The Ramsey Show - App - The #1 Reason Most People Don’t Ditch Their Credit Cards (Hour 1)

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

Ken Coleman & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss:  "How do I talk to my family about starting my own business?" The #1 reason most people are afraid to ditch their credit cards, "What's the best way to budget my extra income?" from the blog: Learn to Budget, "How can I retire early?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Join a Personality-led FPU class. Click here! Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help people win in their life, specifically their money, their relationships, and their work. I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined by fellow Ramsey personality, my esteemed colleague, George Campbell. It is always good to be with you. I threw in the esteem today.

I've never felt more esteemed. Well, we haven't been on together in a while due to our busy life schedule, so it's always good to be in the studio with the one and the only George Campbell. The energy is palpable. It's always good to be in the studio with the one and the only George Campbell. The energy is palpable. It's palpable. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. George is ready.

I'm ready. And I think Sammy might be ready in Orlando, Florida. Sammy, how can we help? Hey, guys. How y'all doing? We are having a blast already. What's going on? Love to hear it.

Hey, I'm just calling to ask advice on what I should do regarding wanting to start a business. Okay. I currently work at a hotel. I fold laundry and I do room service, making $13 an hour. And I am 17, going into my senior year next year. And I just wanted some advice on how to go about that and how to introduce it to my family. Yeah. Tell me about the business.

Oh, the business. It's an on-demand business run through Etsy using an AI image generator to make designs. So you basically tell the AI what you want to create. It creates it for you. You sell those designs on Etsy and make the profit because there's no production cost. Have you tested this? Yes, I have. And how's it going?

Oh, it's good. I started, okay, well, last week I actually uploaded products and started making, I haven't made any sales, but I have gotten a lot of visits. I think so far 76 visits to my website. So how much money have you made? Zero dollars. Zero.

He hasn't sold anything yet. Okay. So we're a week into this test. Real fresh. Yeah. Yeah. Very fresh. Yeah.

And so it's interesting. You said, how do I tell my family or how do I talk to my family about it? Which leads me to believe that you're nervous about something or maybe even fearful. Is this true? getting good grades, doing well in school so you can go to college to work a 95, a safe job. And honestly, I just don't feel like that's the route for me, if that makes sense. I understand that, but I think we need to separate you trying this Etsy business from this big, giant conversation about your path in life. Yeah. Let's separate the two. So are you still in high school?

Yeah, I just finished junior year. Okay, good. So you've got another year of high school to begin to think about how you're going to have this conversation with mom and dad. And I'm going to give you some thoughts on that. But this idea of just telling mom and dad that I've launched an Etsy business, is there any tension there? Just telling them, hey, I've started doing this. We're trying it. Well, I've mentioned it to them,

and I did tell them that I started uploading products, but I could tell they were a little iffy about it, and like it wasn't really, like they weren't really happy, I guess. What was their objection, if any? They didn't say anything specifically, but it's just the way they responded to it they didn't seem like um there was like a like that good of an idea i guess you could say well first of all that stinks and it hurts right yeah let's just be honest anytime we tell our parents something i mean i'm i'm in my 40s and if my mom and dad don't get excited about something

i feel a little tinged there. And truthfully, they probably don't fully understand it. I think that's probably true. And that's kind of the like tilt head question mark. They understand if you go to an office job and you have a title they can tell their friends about, it's harder to go, oh, he has an Etsy. Have you heard of Etsy? He's got an Etsy shop, and he does these T-shirts. It's harder to explain, and it doesn't make them look as good.

And so that part I wouldn't get hung up on yeah i think you ought to spend more time trying to figure out how to get more traffic and then george you actually have some background with this uh i'm just i'm putting you on the spot because you can handle it george but he's had 76 visits to the site that's not a lot and he hasn't sold anything yet. What's he looking for? Because you've done digital marketing, you've been a marketer, and you've also got some technology savvy. What do you think? Well, number one, you're reliant on Etsy. And the way the Etsy game is played is it's kind of a pay to play to show up in the top rankings. So here's what's going to happen, Sammy. There's going to be a lot of competition in the AI space now. You're not the only guy out there who's had the creative idea to do AI print on demand. I think it's a great idea. Let me just put that out there. You could probably do really

well with it, but you've got to have a long-term game plan of what happens when there's 30,000 people who are also doing print on demand who have more money and resources and talent and time than you. So pursue it, but I wouldn't go putting my eggs in the basket until I go, I have a, for six months straight, I've increased my revenue. And this is enough for me to actually create a profitable business long-term. Yeah. Sammy, my advice on this is, and George is right. So taking George's advice, your mindset needs to be, I'm going to pursue this to learn from it, not pursue it to get rich from it. And that's going to change your expectations. Just learn everything you can learn. There's no risk here.

