. Okay. And what's your household income? $50,000 a year. And so when do you think you're going to have $200,000? We would like to do it with, we're about to have our first baby, so we're not in a rush. We would look to do it in 10 years or possibly 20. Well, there's a lot of difference in those two. So what you need to do is you need to lay out a specific goal and then start saving an amount that gets you there

in a very specific period of time. Any amount of money you're going to leave alone longer than five years, you can consider mutual funds for that. So what's your career? I work as a banquet server, but I work on Palm Beach Island, so it pays really, really well. I'll bet. And so this is the combined income. Is your wife going to stay home when the baby comes? Yes, my wife will be staying home when the baby comes, so this is my income. Okay. Do you have dreams? Do you have things

you at least wonder about as it relates to your long-term professional purpose? Uh, yeah, I really, I really, I work for such a great company and I, my dream is to, to move up in the company. And there, there has been hints towards that. I only have been working there for not even a year now, but I'm very diligent. I'm very passionate about customer service and having customers have just like a top experience. And it comes to notice because customers will comment on that. So I do believe that there's a possibility that I can move up. And with moving up, the pay does go up as well. There you go.

I've heard. Yeah. Well, Dave's right. You guys have got to decide what's the realistic goal here to save up to $200,000. You've already got a year's worth of expenses in the bank for your emergency fund. We teach three to six months. So, you know, if you get serious about this and you go, hey, I want to move up, but I also want to make more money so that I can get in that house sooner i think that's the path man and i think you're such a diligent sharp

young man uh i'd get after it but i think dave 10 years versus 20 years that's that's a long time to save for a house 20 years yeah i think 10 years and i also think you gotta you know you're not going to extrapolate 50 000 we're not going to say linear no growth in in right as a part of our goal setting and our projections we're going to assume some kind of increase in income as you go along yeah uh sometimes it goes back a little and then it comes up but overall people generally earn more throughout their careers because they actually get better at it and do move up jared is with us jared is in Jefferson City, Missouri. Hi, Jared.

How are you? I'm doing pretty good. How are you guys today? Better than we deserve. What's up? Well, I'm trying to, I work a regular, you know, I can't say 9 to 5 because, like, I work 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. sometimes, but I'm trying to find time to jump into owning my own automotive company, and it really scares me from going from a strong, steady thing

to something that I have a lot of passion for. Be more specific. What's this automotive company? Is it mechanical what are you doing um it's going to be mechanical for like engines transmissions oil lube tires you know just all around general maintenance are you doing any of it on the side now yeah um in fact we're i'm working with my father-in-law and my brother-in-law, too. And there, while I'm working my regular job there, we actually have a building right now. And I got the name of the company through the state, all that stuff already.

It's just before I quit my job to go do this full-time, it's just it really terrifies me and i just no i get it well we're going to simplify this for you because there's no jump involved here so let's take this out of the equation there's no jumping uh are you but tell me about the father-in-law or what's going on there is this a partnership or is this your business and they're going to work for you or they're just helping you get it going what's that look like um this is basically this is my business that i just got started and they came in and they decided that they'll do the uh big work of it you know working on the cars while i make the money like with this job right now to get things up and started great so what do you make

right now from your day job what's your salary uh it's really hard to tell because uh i work agriculture so i drive trucks so i bring in about what was your house what was your income last year for the whole year um i actually jumped jobs since then okay what do you think your income last year for the whole year? I actually jumped jobs since then. Okay. What do you think your income is going to be in the coming year for a year? I'm hoping $40,000. $40,000. Okay.

Yeah. So if you were working this side job with your brother-in-law and your father-in-law working for you and your company was making $80,000 and you quit your day job, that really wouldn't be terrifying. I know. It's just going from something that's steady. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Stop. Try it again.

If you made $80,000 in the coming 12 months on your side hustle and you make $40,000 at your day job and you quit your day job, there is nothing terrifying about that move. Yeah. Nothing. I agree with you on that part. So it has to do with getting the income up so that you don't jump. You take a step.

