The Ramsey Show - App - Stop Spending Like You're in Congress (Hour 1)

Episode Date: July 25, 2019

Budgeting, Savings, Debt, Career Tools to get you started: Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE   Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave 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. This is your show. Thank you for joining us, America. It is a free call at 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. It's common sense for your dollars and cents. Todd starts off this hour in Pennsylvania. Hey, Todd, welcome to the dave ramsey show good afternoon thank you for taking my call sure what's up i'm running into a uh a dumb millennial move that i did um i ran up a bunch of credit cards and i ended up using a debt consolidation company and it has completely destroyed my credit. Sure.

Just trying to figure out what would you recommend as a next step. Wow. Well, just to let you know, Baby Boomers originated that move. My group are the ones that started that crap uh so how much credit card debt have you got that right now i am down to around 2000 oh okay before i started the debt consolidation thing it was 15 so i mean it probably given my circumstances back on it, I did not need to go with that company. Right.

But I was young. I was scared. I made a mistake. Sure. Well, yeah, they sounded good. Yeah. They sound like it's, you know, take one pill and we'll get you out of debt, you know, I think. Exactly. So, it's an easy way out. So, what do you make?

$75,000. Okay. So what's keeping you from just knocking off the $2,000? I'm working on balancing everything out. I'm still new to the world of balancing my own finances, trying to figure out, you know, what money needs to go how old are you how old are you i'm 23 i'll be 23 in september oh cool cool what do you what do you do for a living i'm a truck driver okay good all right well here's what i want you to do i want you

to jump on every dollar.com and download the every dollar app it's free for putting together your budget and what it teaches you to do and helps you do in about 10 minutes is it takes your income, which is in excess of $5,000 or $6,000 a month, and we're going to make every one of those dollars each month, each unique month, have an assignment. So you're going to put the income at the top of the page, and then you're going to spend it on paper before you really spend it right down the page. You make plenty of money to knock off $2,000 in just a matter of a couple months. Sure. Okay, but you've just got to become very,

very organized and very intentional. It's not unlike, I mean, when you pick up a load as a truck driver, are you doing over the road? Yes, sir. Yeah, when you pick up a load as a truck driver, are you doing over the road? Yes, sir. Yeah, when you pick up a load as a truck driver, you've got to say, okay, where am I going and how am I going to get there? And put it in the GPS or whatever you're going to do, right? And so you don't just go wandering off and hope you end up in Florida. It doesn't work that way. So it's just intentionality, and every turn takes you a little closer. Every stoplight, every exit ramp, every load of fuel takes you a little closer to

your destination. The money's exactly the same way. It's just a plan and execute the plan. That's all it is. It's really not rocket science. It's not any harder than, you know, every dollar just becomes your money GPS. That's all it is. You just plug it in, and then you just turn right, turn left, turn right, turn left, and here we go. But you're going to lay the plan out, and then you're going to follow the plan that you laid out. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to tell you what to do with your money. You're going to decide that.

But you and I are in agreement that this $2,000, this last little bit, is just something that needs to be cleaned up and put behind you. Your credit's bad, which is wonderful, so you won't go further into debt. And so that's okay. It's not the end of the world. And then we've got to start having some other goals with money. Start saving for emergencies. Start saving for purchases so that we don't need debt to buy things or to cover problems and those kinds of things.

So what I'll do is I'm going to send you a copy of our bestselling book that we've ever done here. It's called The Total Money Makeover. And The Total Money Makeover book will show you exactly what to do. And you download the free app, and I'm going to give you the free book. Those two things will guide you at your start of your whole journey here. And then what you're going to do is, again, just attack that $2,000 with every dollar you can squeeze out of your plan each month. And realistically, you should be done in one or two months with that

two thousand dollars you should just reach over there and smack it you make enough and you don't really have a you know you didn't tell me about a bunch of other expenses that you've got or something else so if you're making seventy five thousand dollars a year you're 23 years old you're on the road all the time just don't go out to eat so much. Don't go out partying. You just work and pay bills and get your mess cleaned up and get yourself lined back up here. So, hey, good question, man. We appreciate you joining us. Hunter is next.

Hunter is in Mississippi. Hi, Hunter. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm good. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Well, I just have a question for you. I know you always talk about investing your money and letting your money grow for you, and that's what I want to do down the line because we're kind of early in the Baby Steps process. We haven't even gotten past Baby Step 1. But my question is, how do you feel about the investing apps like Acorn or Robinhood, just to kind of get the ball rolling with that kind of stuff? Well, it's micro-investing is the category that it falls in. And if you invest micro-amounts, you're going to grow micro-wealth.

