The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Take a Pay Cut for My Dream Job? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 29, 2021

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Thank you very much. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your money and your life. I am John Deloney, joined here by my good friend George Campbell, and we are taking your calls on everything. This is your show, 888-825-5225.

It's 888-825-5225. I've spent the majority of my career dealing with relationships and mental health challenges and parenting and everything in between. How to deal with bosses you can't get along with. How to deal with coworkers that are just nuts. Not that I'm speaking from a personal experience. That felt personal, John. I was only looking at you because you're sitting at the desk with me.

And George, you have stepped into this money expertise in a pretty unique way, man. And you've been here for, what, eight years? Yeah. Both joining Dave on live events and absorbing this stuff, practicing it in your own way. And now you've become a national expert in this stuff. Apparently. It's a true honor. You know, Dave called me the Ramsey Test Tube baby because I feel like I grew up here and I was dunked in the Ramsey way.

And I didn't grow up with this stuff, John. I came out of college with $36,000 in student loan debt and $4,000 in credit card debt. And I was normal and I just thought, this is normal. This is average. And we had a debt-free scream yesterday. And she said the most profound thing. She said, I was really good at managing debt, and I was terrible at managing money. And my head exploded. I was like, I've never heard it said so eloquently. And that's America. They're really good at managing debt, and so they feel like we're winning. We know how to do this, right?

I grew up watching my dad do this with credit cards. We're going to move it to the 0% one, and we can move that here. And you're doing all these crazy, beautiful mind math to try to make your life work. And we're winning, right? We're winning. You think you are. Yeah. And so when I started working here, I went, you know what?

If I'm going to work at this place, I don't want to work somewhere where I don't fully agree with the principles. And so I started to do them. I did the baby steps. And I got out of debt. And I started investing in safer emergencies. And I realized how much anxiety money was causing me that I didn't even realize until you're on the other side. And so my wife works here. It's a beautiful love story. We'll save for another time. But we just had this big, hairy, audacious goal

to pay off our house in under three years. And that was back in 2019. And thanks to this place and the principles, not because we're special or rich, just because we followed a proven process, we're going to pay off our house in six months. That's cool. In our early 30s. And I just went, I didn't think I could do this. I thought that's for other people. That's for rich people. That's for people who make more money than I do. But man, this stuff works. And I just want to spread the word that it works and to help people avoid falling for the traps out there. And that's what I'm doing with this new podcast to find print. So I'm just so passionate about these principles. And the more people I can help, the more I'll feel like I've

got some purpose on this earth. That's awesome. So if you are struggling with your marriage, your relationships, parenting, your kids going back to school, work relationships, or if you're trying to navigate this, you've been, man, I'm sick and tired of looking at these bills and I can't make the math work. I'm great at managing my debt. I'm not great at managing my debt. I'm great at playing a show game in my own house. It's a house of cards. Yes, and millions and millions

had it come down on top of them a few years ago and then we've all had some checks mailed out to us and we're setting ourselves up for another fun house of cards. Give us a shout. 888-825-5225 before we go to the phones um george you talk a lot about you you like talking to the millennials yeah and my wife tells me i was born in the wrong century often um because you're an old man

when i joined well that but when i joined this company, I didn't have social media. I had a ringside seat to years and years and years of working alongside students and their parents and high school kids and college students. And I just, I knew, man. It's like hanging out with drug addicts. Like, I'm not going to do that. I remember when you started and they were like, yeah, no, John's not on the internet. I'm like, how? How does he exist? Yeah.

And shockingly, I had a great job and was doing great professionally without this. Without sharing it to the world? Exactly. How is it possible? I was able to eat a meal all by myself without telling anybody about it. It was a lot of fun. But this Wall Street Journal article

came out the other day. Facebook has some released internal documents. Facebook knows how toxic Instagram is for teenage girls. One of the released internal documents has things like, we make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls. Instagram increases the rate of anxiety and depression these are from internally released facebook documents and if you don't know facebook owns instagram um among teens who reported suicidal thoughts 13 of british users six

percent of american users trace the desire to take their own life to social media. And here's the thing. I've got a fifth grade. I've got a sixth grader now, but last year in fifth grade, just at a local public school, my son came home one day, head held low.