That's it. You want to step out of your old job into the new one. Don't leap. There might not be any water in the pool. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Christi Wright. Do you ever feel lost, maybe a little alone? We have all had that feeling. And I'll tell you what has helped me in these moments is listening to worship music. That's why I'm so excited to tell you that we are partnering with the number one daily worship app called Glorify. This helps remind us that God is with us. And the

best thing is Glorify is free to download. Just search for Glorify in your app store, or you can get 50% off their full library when you use the code ramsey by october 31st well the last two years have been kind of cray cray haven't they a lot to worry about out there a lot of wondering what's going to happen next maybe that's how you feel about your money maybe you're tired maybe you're stuck maybe you're stretched kind of thin well it doesn't have to be that way we can actually help you be the third pig and get into the brick house and so when the big bad wolf blows and huffs and puffs and then you're okay

right you just need a plan and a plan does give you confidence the way we teach you that plan is a class called financial peace university almost 10 million people been through this it'll teach you everything you need to know to save money get out of debt become wealthy and outrageously generous you can stream the lessons on your own or you can get support by going through the class with other people or both and you'll put that plan into practice with the premium version of our every dollar budgeting app by syncing your bank to your budget you can easily track your spending and see where your money goes you get all of this with a ramsey plus membership

and you don't have to stay exhausted and overwhelmed you can actually win with money to start your free trial of ramsey plus text trial to 33 789 text trial to 33 789 our question of the day comes from blinds.com. They're 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. Always use the promo code RAMSY. Today's question comes from Drew in Indiana. I need advice regarding a potential new job.

My current job pays an $85,000 base, over $65,000 in commission, plus I get a company car and full benefits. I have a new opportunity that will pay $160,000 to $175,000 in base with commissions the first year, plus insurance and stock options. It does not offer a company car, which means I'll need to purchase one. I'm really happy with my current company, but the new company is an exciting startup with great potential in a space I'm familiar with. I keep looking at that set monthly income from this new opportunity, and it's making

me think more emotionally than strategically. How do I weigh the variables and look objectively at this decision? Good question. It's a great question, and Drew's half answered it for himself. The reality is, is beyond the variables, let's start with the facts. This is the good old-fashioned grandma pros and cons list for both opportunities. The new one, the one where you are now, then the variables, and then you take out all of the emotions by just simply saying,

well, what on paper positions me best for the desired future I want. That's where you're looking at everything, not just the bump in pay, but five years, seven years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years down the line. The last step that I would add to this is go get some advice from somebody you really respect who doesn't have any emotion, no dog in this hunt. Show them all that information and get some feedback. And that's going to help cement what i think he'll already know by looking at it as a future opportunity we're making this decision not on the now but the next yeah the way i help that come home in my head is i always say and i always say to myself as well okay um let's say that uh drew is let's say he's 32 years old, okay?

And I say, okay, Drew, what would the 42-year-old Drew be glad you did? And that makes you think holistically, not just about the income or the structure of the income. Because here's the thing. There is no security. None. Your only security, and it's a secure. There is no security. No. You're only security. It's a secure job.

That's bull. There's no security in a job. You're only as secure as your ability to go create the income in the marketplace. And so straight commission is no scarier than salary. Because they'll fire you from a salary job and straight commission they just fire you a little bit at a time that's right and this is a startup so they hope to pay you that but they're a startup yeah and so i mean straight commission is not scary if you make 300 grand a year no straight commission is not scary if you make 200 grand a year

nothing scary about it because you but you really have the true sense of the marketplace that you are dependent upon you getting up leaving the cave killing something and dragging home you have to produce and you're dependent upon that when you're in a commission situation salary moving to the salary is a it's a false positive on the analysis because it makes you feel like that's more secure and it's no more secure than fly the moon because let me just tell you man if you don't go produce more than you cost they're going to dump you that's right all businesses have to have team members that produce or cause to someone to produce more than they cost yeah otherwise you don't you don't have enough money to pay the payroll.

They can't pay you. So you have to make them, you have to add more value than you take out of the equation always, or you're in an insecure position. Yeah. So that's the thing here. And so, Drew, as you're doing what Ken suggested, make sure that you don't put too much weight on the supposed security of the salary here. You know, there's another word that's popping up, and I've experienced this with callers. Beyond the security, this also feels like the smart thing to do.

Think about it. We as humans go, I've been offered more money. That's the smart thing to do. So the converse is when your heart and your strategy are both telling you, I shouldn't do this, you're going, but everybody else is going to say I'm crazy for not taking the guaranteed more money. So it's not just security. It's also it feels smart to take the bump and pay. So if that's the version of smart that's going around out there, let's say don't be smart.