You've already outlined that. I think you've got a good head on your shoulders. Now, let me transition very quickly to having this very big and important conversation with mom and dad over the next year because you're a rising senior. Mom and dads want the best for their kids, and when mom and dad are afraid that the choices their kids are making aren't the best ones, that's when they have the highest objection. You understand that, don't you, Sammy? Yeah, definitely. Okay. So telling mom and dad, this is what I'm doing, deal with it, and I'm not suggesting you're going to go that route, but even just laying it out that way, even with the sweetest of tone,

they're going to get really fearful. And so my advice to young people in this situation where you go, I don't think college is for me. Let's go find out for sure if college is not a necessary path. So two questions for you that you need to answer for yourself before we talk to mom is, is college the only way to do what I think I want to do? Is it the best way? If the answer is clearly no, then we've got some real anecdotal evidence and we can sit down with mom and dad and we're very thoughtful and they can see you've done your homework and you show them an alternate path. So for instance, if you want to get into coding and you go, hey, mom and dad, I can go to a coding school for $20,000 and be done in nine months or whatever versus go to a school that I can't afford.

And they begin to see, oh, Sammy's got a clear path. It makes sense. It's got a nice trajectory for him financially long term. And he's figured out an alternate way besides a college degree to get there. And it's a proven way, George. Now, all of a sudden, I think mom and dad are like, okay, this isn't some big, scary, whee, you've presented us. Yeah. When you actually go, I'm creating a great income from this and I don't have any college debt to show for it with some useless degree, I think they're going to respect you even

if they don't approve of the path and it's not what they would have done. That's okay. But I think you coming at this respectfully going, I don't want to waste a lot of time and money pursuing this. I'm going to get an education in a different way. I want to pursue entrepreneurship. They may have some ideas and go, great, let's get you a business degree just to get another notch in the belt. Yeah. I think parents' support, George, is commensurate to how clear your plan is. And they can see, aha, this is doable. And they mean the best. So don't let them get you down.

They're actually trying to protect you. He's George Campbell. I'm Ken Coleman. This is The Ramsey Show. Your calls, right around the corner. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer,

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y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Welcome back, America. You are listening to The Ramsey Show, where we are here for you. It's your show, America. We're answering your questions so that you can win in your money, in your relationships, and your work.

All three of those areas of our life are tied together. If you're losing in one of those areas, it is going to impact the other. It's just a simple fact. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by George Camel. We are here for you this hour. The phone number is toll-free. Jump in at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. I want to go to you,

George, here because I saw you did this. You did a little poll. I love a little poll on Instagram. On the gram. On the gram. And here was the question for the poll. I love it. I said, if you're a credit card user, what is the biggest thing holding you back from getting rid of the cards? All right. That's how I posed the question. I got tons of responses. How many people responded? A few hundred at least. All right.

So this is anecdotally, this is science basically at this point. Yes, that's right. And I got a lot of the natural responses that we've gotten for 30 years, right? It's the points, the cashback, the rewards. I love getting my free flight. I need it to book hotels and rent cars. And I got to keep up my credit score so I can get a house and get car loans and all of these things. But the one that shocked me, Ken, a lot of people said fear.

Fear of? Just fear. So I dug in. I DMed. I said, tell me more about that. Elaborate. Yes. Because that means a lot of things to a lot of people. Some people DMed. I said, tell me more about that. Elaborate. Because that means a lot of things to a lot of people. Some people did admit, they said, hey, this is a safety blanket. It's a crutch. If something goes wrong, I know I'm covered with my line of credit, thanks to 28% interest from the credit card companies. What a blessing. Right.

