The Ramsey Show - App - Son Died Tragically…What Next Steps Do We Take? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: December 20, 2021

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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. Thank you for joining us. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. We're going to talk about your relationships. We're going to talk about you.

We're going to talk about your work. We're going to talk about your money. We're going to talk about all of it. It's God's and Grandma's ways of doing life. It's called The Ramsey Show. The phone number is 888-825-5225 the call is free and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it 888-825-5225 luke is going to start off this hour in detroit hey luke what's up hey everybody thanks for taking my call. Sure, man. Yep. So I'm 28 years old and looking to purchase my first house.

And I'm calling wondering if I should include things like stock compensation and yearly bonus in my total compensation when figuring out what a budget for a house would be. Yes. Okay. Yeah, 25% of your take-home pay annually, regardless of where it comes from. Bottom line is, do you have money to pay the house payment at a fourth of your income and still have money left over to live life well? That's what this is. It's not like some kind of nuanced thing that if you're off

three-tenths of a percent on your uh ratios or something that you're going to go broke that's not the thing the point is don't buy a stinking house where your house payment's 50 of your take on pay you ain't got any money and you're going to end up taking out a car payment when the car breaks yeah i was more kind of concerned with including things like stock and even side gigs, really, just because of, like, the stock tank. I mean, you were kind of depending on getting one chunk of it. Well, if it's a big portion of it, I mean, if it's 50% of your income, then I'd be worried about it. But it's not.

It's 5%. Got it. So if you got zero, it doesn't change your life, and you'll probably get it the next year. Got it. And your income's going to go'll probably get it the next year. Got it. And your income's going to go up after you buy the house, too, over time. Agreed? Okay. Yep.

Yeah, so that's the other thing. The whole thing about the 25% of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed rate ratio is just simply to keep you from getting yourself strapped to the wall all in the name of, oh, God, I live in California, and math doesn't count here, or stuff like that, right? Of course it counts there. Math works everywhere. And so it keeps you from getting emotional and doing something stupid but thing because you figured out that's the only house in the whole world that you can live in or something. That's what the ratio is for, is to make you think clearly

instead of using the emotional side of your brain because we all use the emotional side of our brain when making financial decisions and they seldom work it never works man i we bought a house last year that that that ratio provided a great anchor for us like just a place to stay tethered into and we've searched for nine months and the housing prices were escalating the whole time and then the people were getting more and more dramatic. But always knowing, this is our anchor point here.

Man, that provided so much stability. It provided me and my wife a place almost like home base we could always go back to and say, we're going to stay here. You know, that's what it is. That's what the stuff we give you guys out there,

these guidelines we give you, these steps we give you, and everything else is an anchor point. It just goes, okay, here's where common sense is. To the extent you're not lined up with that, you're probably about to make a mess, Bubba. I mean, that's all we're saying, right? So for me, it's simple. I don't borrow money for anything. So my anchor point is, do I have the money?

I have to start there, right? Dave, how is that how is that crazy i mean isn't that weird but i have to start with well i mean and it gets big in my world it's gotten big like we just bought a piece of ground next door is you know a bazillion millions of dollars right at 22 acres next door over here and for for the for this complex this ramsey freaking campus thing going but even that i'm at this massive, and it's a nice investment. It's a great real estate investment in a wonderful area, and I'm thrilled we did it. But, you know, Winston, Rachel's husband, does our real estate.

We're sitting there looking at it, and we had to ask ourselves, like we're in the grocery store line, we want to buy a pack of gum. You know, do we have the money? Right. And if we don't, the answer is we can't even look at this deal i i there's something brilliant about the complexity of that you know how rare it is that i'm speechless and i'm speechless at the idea that it sounds crazy to think as a business owner of a multi--dollar corporation, to think, do I have the cash to pay for that? And that just sounds – that puts you in the – I bet there's 1% of 1% of business owners in the country that run their machines like that.

But you know what? The other thing is it does, and it does it in your personal life. It does it in whatever you're doing, whatever it is you're doing. There's just a lot of peace in that simplicity. And, you know, people make fun of me. You know, you don't understand this. You're not sophisticated. And I'm like, crap, man, I can pencil whip all of you that say that stuff.