That's right. Instead, be wise. There it is. That's exactly right. Wisdom is the long play. Smart is the short play. Yeah, you know, strategy. Play the long game. Yeah, that's absolutely right. Play the long game. Mary is with us. Mary is in Los Angeles. Hi, Mary. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you for taking my call.

I appreciate your time. Sure. We're a little concerned I appreciate your time. Sure. We're a little concerned about our situation. My husband and I are retired. We're 65. We receive pension and Social Security. We have a mortgage of probably $450,000, maybe $50,000, $60,000 on our own. We have an income after taxes of about $8,370 per month. We do pay a lot out for our bills. We have one major bill that's $28,000.

We have a balance of about $10,000 on a car, and that's all our debt. You don't have any nest egg? We have $55,000 in the bank and about $41,000 in the 457 between the two of us. Okay. And write a check today and pay off your car. Okay. But we don't want to keep that car. Then sell that car today.

Okay. You need to get rid of the debt. Okay. Okay, that's the first thing. That's a quick one, easy one, quick win. All right. And so what's your house payment? $2,400.

Okay. With taxes and everything. Okay, all right. A little high, but not a deal breaker. Out of $8,300, you can pay $2,400 out of $8,370, and that leaves you $6,000 a month to live on. You are in Los angeles so you have a high cost of living but you know once we wrote that check we've got housing covered which

is your big dog uh if you've got no other debts because we just started paying them off you have six thousand dollars a month to live on you can't live on that with a budget i think you can even in la but i have the twenty eight thousand000 bill. What's that on? We consolidated a lot of bills, and we did one that was 0% interest on the credit card. Okay. Until late next year. Okay. So you need to pay that off, too.

Okay. So if you sell the car, what are you going to be driving? We have one other vehicle. Okay. So if you sell the car and got rid of that debt, and you wrote a check and paid that off, it gets rid of a bunch of your cash, but you got all this stuff hanging over your head. I'm feeling the stress in your voice from these debts. Yes.

And I want to set you free from those debts, and then you can start to live on a budget, and you can actually save money in this situation. Of course, the other option is you could add income to the equation. If you guys chose to have an encore career, you're just 65. I'm 61 and I feel fine. You're going to be all right. Hold on, I'm going to put you guys through Financial Peace University. It's time you learned this stuff.

This is The Ramsey Personality, best-selling author of the book The Proximity Principle, is my co-host today. His new book is From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Work You Love. It is on sale now. It will actually be shipped and delivered in the first week of November. So if you'd like to go ahead and reserve your copy early, you can do that for $20 and we'll throw in $100 worth of extras

if you do that. We'll bribe you to buy it early. Pretty good return on your money. I mean, it's only going to be like two weeks. Shut up. So we'll get the book out to you and you'll get the audio book, the e-book. You'll get all kinds of other bundled items in there. Check it all out at RamseySolutions.com. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage with a question from San Bernardino, California.

Justin and Sherry are with us. Hey, guys. How are you? Good. Hi. Welcome, welcome. How can Ken and I help? So we're both teachers out in Southern California.

Cool. What do you teach? I teach economics. We actually use your curriculum. Oh, thank you. And it's changed the lives of a lot of young people. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

I teach robotics, grades 7 through 12. Wow. Nice. So I've been teaching for 19 years. She's been teaching for 19 years. She's been teaching for 22 years. And for reasons you already know, we love our lives in California. Our family's there, but I don't think we can stay in California anymore. So we came out here.

We have fall break this week. And we came out for just originally when we booked, you know, the Airbnbs and the airplane was just for vacation. We're going to the Grand Ole Opry tonight is why I'm wearing this silly shirt. I love it. She told me not to wear it. But anyways. It's all good.

Yeah, it looks fantastic. Hey, man, you're right in. You're going to fit right in. Yeah, right. But anyways, so we came out for vacation and a few things happened right before our governor's crazy and stuff. And I think it turned into more like a scouting trip. vacation and and a few things happened right before our governor's crazy and stuff and uh it i think it turned into more like a scouting trip and so um we're here in nashville area and we're going um tomorrow to chattanooga and to check things out in tennessee it's beautiful

the one hang up that we have is uh we looked at the the salaries and we would lose about a hundred thousand dollars if if we came here per year per year yeah they it's all about seniority in california not performance unfortunately and so that's a hang up um i'm 48 my wife is 46 and we'd be like the new guy at a job and that's we're having a little trouble with that. And then both of our folks are there. They're in their early to mid-70s. So I guess I kind of know. I think I know what you all would say.