Dad, I'm the only kid in fifth grade that doesn't have TikTok, that doesn't have social media. And I sat him down and said, son, I've been telling you for years that your parents are weird and that this day would come and I social media. And I sat him down and said, son, I've been telling you for years that your parents are weird and that this day would come and I'm sorry. I know that that makes you

the odd kid in class. It turns out he wasn't. It turns out parents, we've connected over that actually. Like, oh man, you want your kids to connect to other real human beings and have real relationships?

But the data is emerging and especially among my mental health colleagues across the country social media is destroying our children and I can't say it any more emphatically it's destroying our children I know that we think we are helping them

by giving them these digital babysitters and saying you connect with your friends and this is helpful it is not George and it's creating this all universities false realities it's hacking our internal neurochemicals and our fight or flight responses. It's just destroying children.

And it's not helping adults either. Here's the sucky part, George. I never had it until I got it for this job. And then I find myself, like my kids are saying, Dad, you want to come play? I'm like, hello, kids. And I'm scrolling through this thing. And I thought, oh, no. I'm an addict too now.

It's a vortex. So what are some, I don't know, some things you would recommend to millennials, to old? Now, I mean, Facebook's taken over for adults too, 67. It's when my grandfather, who's still alive, he's in his 90s, when he friended me on Facebook in college, I remember thinking, I'm done here. I remember this probably for me. What do you recommend to folks to get off this stuff and to reconnect with human beings? One of the biggest things I found is to remind yourself that you have control of who you follow.

Nope. No, you don't, George. You can control that, John. It's an unfollow button. They just send me. They send me. You know what? The algorithm?

We've put you through our computers, whoever they is. We think you'll like these people, and they're usually right. Well, you've been advertised for supplements and things. Hey, John, you could be stronger and more tan and all these different things. And one of the keys that I found- I don't know that I could ever get more tan, George. Is you've got to get away from the comparisons. That's where a lot of this anxiety, stress, mental health illness is coming from.

Because you're going, I'm not there yet. How come all my friends, how come all these people are living lives so much better than mine? My life sucks. You've got to take a step back. Maybe delete the app for a little bit and get back to reality. And so when you just said delete the app, millions of people's eyes rolled in the back of their heads. I'm not doing it, John. I'm not doing it.

I'm not doing it. Here's my challenge. Take social media off your phones for a week. Take them away from your kids for a week. Try it for a day. I bet they couldn't do that. That's tough. Try it for a day.

And I want you and your kids to, this is going to be crazy, I want you all to talk to one another. I want you to interact with each other. I want you to look at your spouse and say, hi, how are you? Try that. See what happens.

We'll be right back on The Ramsey Show. Hey, y'all. I'm Christy Wright. When the busyness of life has you feeling overwhelmed, you need to renew your mind and remind yourself of who God created you to be. That's why I'm a huge fan of Glorify. The number one daily worship and well-being app for Christians. With calming meditations, guided prayers, sleep aids, and worship music,

Glorify helps you grow closer to God. Download Glorify for free today in your app store. And if you like it, you can unlock all of the features at half price by using the promo code Ramsey. This is the Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225. Everyone needs health insurance. If you're alive, and I assume you are since you're listening, I don't know. We're not that great, George. You may have just died in your chair listening to us.

But if it's not you, if you're not dead, this means you, right? This is going great so far. I'm also great at reading, too. Don't even think of going without health insurance. Just one medical emergency for you or a family member could be enough to wreck you financially. That's why health insurance is a must. But don't jump on the first crappy health

insurance plan you find either. The wrong kind or not enough or too much is almost as bad as no health insurance at all. You have to get the right coverage for you and your family. For most healthy people, a high deductible plan is the best option. They have the lowest monthly premiums, and you can use your emergency fund to pay that high deductible no problem. Or a high deductible plan also allows you to save money for medical expenses in a health savings account, and HSAs come with all kinds of tax and investing advantages. Now, if you have a lot of health care costs due to an illness or disability, you may be better off with a preferred provider organization or PPO. With a PPO, you'll pay higher premiums, but your insurance will chip in sooner to help you pay for

medical care. We want people to have a choice about their health care. That's why we let Ramsey team members pick the health plan they need. And just like them, you deserve to choose the best insurance for you. Ready to find the right health insurance plan? Text HEALTH to 33789. That's HEALTH, H-E-A-L-T-H to 33789. All right, let's go to Ryan in Toledo. What's up, Ryan? How we doing, man? Hey, I'm doing good. Outstanding. What's up, man? How can we help? All right. So by the beginning of 2022 2022 i'm thinking about paying off my house um but i'm unsure whether i should or not i'll talk to the bank and they absolutely said no i'm like well i've kind of been listening to dave ramsey and i'd like to be debt free and