I mean, it's kind of cute, and it doesn't hurt anything, but it doesn't solve the how to become a millionaire, multimillionaire issue. You're not going to do that with nickels and dimes. You're going to do that with dollars, big dollars. And so, you know, I wouldn't. The only downside of it is it makes people feel like they've done something when they really didn't. That's the downside. It makes it like you scratch the investment itch, and so you don't bother with investing because of this,

and now you've got just nickels going into this thing, and that's the downside of it. But I'm not angry with them. I don't hate them. I don't think they're a ripoff. They don't really do any harm, but they don't really do any good. The only harm they could do is if you felt like you did something. So, no, I would just stay away from that and work our baby steps and do large investing. And then if you want to fool with some nickels also, that's fine.

But nickels, you know, roundups and that kind of stuff, I've never met anybody that built wealth doing that. They invested substantially over a substantial period of time. And that's how they build wealth. If you put in $100, you get a lot more than if you put in $100 pennies. So that's what you're coming down to. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Let me tell you a story about two families that are very much alike in a lot of ways. Both families have two working parents and a couple of young kids. Each has debt and has struggled to make ends meet, but they're starting to make headway with their budgets

and smarter decisions with money. They have dreams and plans, and the only real difference is that one family has the right amount of term life insurance and the other doesn't. Big difference. If one of the parents die, and that does happen. Their well-being would be destroyed. Paying for the mortgage, utilities, food, and other bills would be impossible, let alone saving for education or retirement. That's why every day I talk relentlessly about getting term life insurance. Just go to ZanderInsurance.com or call 800-356-4282 and see how inexpensive it really is.

Be the family that takes those deliberate steps to be different and responsible. It really does make you the hero of your story, and it puts you on course for better things ahead. giving you the same financial advice your grandmother did only we keep our teeth in this is the dave ramsey show thanks for being with us open phones at 888-825-5225. Brad is in Arkansas. Hey, Brad, what's up? Hey, Dave. I sure appreciate you taking my call. Sure, man.

How can I help? So my wife and I, I'm 23, she's 21. We just recently paid cash for our first house. Way to go. Appreciate it. Wow. How much was the house? It was $100,000.

How'd you come up with $100,000 at 23 years old? So I started listening to you when I was about 17, and I just started saving every penny I had up until we had enough to pay for it. Wow. We were able to do it. But when I say we were on beans and rice, I mean we were on literal beans and rice. Well, you're 23 years old, and you have a paid $400,000 house. You're a stud, man. I appreciate it. That's awesome. You're 23 years old and you have a paid $400,000 house. You're a stud, man.

I appreciate it. That's awesome. You're going to be a multi-millionaire. You're killing it. I appreciate it. My question is, my mother-in-law is kind of in a bad situation. She's about 58 and has pretty much zero money

to her name. She's wanting to know if she can move in with us because she can't afford her rent anymore. But the problem is that we don't exactly have room because my wife is five months pregnant, and we only live in a two-bedroom house. And so her bright idea is for us to sell the house and go in debt for a bigger house.

Whose bright idea? Your broke mother-in-law? Yes, sir. She's giving you financial advice. Basically. Yeah. She's kind of the kind of person that will give her input on just about anything and then gets mad when you don't take it.

Yeah, well, bless her heart. Yes, sir. Yeah. Okay, there's a whole lot of reasons this is not a good idea obviously number one you don't want this lady living in your house based on what you just told me and um you know number two you don't have room for number three you're not going to go in debt to take care of her when she hadn't been bothering to take care of herself why is she broke? Does she not work? Not really. Why? That's a good question.

I really couldn't tell you. She pretty much just says that there's not a lot of work out there, which is kind of hard to believe. Oh, no, there's a lot of people who need their house cleaned. Right, yes, sir. And you can make $20, $25 an hour cleaning a house. And the main problem is that it's – I swear I don't want to sound like a jerk when I say this, but she just kind of does a lot of dumb stuff with money.

And so, you know, it shows. And so she's kind of reaping the benefits of it now. Yeah, I suspect, yeah. So here's the thing. Even if she wasn't kind of an abrasive person, which she is, okay, even if that wasn't the case, even if she's the sweetest person in the world, you really wouldn't be helping her. And let's just say you had a paid-for house that had a third bedroom. Right.