What do you think we would say? I think you'd say go for it. But I don't know. I guess I just wanted your advice and clarity. We were thinking it's actually like a million dollar, we have 10 more years at least until it retires. It's like a million dollar decision on income, but happiness might be more important than money.

That's assuming you would not get any raises during the 10 years. That's right. And that's also assuming cost, you didn't assume in the cost of living adjustment, plus we don't have a state income tax here. So I think this is really, you're taking an emotional decision and you're only applying the mathematics.

You need to apply the mathematics, the financial. But you also have to look at the other side of this, and that's why you want to leave and the life you want to live. And so I think you walk through the numbers. So, okay, let's talk about this. So do you have any debt? Where are you at financially with your retirement? What's that going to look like?

Well, we followed your plan. We've taught the class four times, I believe. We've just paid off our house last May. We have no debt. We haven't had debt for 10 years. We did the debt-free of all of our debt, like, maybe about 10 years ago. Amazing. And so we have no debt at all.

How much is your house worth right now? Our house is worth about $450,000. Okay. All right. And then what do you think the salary range is going to be based on what little research you've been able to do here in Tennessee? What's it going to look like for both of you? About $65,000. Each?

Correct. Yeah? Correct. That's probably pretty close. So $130,000 and you're currently making $230,000 between the two of you. Correct. Perfect. Wow. Wow. Minus 15%.

Income tax. State income tax. We've noticed that things are cheaper. Things are cheaper. We're finding that. Cost of living on non-housing items would be different, but it's not going to be 25% different. It's going to be 10%, 5% here or there. I mean, it's not like a gallon of gas is different in Tennessee than it is in California.

Not much, anyway. The biggest issue would be the tax savings. And the housing differences are dramatic, obviously. So, yeah, it's probably not a million-dollar decision. It's probably a half a million-dollar decision, give or take. Maybe cost of living adjusted and tax adjusted, something like that, over a 10-year period of time. And, well, you'd be getting raises there, you'd be getting raises here,

so we would just call that. Yeah, that's fair. Okay, interesting. That's a lot. That's a lot. And so I think you ask yourself, you know, a book I wrote, the worst-selling book I ever did had a great saying in it. It's called more than

enough it was a total flop but uh i only sold like i think i sold like a hundred thousand copies or something compared to my other books it was a flop yeah i'd like to point out a public service announcement that's not a flop but anyway that it was it was a follow-up to one that sold two million so that's what you call a flop so but the anyway in that this saying, and it's a weird little saying, but it's true, people only change when the pain of same, where we are today, exceeds the pain of change. And so the scale is, it's not a math scale. It's how much pain are you in there is it enough to say i this is scary and there's obviously a down it's obviously a pay cut we can call it whatever it's going to be a pay cut 300

to 500 000 over 10 years um are you in that much pain and you don't have to answer that today on the camera that's not fair to you but that's the that's the heart question the question your heart has to answer um once you leave here and you go back home you go this is home this is where my stuff is it's a beautiful state i mean uh there's lots of crazy but it's a beautiful state yes sir and a lot of wonderful people there yes uh and so you know and you've had great careers there and you've got great memories there. Your parents are there. You can run back over and see the parents. That's an airline ticket. That doesn't bother me. We can get back over there. If they're in trouble and they need some

help, you can get over there. That's not a three-hour flight. You can be there in no time. Six flights a day or whatever non-stop to LA. It's not a problem. I've got a quick question. There's a lot of roots coming out of the ground here. A lot of roots. I want to play into this math thing a little bit.

I just want to wonder together for a moment. What do you each love, if you can give me two or three words each, what do you love most about your profession? Don't give me environment or anything. I'm talking about the work itself. What do you love most about teaching? I love seeing the light bulb go on in my students. Okay.

Good. Good answer. I teach in a 100% brain-induced lunch school, and so you can make a huge difference with kids that have nothing going on for them at all. So being able to see that. You're moving the needle. Yeah. Yeah.