they said no that's an absolutely bad idea what was their reasoning yeah i'm so curious what do they say happy with this. They said, we want to keep this loan alive as long as possible? Absolutely. You know, and,

you know, I totally disagree with them. I didn't take the time to, you know, really listen to them. They said I should talk to a financial advisor and I just want to get

your guys' opinion. Well, walk us through your financial situation. What do you got going on? How much money is the payoff? How much money do you have in cash? Payoff is about $120,000.

Currently, I have about $130,000, $140,000 to pay it off. Just straight up in cash? Liquid? Yes. Ryan, congratulations. What do you do for a living, man? Straight up in cash? Liquid? Yes. Right. Congratulations. Wow.

What do you do for a living, man? I currently buy and sell equipment. That's what I'm doing right now. Very cool. So where did this money come from? You've just been saving up and saving up while making your normal mortgage payment? I had a business that I sold about two, three years ago, and I've just been holding the cash back and just keep putting the savings and trying not to touch it.

Man, that's awesome. Do you have an emergency fund in place? Have you been following our baby steps? I have not ever followed your plan. I've been listening to you guys for about a year, but I have not followed the plan. I've been listening to you guys for about a year, but I have not followed the plan. And that's kind of why I'm waiting until I could pay it off right now. But I'd like to have, you know, $30,000 or $40,000 sitting in cash for an emergency fund. Do you have any other debt other than this mortgage?

That's it. That's it. Well, in the baby steps where you would be at right now is baby step four because you've got all this cash sitting there. You've got plenty for an emergency fund. It may be too much to have 30, 40 in there. We recommend three to six months of expenses sitting in a savings account for emergencies. Beyond that, you need to be investing. Have you started investing 15% of your household income into retirement?

I have not. I was kind of waiting until this house was paid off and seeing how much extra cash I had to start investing. And I would need to research more on what to invest in because I've never been around any kind of investment. Absolutely. Well, be sure to start that. How old are you right now? 35. Okay. So you've got time, but you definitely want to be investing in some good retirement accounts, and we can connect you with a smart investor pro. You can jump on RamseySolutions.com and click on Trusted Pros.

These are the people that we trust that are in your area in Ohio who can walk you through all of your options, make sure you're educated on what to do with this money. But as far as the house payoff, outside of your emergency fund, I mean, you're doing great, man. You can go ahead and pay this thing off tomorrow. Why do you need to wait until next year? I need to not pay it off.

And, I mean, why would I not want to pay it off, I guess? To give the bank more money is one reason. Yeah, so. You know, they gave me the usual spiel of building my credit score and all that. Oh, gosh. I just, I don't know. Dude, listen.

I'm going to tell you what I would do if I was you. Walk me through your numbers again. How much you owe in your house? $120,000. $120,000. You got how much in the bank? Right around $140,000 as of right now. $140,000. $120,000. You got how much in the bank? Right around $140,000 as of right now. $140,000 right now.

I'm telling you right now, if I'm in your shoes, I'd pay that house off today. You have $20,000 emergency fund. That's three months for you, right? Especially with no house payment? Yes. Yeah. I'd pay that off today. How much do you make?

What's your salary? I don't really know. I just kind of started a new business like two years ago. So I'm going to guess maybe $50,000 if that a year. Well, that changes things a little bit. I mean, how much did you pay in taxes? I mean, what did you report last year for taxes? I would have to go back on my records on that one.