I understand the other stuff. But I also understand how I feel when a pandemic hits and I don't have any payments. I don't want to buy anything, yeah. You know, I also understand that I always seem to have money because I don't have any payments anybody anything yeah you know i also understand that i always seem to have money because i don't have any payments you know it's just these are kind of basic stuff you know but it there's a cleanliness to it of the soul yeah of your spirit um i mean you talk a lot about trauma on your show and even calls that come in here and in the books and things and uh uh you know it's there's a thing i guess we need to do a book someday on financial

trauma absolutely what it does to you to stay geared up wired up jacked up all the time about your freaking life because you bought a bunch of crap you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you don't really like this is a bad chemistry it does stuff to the body i'm learning from you it melts you from the inside out it's like it's like dumping drano down your sink once a year to get a hair clog out it's not great but it's fine but if every morning you just get up and dump drano down your sink just to dump drano down your sink because that's just the way i live it's gonna eat through the pipes it'll rot your pipes that's right don't make a mess man some of you got rotten pipes and you know i live that way because you're just living from stress to stress right it's like being you know in poor control of your time christy's book take back

your time when you take when you take back your time and you take back your money man just a lot of peace you know i was reading a book a couple months ago david was talking about um some ways to just live a little more peacefully and one of the things that suggested was this just for the next week drive the speed limit oh now you're gone to meddling no listen man i tried to drive the speed limit and i thought i was just walking no that's not peaceful for me that's quite the opposite no but listen i did it for a week just to prove it. And I tell you what, I got to work. I had to leave a little bit earlier. A lot earlier.

A lot, lot earlier. But I got to work. And you had no fun. I wasn't frazzled. I didn't feel like I was being electrocuted. It was just, again, it's a different way to do life. I think, Dave, we have sped up the world so fast, so quickly, with so much bonkers advice. We don't even know what feeling good feels like.

If you never turned on the news for the next 10 days at all, it's all going to happen anyway. Yes. And if the apocalypse is upon you, somebody will text you. So much better. Listen, just tune in here. If something big is going on, we'll tell you. So much better. Listen, just tune in here. If something big is going on, we'll tell you. But we're probably not going to bring it up. Because there's not much big enough in the news cycle for it to make it to this show.

Because we're a big deal and we don't really want to talk about that stuff. This is the Ramsey Show. You've got a lot on your plate, a job, your home, your marriage, and your growing family. While you're enjoying the present, you can't help but think about your future and your finances. As you explore your options, consider Christian Healthcare Ministries or CHM for your health care. Their generous maternity program and budget-friendly monthly programs have been a blessing to members welcoming children into their families. Visit chministries.org slash budget to see if it's right for you. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey trusted provider. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. We all know the story of the tortoise and the hare, and we all know who wins.

The slow guy, the slow and steady guy. But we gloss over the downfall of the hare. He didn't lose because he was slower. He lost because he took a nap. If you're starting to lose steam, this is your wake-up call. We want 2022 to be your best wealth-building year ever. We want you to build wealth. For a limited time, we've got all kinds of life-changing books and tools included in our $10, our famous $10 sale.

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Robert's in Atlantic City. Hey, Robert, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. John. Hey, what's up? Glad to be on the show. Sure. How can we help?

I'm going to try to make this quick. I've been going back and forth with my wife about this for a couple of days. My son passed away recently, and because we followed the baby steps, we had a fully funded emergency fund and were able to pay for all the funeral expenses out of pocket. My God, Robert, how old was he? 18.

What in the world happened? It was a freak accident from what the police said. He was getting his car worked on. I don't know why or how they turned the car on in the garage. Him and the mechanic died of carbon monoxide. No. Oh, my goodness. I'm so sorry.

This was just this past Saturday. Oh, Lord, Robert. I'm so sorry. On the 11th. I'm so sorry. Oh, man. On the 11th. I'm so sorry. Yeah, me too. What was his name? So you had an emergency fund, you said.