I bet you are. The reason I asked that was twofold. Okay. Number one, I wanted you guys to hear yourself say what really brings you joy and meaning in your work. And you can do that in Tennessee. The second thing I was just curious about is you guys are young enough that you could come to Tennessee and take that same type of work that you love and that result that matters to you and potentially transition into a completely different than public education, but a career where you are training and instructing. Because when I look at teachers, I look at a root word of what they love the most. And this, the functional thing that they love, passion, what I call passion, work you love,

is training or instruction. Would you agree with that? Yes, sir. Yeah. But the missional result, which is the result of the work that we all long for, a mission that drives us, for you all, it's influence. So where could you do that in Tennessee that's not in a traditional education environment that wouldn't take you maybe that long to get qualified for? You don't have to answer that.

I'm simply giving you that as food for thought. Do you start a simple, a primitive version of that is do you start a tutoring thing on the side when you get to Tennessee, Texas, or another state? It doesn't have to be here. I mean, we love our state, but the whole point is the conversation is not about Tennessee versus California. The conversation is about how to make a move and how to think through it critically, and that's what you're doing. You're doing a great job. Congratulations, you guys. Proud of of you this is the ramsey show Ken Coleman Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Brian is in Spokane, Washington. Hi, Brian. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Ryan, but that's okay. Thanks for taking my call. Sorry, my bad. I just read Brian on my screen because it was typed there. What's up? So my question is regarding retirement. I will have a pension when I retire. It's anywhere from $4,900 to $5,500, depending on what I choose for my pension plan. I'm 50 years old. I got 15 years left to work is what I'm hoping.

And my company does a 401k match up to 7%. Great. At half percent, so it's 3.5%, 7%. You always talk about the Roth IRA, and my company offers a Roth 401k. Good. But I don't know if that's the same as the – it's not the same as the Roth IRA. It is. But, okay. It works exactly the same as the it's not the same as a Roth IRA it is but okay it works exactly the same

it's after tax dollars going into the account and it grows 100% tax-free the difference is yours has a 7% match so you're doing this the match portion is not Roth the portion your company puts in will be traditional and you'll pay taxes on it and on the growth of it when you get to retirement. So there will be two segments to your 401K, the taxable segment that was the match and the tax-free segment that was your Roth. And you definitely want to do that at least to the tune of 7% of your income. You may want to do an individual otherwise if you don't have good mutual funds in your 401k. If you've got good mutual funds to select from in your 401k, you can just do it all there.

Okay. Yep, and I think we do that. And I was thinking that, obviously thinking gets us in trouble, but I was thinking that if I'm actually making less money or pulling less money out when I retire, that my taxes would be lower, so I'd be paying less on taxes then versus now. Is that not the case? Well, the difference is this. The amount that you put in is not the amount we worry about.

It's the growth. So let's say you save for 15 years and there's a million dollars in that account. I'll just make up a number because there would be probably. Okay. Just for round numbers. Okay. Of that million dollars, 900,000 of it will be growth. 100,000 will be what you put in.

You're either going to be taxed on that 900,000 or not. Not is better than taxed so i'd rather pay taxes now on the 100 000 and not pay taxes on the 900 000 later okay it comes out way better so there's uh yeah you're gonna come out way way ahead and so uh yeah like light years like like $200,000 per million dollars ahead. So, yeah, definitely do the Roth and definitely do. We suggest four types of mutual funds, growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international. That's what I personally put my personal Roth 401k into at my company. And I obviously have those options available for my team as well.

And they do, those that are in Baby Step 4 do that as well. I assume everybody that's doing Baby Step 4, I don't know. I don't check. But I think people pretty well follow our stuff around here if they work here. Don't you, Ken? I think that is it. Yes, the answer is absolutely yes. All right.

Jerry's with us in Saginaw, Michigan. Hi, Jerry. Hello. How are you guys. All right. Jerry's with us in Saginaw, Michigan. Hi, Jerry. Hello. How are you guys doing? Great. What's up? Quick question for you. I've been working for this rental car company for the last 10 years.

Recently, one of my stores closed as a district manager, and now I have to drive two hours to work each day, leave around 6 in the morning, and get back at 7. That sucks. Doesn't give me much time to look for a job where I'm located. The reason I have to stay two hours away is I have seven kids. Two of them are stepkids, and they are with their dad one week and with us the next. We are on baby step four, or four, five, and six, and we do have an emergency fund.