And you had room, okay? Would you move her in then? Well, you're really not helping her because her problem is not her rent. Her problem is her income. Right. And her income is caused by the fact she doesn't work much. Mm-hmm. And so here's the answer.

Mom, we love you, and we'll try to help you other ways, but we're not going to go into debt. We've worked for years to get this house and get it paid for. We've got a new baby, a new marriage, and we're going to protect the sanctity of this home and that is not an act of not loving you and we'll coach you from the sidelines we'll cheer you on we'll pay for you to go to financial peace university i'll help you look for work i'll come up with ideas and help you get some stuff where you can get your work going

all of those kinds of things but no you can't move in with us so what if she's saying stuff like my wife owes her for all the years that she took care of her and all this other crap yeah well it's just sad what do i say to something like that um i'm sorry i don't agree. Mm-hmm. And you know what? Here's the thing. This lady has what we call boundary problems. Dr. Henry Cloud wrote a book called Boundaries. I'm going to send you a copy of it. She's a travel agent for guilt trips.

Uh-huh. She wants to sign you up for stuff and get you to do what she wants you to do. And if you don't't then she guilt trips you and that's her way of doing things she's a manipulative small person and that's sad but you know you can still love her where she is she's just a broken person i still love her she's just not a pleasant person to be around so the thing is it's just, you know, I understand how you might feel that way. We don't agree. Yes, sir. And that's, you know, you don't have to have, you're not, you don't have to win this argument.

You just, because you own the house. Right. The answer is just no. No is a complete sentence. And it's just, but it's, I mean, it's just difficult. It's just hard to people that you love are are angry with you you know i mean even if she's getting evicted and everything i just tell her that yeah yeah yeah and if you want to give her a little money and help her get an apartment but

don't sign for it if you want to you know if you want to coach her help her get a job you know you can you can help her but she can't move in with you and she does not get to tell you what to do right for god's sakes i mean she her life is pitiful why would you follow anything that she thinks right yes sir i mean it's just horrible so no i mean it's but it does hurt and it's probably harder on your wife because your wife feels like well that's my mom and you know exactly and you guys are young and you're young married but dude you've done so well and she hasn't and so the the you just can't participate in her crazy because you're going to get down in the mud with her yes sir and i don't want to i just you know i don't want to kick her to the

curve at the same time no i'm not i going to be there for her and support her. But here's the thing. All you can do is teach people to do the right kind of stuff. Right. Okay, it's just like you and me. I think you're a sharp young guy, and I told you what to go do. But if you don't go do it, I can't do anything about that. I can't make you do the smart thing from this conversation, right? Just like you can't make her do the smart thing from this conversation right just like you

can't make her do the smart thing from a conversation with her she's a supposed adult and so you just it's just all i can do is just love you where you are get tell you what i think you ought to do based on what i know and i hope you do and i'm cheering for you and please please please don't move her into your house hold on i. I'll give you a copy of the book, Boundaries. You all need to read it, highlight it, and bookmark it. You got serious issues going over there, dude. And it's not going to get better. She's just going to be mad.

This woman's going to be mad. And she's just going to be a mad redneck mother. And it's just going to be one of those things. It's awful. Nick is next. And Nick is in California. What's up, Nick? Hi there, Dave.

How are you? I love all your advice. I love you. Anyway, my case is my wife and I just received a settlement from an auto accident, and we've tied the church and certain charities but now we have a hundred thousand dollars left how do we invest it or save it do you need it for any surgeries or medical issues from this event no okay so everybody's healthy and okay well we're kind of older and it's been a year of recovery okay but you're okay now and you don't need this money for a

future surgery that you know is coming or a future problem right right okay right exactly do you have any debts? Just the mortgage, you know, that we pay every month. How much do you owe on your mortgage? Well, I owe $170,000. And what's your household income? We're both retired, and we bring in close to $80,000. And how much do you have in your nest egg before you had this $100,000? We have about $30,000 in there.

Okay, good. Well, the $30,000 we would probably call your emergency fund, and you're in a position then to invest this $100,000 long-term. If you just go to DaveRamsey.com, click SmartVestor. I'm not in the investment business, but these are the people I recommend. It'll drop down a list of the SmartVestor pros in your area. People with the heart of a teacher, not the heart of a salesman. And they'll sit down with you and teach you and show you how to do some investing in some mutual funds with that money long-term.

And let it create some income and some more financial stability for you guys. So, good question, man. Thank you for joining us. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We've been voted one of the best places to work in Nashville 11 times. You want to know how we do it? Well, our team has been using LinkedIn jobs for years to find the best people from all over the country to come and help us change lives. Think about it. LinkedIn has more than 600 million active members.