So we had a fully funded emergency fund. We paid for everything in cash. You know, first day when we went to do the funeral arrangements. But I never lost anyone close to me, so I don't know how this stuff works. But donations, checks, and contributions started coming in, I assume to help with the expenses, and it turns out we didn't need it. So now I'm going back and forth with my wife, like, what do we do now? Because a lot of people contributed, maybe thinking we needed it,

and we actually didn't. So I'm kind of, you know, we needed it and we actually didn't. So I'm kind of, you know, what do we do now? Do we give it back? You know, and not only that, I have life insurance and he's a rider on the policy. And after everything goes through, if it goes through, it's $25,000 on him for a rider on the policy. So on top of already having the money, now I'm probably going to receive this $25,000. How much money did you receive from friends? Probably close to $10,000.

Okay. What was the largest donation? $2,000. Okay. What was the largest donation? $2,500. Okay. Man. Well, my wife, she says maybe we should just pay it forward. I mean, that's fine. Yeah.

In the meantime, I'm like, I don't know. I'm going back and forth about it. I don't know what to do. Yeah. Well, here don't know. I'm going back and forth, but I don't know what to do. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. When a horrible tragedy like this happens, we try to find something we can do to feel like we're doing something, and this is your thing you're trying to find something to do with.

And my point of telling you that is, man, it don't matter what you do with this money. It's $10,000. It doesn't matter. There's not a wrong thing. People gave it to you out of the goodness of their hearts. Their hearts are broken with you. They were trying to find something to do, too. Yeah, they were trying to find something to do.

And if you wanted to call the largest donor and just say, man, I don't need the money. I'm willing to return it to you or I'm willing to pay it forward. You tell me what to do with it. And I appreciate that because you know who that largest one is at $2,500. The rest of them, I'm with your wife. I would just mix it into your life, and your life is going to be a generous life after this like it has never been before. You'll never see someone in that kind of a situation, but what you won't react for the rest of your life because you have that broken heart in this area of your life.

Robert, what was your son's name? Jake. Jake, and he was 18? 18. He was going to the Marines today. Basic training started today. Wow. Yeah.

My recommendation is to sit on this for three to six months. Yeah. Okay? I want you just to put an account somewhere and hang on to it. Out of nowhere, you're going to be doing something or get connected to a Marine who's coming home, who needs some support or wants to go to school or wants to do a thing, there's going to be somewhere where you can bless somebody with this in a way that would honor the memory of Jake

and will give you one, not a full step, but two inches of a step in a direction towards making meaning of this nonsense, of this madness. And it will give you just a little bit of light. But right now you're feeling like you've got to do a thing,

and I wouldn't do anything. There's no big moral statement that needs to be made here. Yeah, the thing is, too, we live a good life. We travel quite a bit. We do things. I just have this overwhelming guilt to live my life and can continue to live in the way we live and then people look from the outside like well hold we just gave them money to help with the funeral

now they're on vacation if there's somebody that's there's somebody you think might think that just go ahead and holler at them and send them the money back but that's why i said you might want to call the big one but let me just tell you 99.9 of the people that donated that gave you stuff they just gave it because they were heartbroken too and they just wanted to do something and that guilt is miss is misallocated you're hurting about your boy and you're feeling it all over the place just reverse it for a second let's say you gave somebody a thousand bucks you didn't know if they had the money for the funeral but you just saw the horrible thing and you gave somebody a thousand bucks. And then three weeks, three months later, you see them on vacation. What'd you think?

No, I wouldn't think anything. That's your most people, man. You'd say, I'm so glad they got to get away. Yeah, they needed it. Their hearts are broken. That's what my wife says. She says the same thing. Yeah. You're worrying about stuff you don't need to worry about. Everything's spinning around, brother. Yeah, you just, everything's the world's upside down because your heart's gotten destroyed.

And so just, yeah. As a matter of fact, I might go so far as to say in a month or two, I might allocate some of this money for just a getaway weekend for you and your wife in the mountains or wherever it is, the beach or wherever it is you guys go and just and you don't have to do anything but just sit there and cry but get away from all the people and the craziness and the story and the visuals that remind you and of jake and everything else and just get away somewhere and just spend a weekend just in a pile kind of just in a crying pile you know i'm saying and just um you know you use some of the money for that and you know god knew what you needed

at this time and he sent this this little bit of money and it ain't much the 25 000 is that's a different thing that's obviously life insurance and you just put that wherever you are in your baby steps and don't blink just move right along it just happens to be associated with jake sometimes folks will take that and start some kind of a little uh ministry or some kind of a little or make a donation in jake's name out of that money to something uh maybe to uh you know maybe to a veteran's cause or um you know wounded warriors or something somebody like that and reach and help Marines that he was going to be. You may want to do something like that,