Should I leave my job and look for a new job in the area? Because it's kind of a struggle. I've been looking the last couple months for a job. What kind of store is this again? What's that? What kind of store is this again? It is the best rental car company. Okay.

You guys have a studio with it. Okay. All right. Okay. So when you say you've been looking and you can't find something or you said, well, because of the time in the car, I don't have time to look. You're kind of discounting at night

and we've got a job economy right now where people are looking for people with just a pulse. What are you looking for? Because I'm curious as well why you're not finding opportunities to at least go for. So I'm putting resumes in. I'm doing that. I make about $55,000 right now with a car and gas per year. So I'm trying to find something somewhat equal to take food for my family and stuff. So I'm trying to find something like that.

Every couple days I'll be searching on Indeed and other stuff like that. Yeah, all right. So you are looking, you are seeing things. Are you getting interviews? I'm not getting any interviews. Okay. So I wrote an entire book on a simple principle called the proximity principle, and it basically is you've got to get around people that are doing the kind of work you want to do.

So if you want to stay in the rental car game, well, you've got some relationships. You certainly had them before this office was moved to another area. But you've just got to start working relationships. You know far more people than you think you do. And I can tell you, you know enough people. And you've got to say, hey, listen, I got moved over here. It's too far of a commute because of the family situation. Here's the type of stuff I'm looking for. I've got this talent.

I love doing this kind of work. Here's my experience. And you have got to connect, connect, connect, connect, connect. And then an opportunity for you to get an interview is going to pop. And then they say, oh, by the way, put your resume in. You're just kind of playing the job lottery right now. Sending out resumes right now is not an effective way to do this. It never is an effect. Ever. We read an article, I shared an article last week on the Ken Coleman Show where they are saying now that 10 million qualified candidates' resumes weren't even seen in the last 12 months.

10 million. 10 million. So, Jerry, I'm not getting on you. I'm actually encouraging you. Because if you start doing good old-fashioned shoe leather out there, talking to people, and I know you're driving a lot, but that's two hours in the car where you're calling people. Work the phones all the way over and all the way back.

Absolutely. Your opportunity is just waiting for you, but it's going to come through a relationship. Yeah, you're going to have to have some kind of a connection. And filling out applications is a complete waste of time if you're just doing it blindly. And you're just, you know, I'll give you an example. Okay, we've got 300 jobs on the board we're trying to hire this year. We will get 23,000 applications for those 300 jobs.

You know what the chances are of one of those applications turning into one of those jobs? Almost zero. Unless someone does something to get themselves out of that pile. The primary way to get out of the pile is to know somebody inside the building or know somebody that knows somebody inside the building and say, hey, would you ask them to pull mine out of the pile and at least give me a look? And I've even got friends, I own the company, and I've even got friends that call me, hey, so-and-so's daughter is putting in an application over here. And I'm like, that's great.

And I'll ping HR and say, so-and-so's daughter's app's in the file. Would you pull it out? I don't tell them to hire her. I never do that. But I say, you know, would you all at least give her a look, give her an interview? And, you know, the guy that owns the company said to do it, then they'll do it. Or if, you know, Sharon calls, it's even more powerful than that. But, yeah, you need to have a connection.

And, listen, go to KenColeman.com. Download everything he's got over there on resume templates, on letters to write to get in the door to try to figure out your connectivity. And I will give you a copy of Ken's first book, The Proximity Principle, which will get you going because that's exactly what you need here. But you can't use the excuse of I don't have time to interview. You have two hours a day. Yeah. Yeah. Or no, four hours a day.

Yeah. And that's not to mention after the kids are in bed, too. You're emailing everybody you know. You're texting them. And take some vacation time. Yes. If you've got some interviews that have to be done during work hours. Yeah.

And go sit down with somebody because this is a time i mean you're in a buyer's market dude yep this is uh you you are in the driver's seat more than ever before on getting a new job yeah everyone is and the answer to your initial question should you yes yes you should this is going to suck the soul out of your body it already is it sucks a lot of my body and i'm not even doing it yeah dadgum two hours a day each direction commuting that's like driving to knoxville and back yeah just shoot me oh man i drive 14 minutes and i'm crying about that like oh man unbelievable there you go that puts us out of the Ramsey Show in the books.

Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.