I can't. Ryan, you don't know how much money you make? No. To be honest, I have no clue what I make in the last two years. That's one of those numbers you should have in your head just to know. So if you make $10,000 a year, then you're going to want a much bigger emergency fund. If you're making a 50, 60, $70,000 a year, that changes the equation. Yeah. I mean, rough, rough estimate. I mean, 30 to 50,000 a year is what I bring home. Okay. So you may want to have a little bit of bigger emergency fund, yeah there is absolutely no reason to have a hundred and twenty thousand

dollar mortgage with a hundred and forty thousand dollars in the bank absolutely ludicrous have no payment do i need to worry about raising my credit score do i need to worry about you know anything like that i mean i don't think about this if you're never going to go into debt again you don't need the credit score because you only need the credit score to get approved for debt. All the credit score is is a relationship gauge about how good of a dance partner you are with debt. If I got a million dollars and deposited it in my checking account today, my credit score would not change. If I got a billion dollars in my checking account today,

my credit score would not change has nothing to do with your wealth it has to do with how good of a um dating partner are you with death it's nonsense be done with debt brother okay i mean i i i mean i think i thought it was that simple you know i've listened to several other people and it was the same situation it's like well it's a no-brainer but you know when it comes to you individually you start to question things so no and hey let's be honest if you walk into a bank and the banker looks at you like you're crazy and says man what are you doing you're gonna ruin this of course that's scary yeah that interest money you are paying them

is helping them build a nice big building or just think the chair that that person was sitting in you paid for yeah the problem is you know eight ten years ago they had me in so much debt that that it was scary hold on let's flip that around let's flip that around. Let's flip that around. Who had you in debt? Well, I personally did. Yeah. I had myself in debt. And then you've worked your butt off to clear out, right? They were willing to throw it at us. Heck yeah. Yeah, yeah. They love you.

You paid for the carpet. You paid for that chair they were sitting on. You paid for their phones. They love you. Yeah. I want you to buy your own carpet and your own chairs and your own phones. Sounds good. Does that sound good? Hey, congratulations, man, for a free call. You just paid off your house.

George, we're geniuses. I can't believe this is free, John. He's crushing it. I'm proud of this guy. Way to go, man. That's so good, Ryan. What a stud. Hey, listen.

Of course your bank's going to tell you. You know what? You should probably have more debt. Don't. Don't take financial advice from a bank. Choose freedom. Choose freedom. Congratulations, Ryan.

You're debt free, my brother. And find out how much you make, too, by the way. This is The Ramsey Show. In today's world, technology and innovation are crucial for any company's success. But the primary focus should always be on you and meeting your needs. That's why you get the best of both with Zander Insurance and their term life plans. Zander uses time-saving technology like over-the-phone applications, voice or electronic signature, text message updates, electronic policy delivery, and even plans with no medical exams to speed up the process of getting

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in Utah. Hey Alex, what's going on? Hey, how are you? Outstanding, brother. What's up? Okay, so I am a teacher and instead of a pension, my job offer is a 401k. But they don't do a match. Instead, they do a straight 10% of my salary goes right into my 401k. Does that count towards my baby steps for investing? Great question. So in your situation, you're saying it's just a forced savings forced savings plan that 10 out of your paycheck is mandatory to go towards this retirement account um it's on top of their like agreed salary so it's additional 10 additional 10 on top of your

salary yes how does that work uh basically the way way the school payrolls work is they say, this is the money that you are going to be given. And then on top of that, to the side, they also say, well, this is the money. We also give 10% straight into your 401k account. That will be invested to you after the time. How much money do you make? About $50,000.

It's coming up. It's going to go up this year as it does every year. And you're saying on top of that $50,000, they're giving you more money, but they're forcing that into an investment account? Yeah. Wow, that's interesting. So you make $50,000, they just put $5,000 every year

into a retirement account for you? Yes. Cool deal. That's really neat. So because that's mandatory from you, we would count that towards your retirement. But what I would do if I were you is maybe discounted a few points just because you're not in full control of this. And we want you to be in control of your destiny and your choices when it comes to investing. So I might discount it by a percentage or two. So you might put in, let's say, 6% or 7%. Yeah, about 6% or 7% of my income also into a Roth IRA. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Can you add more money to that 401k that you have? I could. Would it be better to take the Roth and put that into the 401k? It's not a Roth 401k. It's just a regular 401k. It's just a regular 401k. Okay. Yeah. I would open a Roth IRA and I don't think you'd get close to maxing it out or anything like that. But if that's something you want to do, depending on where you're at in the baby steps, you can add more to that Roth IRA for sure. But the Roth IRA is going to give you the most

options where you're in control of which mutual funds you can choose in there versus the company 401k. So that's what I would do. I'd put 5%, 6% and put that in the Roth to get you to 15% total. But that's a really cool program they have. I've never heard of that where it goes on top of the salary. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's pretty good. That's great.