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That's linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. Morgan is with us in Florida. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Morgan. Yes, good afternoon, Dave. Afternoon, what's up? I have a little bit of a predicament. I am trying to pay off my $3,000 credit card. And, of course, I have my home mortgage.

And my wife has about a $4,000 loan that she has due on her car and a student debt through Sally Mae, which is about $11,000. And that's in her stepfather's name. And he's wanting me to pull out a home equity loan to get that off of his credit and me to start paying it. I'm trying to figure out what's a good advice for me to how I can go and start budgeting all these different things to where I can get out of my predicament. Okay. these different things to where i can get out of my predicament okay and um i assume your wife had an arrangement with her mother and stepfather to pay the student loan well originally the student loan was in her stepfather's name now it still is it still is okay but what was the what was the handshake

agreement your when the loan was taken out the parents were going to pay it now they've changed their mind or the loan was taken out and your wife uh agreed to pay it and just hasn't yet no my wife had been making payments and it was coming directly out of her paycheck. And speaking to her father, my father-in-law, said that sometime in November, December, it just randomly stopped coming out of her paycheck, and then they got some late notices, and they filed for a forbearance. And both of them are telling me that they had no idea that the forbearance was going to drastically ruin his credit. They weren't notified.

And I have a good credit score. I'm working on trying to get my wife's credit up, but we can't get a loan in her name because she's not to that level yet. Okay, here's the thing. Let's just stop. Number one, you and your wife are married, and so there's not a he said, she said thing. There's not a yours and mine.

It's ours. You guys have some debt, okay? And what I would do is you can get current on the Parent PLUS loan. It sounds like you're morally obligated to pay that off. Agreed? Agreed. Okay. She promised them she would pay it, and it got screwed up in her check,

and she hadn't been paying it, but you need to get back to paying it, and then you need to pay it off. No, we're not going to go get a home equity loan. We're not in a position to do that right now, but we will get it in our debt snowball and get it in our debt plan to pay off. Now, what you do is you take all of these debts we're not going to go get a home equity loan. We're not in a position to do that right now, but we will get it in our debt snowball and get it in our debt plan to pay off. Now, what you do is you take all of these debts we're talking about, including this Parent PLUS loan. The first thing we do is we get a budget going and we get current on all of them and stay current on all of them. And so if you need to chunk some money towards that Parent PLUS loan

to get it current so his credit is not being dinged anymore, then that's the right thing to do. I would do that. I would not go get a home equity loan and take care of it. Now, then once I'm current with everybody and I'm paying my monthly payments in my written budget every month, go to EveryDollar.com, download the free app, and get your budget going. Get started on all this. EveryDollar. EveryDollar.

EveryDollar.com. Because what we're going to do is give every dollar of your income an assignment and your income is both of your incomes both of your work right yes sir what's your household income oh it's about close to 75 okay and so and everything you gave me was just nickel dime mosquitoes you didn't give me any fifty thousand dollar debts you gave me threes and fives and elevens and that kind of stuff so it's just getting organized and having a plan to plow this field and you're gonna be able to knock this out you're probably gonna be debt free in about a year maybe a year and a half but you're

going to be very focused and you're not going out to eat we're not going on vacation we're on beans and rice and we're going to attack this with a vengeance yes sir okay now list your debts once your current smallest to largest now you gave me a handful of debts and they were like i said there were some twos some threes some fives and eleven that's what i heard is did I hear you right? Right. My credit card is right at about a $3,000. Perfect. Cut it up. Cut it in half. Cut it in half. Never touch the stupid thing again. You're never borrowing it again because you can't get out of debt while you're digging out the bottom. So we're going to list these things. That one's a $3,000. What was the $2,000?

The $2,000. I don't recall the $2,000. Okay, what were your debts again? You got a three-credit card. You got an 11-student loan. What else? And her car payment, which is in her grandmother's name,'s making payments and that's about a four thousand dollar okay car good lord all right and what else that's it okay so there's only three debts well we have our mortgage but that's about a hundred and thirty yeah not counting your mortgage

there's only three debts correct okay so seven eighteen,000 and you're debt-free making $75,000, you ought to do that in a year. That's $1,500 a month pouring onto these. So no, father-in-law, I'm not going to go get a home equity loan, but I will have it paid off in a year. And about how much do you say a month? $1,500 a month is $18,000 a year, and that makes you debt-free in one year. Now, I'm going to cut up my credit card good now what i do though i pay with my electric bill and okay get a debit card very very well i use my debit card good okay i normally use my debit card, too. Okay. I normally use my debit card. Yeah. But to pay my bills, I just use my credit card. Well, just use your debit card now.