but all of that falls under the heading your wife said, and that's pay it forward. It's okay to do nothing and not worry about this right now. Yeah, and we're entering a season of you guys were going to have a last Christmas together, and you're going to tell them goodbye, and you had a whole thing planned here. I want you to, with your wife, with your small group of family and friends that you count on for those couple moments, I'd love for y'all to go

ahead and do it anyway. If everybody wrote a letter to Jake, and a goodbye letter, here's what we're going to miss about you, here's what we loved about you. It's going to be a great moment of private healing as you head into this christmas holiday christmas will never be the same in your family and that doesn't have to be a bad thing but it's going to be a different thing and um well that part of it is thinking and praying for you that part of it is bad yeah but john always says grief demands a witness and so being be in community through

the holidays here with this horrible event. I'm so sorry, man. I'm so sorry. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Nico and Alexis are with us. Hey guys, how are you? Merry Christmas. Hey Dave, Merry Christmas. Good to have you guys. Where do you live? We live in Atlanta, Georgia. Alright, welcome to Nashville. How much debt did you pay off? We paid off $460,000.

Holy! What? How long did this take? It took us 47 months. All right. And your range of income during that time? We went from about $200,000 to $300,000. Good Lord.

What do you guys do for a living? Yeah, Dave, plug your ears. What are y'all doing? Are you hiring? Well, I'm a general dentist. And I work in cybersecurity. Oh, I guess you do. Okay.

There you go. Wow. Congratulations. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. So what kind of debt was the $460,000? So credit cards, student loans, and two cars. Whoa. Yeah.

Big student loans. Huge student loans. Who had the big student loans? You cars. Whoa. Yeah. Big student loans. Huge student loans. Who had the big student loans? You. The dentist. The dentist. Yes. Yes.

The dentist. 200 or 300,000? Yep. Right around that. Yep. Yeah. And, wow, how old are you guys? I'm 33.

I'm 32. A 32-year-old debt-free dentist. You know what that is? That's a unicorn. It doesn't exist. I know. I know. You I'm 32. A 32-year-old debt-free dentist. You know what that is? That's a unicorn. It doesn't exist. I know. You're so weird. Thank you.

That's awesome. You are awesome weird. I love it. Okay, how long have y'all been married? Well, we got married February 2018, so we're going on four years. Okay, so you start on this immediately. Yeah, right away. Get married, get out of dental school maybe?

Yes. At the same time? Yes. And game on? Yes. Okay, so what made on this immediately. Yeah, right away. Get married, get out of dental school maybe? Yes. At the same time and game on? Yes. Okay, so what made you know to do this? I mean, how did you get connected to Ramsey? Because you guys, I mean, you didn't just start. You went, boom! Yeah, so it started with me.

I think I was going to get my master's program, and I was taking out more loans and then paying back my old loans. And she told me, she said, that's dumb. Just stop doing that. You look like a dog chasing its tail. And so it clicked for me at that point that I said, you know what? Why not just get all of my student, my master program done? Then we're just going to get focused on the old loans.

Then we just decided to get married, went to the courthouse and said, we're not having a wedding. So we say we plan 25 000 wedding scratch that whoa because it's too much debt so that jump started our whole life right there it was just that big decision right there i think changed our life okay so wait a minute your whole life you dream of having a wedding as a little girl guys don't give a rip yeah no guys go oh no no wedding but girls i mean it's like since you were playing dolls with little barbies you know and then you just had no wedding how'd that feel um well it

was worth the sacrifice but like you said i i had my wedding cake planned out when before i even knew nico so i i knew what i wanted to do i knew I wanted to have a wedding. That was hard. It was hard, but it was so worth it. Because we know that when we are debt-free and all the money that we have is ours, we can plan a five-year celebration or a ten-year celebration if we want to. But it was really our commitment together. We should have wheeled in a wedding cake. Yeah. Like right now in front of them.

That's what you need to do. You need to go home and buy a wedding cake. She's a dentist. She wouldn't have eaten it. I eat sweets. Those cakes are pure sugar. They are not good for you. Oh, my gosh.