As far as Baby Step 4 goes, do you have kids? Are you looking to do Baby Step 6, pay off the house early? Yeah, so I'm already saving for my daughters with a 529. And then, yeah, I'm just working on paying off the house right now. Man, you guys are crushing it. Way to go, Alex. Teachers, man, they're the smartest, I'm telling you. Millionaire study.

Teachers in the top three. In the top three. There you go. Unbelievable. All right, let's go to Kevin in Denver.ver hey kevin what's going on man hey guys how are you doing excellent how are you man good thank you hey got a quick question for you guys on um we're working our our baby steps right now have been since january and um we've got two things to pay off. One is one vehicle. And the second is we have done solar panels on our home. So we want to pay those off. But we have a few vehicles in

the family. And one of the vehicles is paid off. I'm not driving it. I have the insurance turned off. Obviously can make some good money on it right now. And by my calculations, it accelerates, you know, getting out of a debt through Baby Step 2 by two, three months. But just looking for kind of that confidence guidance on should we sell that car or should we keep it? Is it something special? Is it a special car? No, not a special car.

I mean, it's, you know, it's a 2017. I'm driving the old family minivan right now. So the plan was when we're out of debt, then that would become my car again. But no, nothing special. So you don't need this car at all? No, no. We've been very fortunate, and we've got five cars in the house. So we've got plenty of them.

You have five cars. Well, that changes this. Yeah, I'm selling that thing. How much can you get for it? Maybe private sale? I'm thinking like $15,000 to $17,000, I think. It's a 2017 Hyundai. I think you can get more for that on a 2017.

What kind of car is it? It's an Elantra Sport. Okay. It's nothing too special. While we're selling cars, yeah, so for sure sell this car. What else do you got laying around that you can sell? Well, I do have a collector car, but that's not a good one. So I'm going to tell you something crazy, Kevin. I mean, hang on to your hats here. My wife and I each just a collector car, but that's not a good one. So I'm going to tell you something crazy, Kevin.

And I mean, hang on to your hats here. My wife and I each just have one car and our life's pretty rad. Is there a chance you could sell two or three of these things and just really escalate this? How bad do you want to get out of debt, man? Well, I mean, yeah, bad. I mean, we're... Well, I mean, not that bad. Not collector car bad. No, I mean, not that bad. Not collector car bad.

No, we have the minivan. We have her car, that Hyundai. And then our boys each have a vehicle. Oh, okay, okay. So you've got teenage drivers. They're 20 and 22. One just finished school and one is in school. Okay, okay. So I retract my smart aleckness.

Yeah, they're not like just my wife and I's five cars. I thought you were just kicking with five cars and you were rocking the minivan. Yeah, okay. Yeah, no, no, no, no. I am rocking the minivan. How much debt is this total? So we have her car. Total is we have 17 left on her car, which by our budget we'll have paid off by November.

Okay. And then the solar panels is $32,000 right now. But that plan is to have that paid off by next April or May. So if you sell this car, you can pay off her car and then you're down to just the solar panels. Exactly. And so that's what I was looking at. Do it today.

Almost every day. So just kind of, you know, like, well, it buys me two, three months, but that's two, three months of being out of debt. Do it today. I always make fun of people for that confirmation call, but I'm one of them now. No, I appreciate the call and you're doing the right thing here.

Make sure you do your research. Find out the true value of this thing. Don't just give it away for less than you can get for it. So find out dealerships, trade-ins, whatever those things are. Sometimes going to Vroom or Carvana will get you just as much as a private sale. So do your research on this, but try to get as much money as you can to accelerate this debt payoff. And, hey, Kevin, you just said something, and I want to make sure everybody heard that. Kevin's like, man, I listen to this show all the time, and I make fun of those guys, those men and women who call in for the confirmation calls.

We know what y'all are going to say, but we call anyway. Just to clear the air with everybody, behind when the microphones are off i asked dave hey man i'm about to make this purchase i'm moving my money to this to that is that a smart move and he's like yeah dave might ask me like talking about marriages talking about kids talking about stuff george you and i talk about other people are your emergency fund for life and like the gentleman earlier who walked into the bank who knows what he wants to be debt-free he's got to cash and the bank talks him out of it it's easy to go into these situations when there's this much cultural pressure that says

you should have a fico score you should have debt you're an idiot for paying things off you're you're dumb for being debt-free you're dumb for having a good marriage you're dumb for communicating with your kids not letting your kids have all these entertainment systems you're dumb for being debt-free. You're dumb for having a good marriage. You're dumb for communicating with your kids, not letting your kids have all these entertainment systems. You're dumb for not being on social media. You mean your kids don't? If you are the only one, you're going to feel isolated. So it's always good to check in with somebody.