Your credit card you can't have anymore. Okay. Because you've got credit card debt, so you've got to stop using it. Your debit card do the same thing. You pay your bills with a debit card. I don't have a credit card. I've got two debit cards. That's all I've got.

Okay. Yes, sir. So, now, we're going to list these first. Okay. So, if it's $1,500 a month and you have a $3,000 debt as your smallest debt, in two months your credit card debt's gone. And in two and a half more months, her car's paid off. You following me? Okay.

Yes, sir. And you just start plowing through this thing. But, dude, you have nothing else to do with money. You're not allowed to have a life because your wife owes her stepfather, her grandmother, and you're in debt on a credit card. Oh, my gosh. You guys have a mess. You've got to clean this up. Now, I mean, we do have three children, of course, and we've got other things that we've

got to prepare for. You can feed them. But they're not, you know, all this dancing at the mall stuff's over, baby. Right. Okay? This run around spending money, you know, all this dancing at the mall stuff's over, baby. Right. Okay? This run around spending money, you ain't in Congress. You got to stop spending more than you make. And you've been disorganized, and, you know, you got half her family on the hook.

This is relationally very messy. Her grandmother, her stepfather, you, everybody's just hovering around this thing man and when you have no debt and no payments and nobody is owed anything and you can look at granny and you can look at stepdaddy thanksgiving dinner is going to taste different man the borrower is slave to the lender this situation sucks and so you're gonna have to step on it man there's bugs in the room step on them kill. Kill this. You got it. You can do it. You can do it.

Hold on. I'm going to send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover, and show you exactly what to do step by step. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Well, no matter who you are, the thought of saving for retirement can be overwhelming. It just freaks people out doesn't it in our study of everyday millionaires we found that 68 percent of people worked 68 percent of millionaires worked with a financial advisor and that's how they got there seven out of ten of them in case you didn't know

financial advisors do more than just invest money they can also help keep you from making stupid mistakes when the market takes a dip. If you're not working with an advisor, we have a network of professionals. We call them SmartVestor Pros. You're the SmartVestor. If you go to DaveRamsey.com and click on SmartVestor, it'll drop down a list of the SmartVestor Pros in your area.

You select the one you'd like to talk to or work with or interview several of them. I don't care. They don't work for me. They're just people I recommend and do stuff the way I teach and they do it with the heart of a teacher and they'll help you. So you're going to be having fun. This is

The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Oh, Shreed is with us in New York. Hey, how are you? Hi. How are you? Oh, my God. I'm so excited. I'm speaking to you. My husband has been talking about you for forever.

Oh my goodness. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Okay, so we have about $9,000 in credit card debt. We have a savings about $6,400. We have two kids. Thank God, I just had a baby.

Yay! Yeah. And we love paycheck to paycheck. My husband makes about $700 a week, and we feel choked. I was listening to the other conversation you were having with the guy that you have to eat rice and beans and no vacation, no going out. We've done that already for a year, and we still feel like we're in this bubble. Okay. Are you doing a written plan every month um no because i started listening to you i did it this month

oh good okay that's a start because that makes a big difference that always makes you feel like you got a raise um you don't have a huge income and so that's part of it i mean you know you're you're facing uh you know feeding kids and not making a pile of money there so but you have to make the money that you have absolutely behave um you may need to look at some part-time jobs to turn the corner on some things temporarily or you may need to look at new career tracks that that make you more money long term um i mean you can make it on that and when you lay it all out do you have it all you know is there any wiggle room if there's wiggle room then you start working your baby steps but the the trick is that the written plan does change the efficiency of the money.

And I always tell people it makes you feel like you've got to raise because you're looking down and you're going, where'd that go? And so just saying, holding your breath and saying, oh, we're going to do it, we're going to do it, we're going to do it, we're going to do it, and not having it written down and sticking to the written plan won't work. It won't work. You have to have it written down. You have to stick to it and when you do that you go okay everyone you cannot no we can't do that it's not in our plan

no we can't do that it gives you you're telling yourself no so that you can say yes to other things and you're just getting started on that and so it's a new skill for you that's okay it may take you a little time that's cool just stick with it chris is next chris is in texas welcome to the dave ramsey show chris hi dave i just need your wisdom and help on something i'm middle-aged man and i need to find a career or something i need your help on what I need to do because I don't have a lot of experience or education in fields that people are looking for, so I'm just kind of at a loss of what I should try to do with my life. Okay.