That is a hard thing to do, to walk away from something that you've thought about like that in order to hit a larger goal. But you get married, you're game on, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, definitely. But you had came and spoke at our church in atlanta um at elizabeth baptist oh yeah dr craig oliver yeah i love him he is awesome he's become a good friend yeah that was the first time we had like seen you in person and it was just so inspiring to hear your your talk so that kind

of lit the fire under us to get started. Man, that is so stinking cool. Way to go, man. And that was about that long ago. It was about four years ago or five. Time gets away in a heart. It feels like it was yesterday, but it wasn't. Who had the first hard conversation with who? The one that said, what if we just skip the wedding?

And what if we sold one of these cars? Well, I think I kind of played it. I said, we can do the wedding, but it's going to take us longer to pay off the debt. And we ended up buying a house. So I told her the house was going to have to wait. So it was kind of, I guess she kind of said, let's get the house and let's go ahead and start paying off the debt. And I'll get the wedding later. But I did get the ring that I wanted.

So that was another compromise. It was like, you know, you get to have the ring that you want. That's just compromise it was like you know you get to have a fair trade for 25 grand absolutely absolutely there ought to be a little negotiation in there i'm so proud of y'all y'all are incredible yeah you are you're a rock star i mean you're making 300k at 30 years old you don't have any payments right no dad you're just whacked this is so cool very very neat what a power couple. Very cool. All right.

Now, you heard me do the talk four years ago. You got fired up, and you went and did this. People that are just joining in for the very first time today have no idea what you and I are talking about. What do you tell someone the secret to paying off $460,000 worth of debt in 47 months is? I think it's all about having a plan and just staying focused. It's so easy to get distracted. You know, you can get into real estate. You can try to do crypto.

So our key was let's just focus on one thing, and then we'll worry about everything later. And I think that just kind of helped us stay focused and not get distracted too much. You know, there's a lot of get rich quick out there right now. Right. And to be the tortoise instead of the hare is really hard right now. Yeah.

But you guys took a wise route because now you have control of not crypto or real estate, but your most powerful wealth building tool with the highest, based on our data, the highest indicator of becoming wealthy, which is I've gotten rid of $460,000 worth of debt. Yeah. You're beautiful, man. You know what else you got that all the Bitcoin chasers don't have? Peace. Money.

Oh, yeah. You have money. You can sleep at night. Actual money. You have real money that you can hold and touch and see. It's because it's yours. Right. Oh, my goodness.

Absolutely. It's incredible. This is absolutely fabulous. Have you had your first dentist paycheck that just deposited and you had no payments? Yes, just this past Friday. I got my first one. Woo! Merry Christmas! You just looked at it.

You're like, what do we do with this? Merry Christmas! Yes, yes. I had my first one and I was like, I can't believe that student loan payment is not coming out this month. Where's all this money, man? Where's all this money been? We were giving it all to them. We absolutely were.

If Sally may, her eviction notice. Absolutely. If you're listening to this, go watch this on YouTube. When I just mentioned that, y'all smiled so big. Ear to ear, man. Yeah, because we're planning a trip. So next year we're going to take it. Where are you going?

Right now it's Dubai. Oh, wow. We're thinking about taking it this time next year. Go big or go home. I'm telling you, man. Right. And, hey, Nico, you're the most smiley web security guy I've ever met in my life. This is freedom I'm looking at, man.

It's incredible. Oh, yeah. Yep. Congratulations. Dentists are supposed to be smiley. Yeah, that's part of the gig, right? All right. All right.

Who is your biggest cheerleader outside the two of you? Well, we have a ton of friends and family who've been there for us. What comes on top of my head, my hygienist, Norma. She is someone who has been my biggest cheerleader. She's doing her debt-free journey now. She is on her last student loan payment herself. And it just, the time aligned that we were both done at the same time as well. So I would say Miss Norma, my hygienist. Yeah, and I would say two of my best friends. herself and it just the time aligned that we were both done at the same time as well so um i would

say miss norma my hygienist yeah and i would say two of my best friends they call me all the time cheer me on and they're in their journey now too so it just helps having people to relate to cool well a whole bunch of folks at your church went through financial peace at the time yeah when i was down there i know that yeah so yeah with dr ol, that's pretty impressive. Cool, guys. Very cool. We got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you. It comes out January in just a few weeks. It comes out January the 11th.