Don't ever feel stupid for making a call and checking in with somebody. Yeah, and there's so many voices that are in your life speaking, oh, the bank says this, my mother-in-law said this, my brother said to do this. Sometimes you just need one clear source that goes, hey, I'm not a part of any of that, and here's what I would do if I was in your shoes. I make that a practice of my life to have people that I can call. I've got a buddy who's – you know what I'm not? A plumber. I know a guy.

I'm not a HVAC guy. One of my best friends in the world is one of the executives at an HVAC company. So I have a guy. If I want to know anything after the 17th century, I call George Campbell. I love that. You say, tell me about the shiny things on this new phone. We'll be your guys. Call us up.

888-825-5225. Don't ever hesitate to call just to check in and make sure you're on the right path. That's wisdom. Not dumb. Not idiotic. It's wisdom. We'll be right back on The Ramsey Show. 55% of Americans want to change jobs this year. The struggle with burnout is real across the country right now,

so much so that they've even given this season of job turnover a name, the Great Resignation. But just like you need a plan for your money, you absolutely need a plan for your career. Ask yourself, what do I like about my current job? What do I not like about my current job? What does my dream job look like? What do I need to do in order to have my dream job? If it's time to make a change, America's career coach, Ken Coleman, has written out his proven career plan in his brand new book, From Paycheck to Purpose.

Stop settling for just another paycheck and find work that brings purpose and joy into your life. The book plus $100 in free tools we'll send you for pre-ordering will help you find what you're meant to do and how to land your dream job. Everyone needs to read this book before changing jobs. Get your copy of From Paycheck to Purpose today at RamseySolutions.com. Let's go to Ryan in Chicago.

What's up, Ryan? How's it going? How's it going? Good. How are you guys? Outstanding, brother. What's up? How can we help?

So I'm currently on my baby step two. I'm making $71,500 at Renewable Energy Company. uh 71.5 at renewable energy company um and i am thinking of taking a pay cut down to 47 000 or doing a job that i really enjoy and that i've done before um but it definitely pays a lot less and it was taking a while to get out of Baby Step 2 financially. So just kind of looking for some direction on that. Dude, so that's a big drop. That's one of those what I call like a snow globe shaker moments. Like you're dumping things on its head. What do you want to get out of your job so bad?

What do you hate about your job? Well, I work remotely, and when I first started, I did love it. But now it's kind of really isolating, and I don't really enjoy the work. I'm not using my hands. I'm not building things like I would like to, doing carpentry and stuff that I'm actually really good at and could be around people to mentor them and educate them at the other job. And at this job, I just kind of feel like I'm doing the daily do and making that paycheck.

How much debt do you have, man? About $53,000. $53,000. $53,000. You married? You got kids? What's your life situation? Nope. I'm single.

I rent. I have a dog. That's about it. Man. So tell me about this job you think you want to move into. So this job is something i've done before um it would be at a community college working with students to help educate them on how to build scenery for theater i'd be using my hands i'd be working up and walking around and active it's something I'm passionate about and I love to do

that I've done before and that I have a degree in and I actually know what I'm doing. Very cool. So again, this is what, a 23.5 about, $24,000 pay cut? Yeah, right around 25, yeah. So I'm going to talk out of both sides of my mouth on this one okay and then i'm just going to be honest with you and tell you what i would do if i was in your situation and you are free to move about the country how you think it's right um and george

man i'd love you to to hop in here um you are in a season of life where you have no obligations to anybody but yourself right and you owe 53 grand I'm assuming most of that's student loans, is that right? Student loans, car instead of car, yeah. Okay. You're in a moment, well, let me back up. Money, this is a significant lifestyle change, both towards something that you love, being around students, helping them,

teaching them, helping them create. You get to do things that you love, especially in the theater department, man. You get to that rush of performance night. That's a total life change that sounds incredible. I mean, it sounds awesome. I've done that with students. I loved that life.