Well, I mean, I think you find something that you kind of have a natural gifting towards, and it gets you excited and then you start studying and reading and taking classes and growing and and you know learning all about that and i don't care what that is uh but there's probably something a hobby you've done or something you've done in the past it may have been 10 years ago or 20 years ago that when you even think about it it just kind of makes the corners of your mouth turn up into a smile okay um yeah i love sports i just uh okay what is it you love about sports uh just the competition i love playing sports i've even done some radio in sports but uh that didn't really go anywhere and uh but i love collecting sports stuff and and I've done that, but I just don't know how to monetize that, I guess. Well, I mean, there's a huge market for, you know, trivial, I mean, not trivial, the collection and selling of collectibles, reselling collectibles and buying collectibles in certain sports.

You could become the largest distributor of bobbleheads or the largest distributor of antique pennants, or I don't care, not even the largest, just one that does really well doing it. And everybody thinks of you when they think of that. And so, you know, what is it you get into and just become obsessed about that thing. And it may take you, it will take you some time to move into that field and to begin to monetize it but you just look at ways okay how can i how can i turn a buck in what other people call a hobby uh how can i do something different you know and there's a lot of things you can do uh and the good news is with, you know, stuff like eBay and, you know, all the social media tools that are available,

there's a lot of free ways to get the word out there that you're doing something once you figure out what it is. And you've studied it enough and you become the expert in the area on that thing, you know, and that's what you're looking for. So, hey, hold on. i'm going to send you a copy of ken coleman's number one best-selling book uh the proximity principle it's the best book on finding the career that you love that i've ever seen i love it and i think you will too matthew is next matthew is in wyoming hi, Matthew. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, sir. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, so I recently got my master electrician license. I'm thinking about starting a business, and I kind of want to run over it with you. Cool. Okay, so the problem I'm having is that if I get the boat closer to the dock, so to speak, I'll be directly competing with my current employer. So that would be unethical. I could do other work, but with the electrical contracting, once you start one thing, it's hard to branch out years later and do another thing.

I guess I want your advice how to proceed. Obviously, I'm not asking you to come to that. So the business that you want to open, if you had your dream come true three years from now, you would be your current employer's primary competitor? Correct. Okay. Okay. And what area of electrical contracting is this?

What type? Industrial. Industrial. Oil field, gas field. Gotcha. Okay. All right. Cool.

Assuming three years from now I have a business, I have another question for you based off of that. And you just got your master electrician's license the other day? Correct. About a month ago. Okay, good for you. What area of Wyoming are you in? Northeast corner, it's Gillette, Wyoming. Gillette, okay.

Bit of a building boom around the oil boom, isn't there? A little bit, yes, sir. Mostly it's about two hours south of us, but yeah, we're definitely feeling it up here, too. Okay, all right. So what I'm thinking is you change your full-time gig so that it is not a permanent full-time gig and it's not in competition. Go wire houses working for someone else

and then start in the oil field as your part-time gig and as quick as you can get that get that income up on the self-employed side with your side hustle on the oil field and then drop out of the full-time thing okay you're gonna quit you're not to quit you have to change your day job because you just you you're never going to win in business being unethical right and i don't want to go behind their back and take all their customers and that's just people feel dirty it felt dirty to me yeah just be wrong and so um what i would do is you know go go get a job you know your

regular job enough to feed you feed your family whatever wiring houses or doing some other kind of electrical work okay i'm just that's why I'll ask about the building thing, because if there's enough residential wiring, you can go do pull-home runs, right? And, you know, that won't kill you for a year. Meanwhile, you're being ethical because you're now competing with your side hustle, with your former employer, which we were eventually going to get there anyway, but that's not unethical because now you don't work for him anymore. Okay.

In that scenario. So you make enough to eat on in a day job that you don't plan on keeping in a type of work that you don't plan on doing the rest of your life. Okay. Does that make sense? That makes sense. Yeah, and that gives you the ability then to pull the boat up to the dock, meaning get your side hustle income up higher so when you quit your day job, it doesn't kill you. So, hey, good question, man.

Thank you for joining us. Open phones this hour. That puts this hour in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. We will be back. Hey, guys. This is Blake Thompson, senior executive producer of The Dave Ramsey Show.

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