What is that? About two weeks now from now. But we're going to give you an early copy. I know a guy. Hook you up because you're going to be Baby Steps Millionaires before you know it. With a $300,000 income and no payments. It doesn't take long, baby. You're talking like wednesday like next wednesday when we get back from dubai yes yes yes game on and a copy of total money makeover for you to give away

because as you're talking about your journey somebody out there will be going what and you can pay it forward and kind of give them their little wake-up call. And, man, I am so honored that I got to be there at your church, and now I get to meet somebody four years later, and this is where you are. That's thrilling to me. That's worth the trip to Atlanta right there just for that. And very, very cool. Good stuff. Good stuff.

Nico and Alexis, Atlanta, Georgia, paid off $460 in 47 months, making $200 to $300. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Woo-hoo! Woo!

Look at that, man. Touchdown! Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Courtney is in Indianapolis. Hi, Courtney. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thanks so much.

Thank you. How can we help? Yeah. My husband is transitioning to a new job next month it's in a new field and um i just would like some help trying to figure out how to set up our monthly budget and some of the specifics about 401k and um yeah the just getting our we have to start allocating our benefits pretty soon and i and i'm not entirely sure like how to set up our new budget because I don't know exactly what the take-home pay is going to be. The catch is that he's making a little bit less money with his new job. Why? Well, he wanted to, I mean, in the simplest of terms, he didn't

really have a future at his current company due to the mandate. So he kind of saw the writing on the wall and so he decided to get out while the getting was good. Okay. So he had to kind of switch fields. The good news is his new job is 100% remote, and it's based out of Texas, so we feel like we have a little bit of security there. Has upside? Yeah, the upside is that it's remote.

And the upside is he's not going to get fired for vaccines but but but i mean is there a career ladder upside yeah so i mean definitely very he's kind of on the start at the bottom again um but the trajectory it looks really good and you know the current job i mean he wasn't allowed to go into the corporate office so yeah there wasn't i mean his future there was kind of over. Yeah, I understand. Okay. We're getting a lot of people joining Ramsey,

some really high-quality people joining Ramsey for the same reason. They reach the end of their time with their other company based on their policies and so forth. So, yeah, it's a lot of people looking for another place to work. All right. Now, you're out of debt and you have your emergency fund. Yeah. We actually moved earlier this year and we bought a new home,

and so we have a pretty sizable nest egg now. But we're completely out of debt except for our mortgage. Okay. All right. Very good. All right. So you'll be putting 15% of your income into 401k, right? So his company will match 36% of 6% of the 401k. So the problem is it needs less money. And so when we bought our home, the mortgage was very, very, very comfortable with his old job. And since he's taking a little bit of a step back. What did he used to make? About $130,000.

What does he make now? He's going to make $100,000. So you're thinking of backing off the 401K at least for a little bit until you get settled in? Yeah. Okay. the 401k at least for a little bit until you get settled in yeah okay okay i wouldn't do it permanently but i might do it for six months or even a year while you get settled into the new numbers okay the old 401k i would get with a smart vestor pro just click smart vestor at ramsey solutions.com find someone in your area that you like and that we endorse that does stuff the way we teach and, you know, the Ramsey-trusted people, right? And so sit down with them and do a rollover on the 0401K. Roll it to an IRA.

Do not put it – if it wasn't in a Roth, don't move it to a Roth. Don't make it taxable. But a direct transfer rollover has no taxes coming out at all. So you want to go ahead and get that set up. You can do that after the first of the year. That's fine. But I wouldn't leave it over at the old company um then the second thing is you start your 401k you're definitely going to get that six percent going in you may want to go ahead and go on up to 10 and then let's see how we're doing from there as far

as your budget goes i mean you're guessing and after one month, you'll adjust it, and you'll know. So just give yourself plenty of wiggle room. But you've got a big nest. You've got some money laying around from the sale of that house, right? Right. So if you miss it $1,000, you just pull some money one time, right? Right. But, I mean, we're not going to do that every month.

I don't want to subsidize your screwed-up budget out of your nest egg, and then you use up your nest egg. But one month while you're getting readjusted to the numbers and getting them dialed in, if you need to pull a little bit of $1,000, pull it. I don't care. Pull three. I don't care if you've got a bunch of money laying around.