The other side of that is you have a magic moment that you could clear this debt in about a year if you chose to. You could get ferocious and clear this thing off once and for all. And so what I'll tell you is, I can't tell you the number of people I've talked to, our friend Ken Coleman has talked to over and over and over, that somebody took a job for the money. They didn't like it. They took it for the money and their life ends up spiraling out on them because it wasn't worth it.

It wasn't worth that move. That's where you found yourself, but you're already here. So if you were making 47.5 and you said, Hey, I love the work. I love everything about this. I'm thinking about taking a job that I'm not going to like at all, but it's going to be a $24,000 raise. I would tell you to think long and hard about not doing that, about loving the life you're in. You're already there. And so if I'm you, I would put a calendar date and I would reverse engineer that how fast and how crazy could I get about paying this debt off? And could I do this in a calendar year? Could I do this in 18 months, be done with this forever? And then I'm going to start leaning into my dream job. Because what I don't want you to do is to go take this job at a community college.

You're going to love it. They're going to look at the arts to make cuts first, and you're going to find yourself in 18 months. You're down to $50,000 or maybe $45,000 worth of debt. And then you're either looking for a job or you're frustrated this debt is moving off slower than you thought it was going to. Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes sense.

So what does life look like if you just grit your teeth and suck it up and just use this high-powered salary you got, dump another job on top of it, and just work like crazy for the next 12 months and just get this thing done? Does that feel better than packing up and moving and taking this thing with you like a pet it does and that's that's kind of the side i'm leaning towards because it does make me nervous to take that pay cut um and i've i've been grinding it out for about a year now of when i realized that you know this isn't i'm not enjoying, and I've just watched the debt go down and down and down, and it's been encouraging. But at what cost does that do my mental health and me as a person?

So what I'll tell you in my personal life, I don't tell this story very often. My wife and I sold our house, moved into a college residence hall, and we paid off six figures worth of debt in about 18 months and she was working full-time i was basically working three jobs two and a half jobs and we lived spartan and we had no bills it was a glitch in the matrix we ultimately the next year after we paid it off took a seventy thousand dollar household income pay cut to take a new job for the reasons you just acknowledged for community for my get my head screwed back on straight to reprioritize our marriage and being parents and what i will tell you is that year of grinding it out for us when we were laser beam focused and

the checks we were sending every month to student loans were wild um they were more than our car. I mean, we were driving an old used car. But I'll never, ever regret that year of laser beam focus, that 18 months of laser beam focus to get us to clear that nonsense once and for all. We've never looked back. And so I get you, the pay cut hurts. And by the way, when you live free and you don't owe anybody any money, then you can really lean into your job, be really good at it, say what you really think, and then people reward you for it. And financially, we've recovered that X-fold, right? So if I'm you, I'm going to spend one more year. I'm going to put on the calendar.

I'm going to make those little cheesy rings or whatever. I'm going to make it a destination. I'm going to do this, and I'm going to be done with this stuff forever. And then I'm going to start moving about the country. But I'm not going to knock you for having this opportunity to do your dream job. What do you think, George? Ryan, if I'm in your shoes, I'm going to look at this like I got a $25,000 raise to get rid of this debt fast.

So on top of what you're doing now, go do the stuff you love to do and make money doing it because you're in a place where you can work with your hands, you can build sets, you can do carpentry. There's so much opportunity for you to make money doing it because you're in a place where you can work with your hands, you can build sets, you can do carpentry. There's so much opportunity for you to make money doing the stuff that you already enjoy doing on top of this full-time job

and let that dream fuel you to get rid of this debt even faster. And if your car is worth something and you're not going to be underwater on it, sell that thing and drive a beater and accelerate this. You'll find ways

when you want this dream badly enough and clearly you do. So I would suffer through this next year and get a side job doing the stuff that you enjoy doing, whatever it takes to get rid of this $53,000 in debt so that you're freed up. And you can make $47,000, and it doesn't bother you. It doesn't bother you. You're not stressed. No payments.

That's exactly right. Ryan, you're in a good spot, man. I want to see you go crush it. Crush it. Crush it. And your mental health will rise as you accomplish your goals. And by the way, get good spot, man. I want to see you go crush it. Crush it, crush it. Your mental health will rise as you accomplish your goals. And by the way, get some community, man. Put yourself in a position to be around other people.

Hey, give us a shout. 888-825-5225. We'll be right back on The Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. This is James, senior producer for The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to theramseyshow.com.