I don't know how much you've got, but that's just one thing. So you're okay. There's no reason to stress about this. And I just use 80 figure what's your take-home pay it's usually 80 it's not going to be that far off um it may end up being a little bit more a little bit less depending on what he claims and um you know in terms of uh the dependence and so forth he claims on his w4 but you know just start working it and say okay i'm going to set it up based on this if i come up a little bit short i'm not going to panic i can either pull some money or i'll adjust this category over here after one month you'll have the numbers in the second month you'll be able to just budget on those numbers and that's what you should do

and the good news is it sounds like you'll be able to so pretty pretty cool a lot of folks going through a lot of turmoil yeah john with um forced career changes yeah um by forced i mean they are um choosing to i i want to work in a place that um has a different set of values. And we're seeing a bunch of, I met some folks that joined us last week here at Ramsey, and the percentage of them that are ending up here, because we are in the building together, they don't want to be working remote. They've tried it, and it didn't work for them. And, you know, the whole vaccine discussion and all that, and people are just freaking out on all sides of the equation.

But some people only want to work in a place that is fully vaccinated. Right, right. And so it's cool, but it's just what it's doing is causing this tremendous turnover or topsy-turviness, turbulence in the employment marketplace that has nothing to do with your career right yeah and that's new it is new and i i think it i actually don't think it's new i think we felt like it's new i think we were insulated for a season um but i think i think it all distills down to being comfortable with here's my values and being comfortable with here's the things i'll

put up with and what i want and then what am i going to do you know what am i what can i control in the situation yeah and good news about them is they wouldn't control it they wouldn't control it based on the decision it cost them some money which i i love that their values are more important than x or y and they had put themselves in a position because they paid off all their debt that goes back to that solving for freedom, man. If you don't owe anybody any money and then you get pressed up against a wall with my values and this is important to me and my family, man, I'm free to shake your hand and head on down the road. Yeah, and just say, you know, bless you.

Yeah. I hope that works for you. And I'm going to go over here. And, you know, you don't have to be mean or mad about it. Everybody's angry. You don't have to be angry about everything. You just be you and i'll be me it's okay i gotta change i thought this was gonna be my future and now it's not and so i'm gonna and again i'm making it sound light and easy but the the least amount of that i can i can well it is a lot lighter and a lot easier

to make a change if you have 20 000 or 40 000 in the bank and no debt a change if you have $20,000 or $40,000 in the bank and no debt than if you have $20,000 or $40,000 in credit card debt and no money. Right. It's a different thing. You've leveraged yourself on a house payment in a city you can't afford. Two car payments and a kid payment. My God. Now your employer owns you. Yeah.

Right? Yeah. The bank owns you. Yeah. I don't think the borrower is slave to the lender. Try this one, okay? You got no debt and you walk in the boss starts yelling and screaming and you start walking off and you go where are you going i don't have any payments not look over your shoulder and go i don't have any payments and just keep walking and you know when you say that that

way you paint that picture in people's mind they go yeah the borrower is slave to the lender when i don't have any payments i make different choices i wouldn't put up with that crap yeah and here's what the boss is going to do eight times out of ten. They're going to want to set up a coffee with you. Now, usually when I get to work and people run away, you just smile at me. Tell me what's going on here. Right, that's it. That's exactly what I'm doing.

You just look that over. As you were walking out, you looked over your shoulder and said, see ya. See ya, man. See ya, man. When you get done with temper tantrum, I'll be here. be here later dude you can have a temper tantrum somewhere else you freaking four-year-old it's a different thing man i want people to own their values we're in a season now where everybody's yelling about everybody else's values yeah how about how about taking care of you that's a full-time job.

And you know what? Me and my wife, we're not going to put up with this. It's my job. I'm in business. In the workplace or in the school? Great. I'm going to own it. Remember that one of your kids? None of you. None of you business. I'm owning it, man. I'm going to stand tall, walk tall. There was an old sitcom on when I was a little kid. Bewitched.

And the woman that always looked across the street minding other people's business. Gladys. Gladys, get away from the window. Well, here's what they're doing now. The whole stinking culture has gone to being Gladyses instead of Karens or Gladyses. This is the Ramsey Show.

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