But I wanted you to address this idea of fear because you've been leading a financial peace class virtually, and this has come up a lot when it comes to the thousand dollar emergency fund scares me. I can't cut up the card because what if, what if, what if. There's so much fear. And some of it stems from their childhood. They told me, hey, I grew up poor. We grew up not having money. We grew up where if one paycheck didn't show up, we were screwed. And so I have a lot of empathy for those that have that fear, but you've talked a lot about this on your show, whether it's career or money, fear is holding people back in a whole lot of ways. Yeah. Well, a couple of things on that. Most of the time, if you actually look at the data,

the things that we worry about, which is another placeholder for fear, because I think fear is defined as I'm worried that something bad is going to happen. I just think that's the way I define fear. And I think that's really true. And so most of the time, the things we worry about rarely happen. That's just some basic psychology study right there, where they're like, the things we worry about most of the time never actually happen. So there's that. The second thing is that people are afraid that they're going to be destitute,

broke, so far behind the eight ball that they never recovered that they forget that the credit card's going to hit them for 28%. Versus, and let's give you a real life example. Let's say an HVAC system goes out, okay, because this is one of the things that popped up in our FPU class. I've got an old HVAC system. I'm going to have to replace it. It's on its last leg. I don't want to be in the house all summer in sweltering heat, not be able to sleep. And by the way, I get all that. I don't minimize any of that. It's like, yeah, I get it. All right, so they think the credit card then is the safety net.

So if we have to put $8,000 into an HVAC system or $6,000 or whatever it is, well, we put it on the credit card, no problem. But now we're paying 28% interest as opposed to going to the HVAC company and going, hey, here's my situation. Here's my financials. I need this HVAC system. We're stuck. So we either are with ceiling fans and just fans or we replace it.

Let's say it's in the wintertime and you go to the HVAC company and go, listen, I can cash flow this and I will cash flow it. And just having a human conversation with somebody. But just relying on the credit card puts you in more stress and more problems because while you take care of the immediate need, you're stuck with it for a long time. And so I think it depends, George, on the specific fear. But a lot of people just feel like I'm not going to be able to be comfortable and take care of my life. And Les, who was on with me, one of our FPU coaches, we talked about AC going in my car one time. It went. And this was when we first lived here in Nashville the first time,

and we were working the baby steps. And I couldn't afford, I could have, but I didn't want to stop the momentum. So, George, I got up earlier and drove into the office an hour earlier so that I wasn't sweating profusely to get into the office. That's a creative move. And at the end of the day, it didn't matter. I was going home. And then one day I was driving home, George, and insult to injury, I came up to a stoplight. It was

almost like the debt gods were trying to embarrass me. I got no AC. I'm sweating hair all over the place because the windows are down. And that, I don't know what you call that, your roof liner inside the car, just all of a sudden detached out of nowhere, and it was sitting on top of my head. I felt it at a stoplight. I look up, and you know how embarrassing that is? Yeah. Because you think that everyone at the stoplight is going,

look at this loser over there. It's 100 degrees in Nashville. He's got the roof interior carpet hanging on his head. I went home, was so mad, I got the staple gun out of the storage. That's therapeutic right there. Two staples in the top took care of that problem and it cost me nothing. Wow. But what are you afraid of? Yeah. You afraid of being embarrassed at the stoplight? I get it. That's a good question. A lot of people like to, they're very optimistic when it comes to their own stupidity. They're going, yeah, we'll pay it. We're going to open the card. It'll be great. They're very optimistic when it comes to justifying their spending habits, their decisions, and very pessimistic when it comes to following a proven plan where they go, yeah, having a thousand bucks is scary and you should be scared. And the problem is when you have the credit card still there, you have a false sense of security.

Yes. You have a false sense of comfort. And the book, The Comfort Crisis, you guys have been talking about this a lot with Dave. I think we're too comfortable. I think part of the reason America is where it is today. Yeah. Broke, in debt, anxious, miserable, stressed is because we're aiming for comfort and convenience and the easiest path. The path of least resistance.

Yeah. comfort and convenience and the easiest path, the path of least resistance, the most convenient path instead of going, dang it, I really got to work that extra job to get out of debt even faster. And that's what I love about Baby Step 1. I don't love that you're scared to death, but I love that it puts a fire under you to go, I wasn't safe ever. I had the illusion of safety. That's right. And then once you have the emergency fund in Baby Step 3, you got out of debt, you don't need the credit card. Like, I don't understand that mentality of what if.

Because I don't think that they've been taught this. So I think this is, I want to tee you up to teach on this. Let's say that the thing happens. We've got $1,000 in baby step one, but then a seven or eight or $10,000. Even a $1,500 expense. They go, well, it's not enough, Ken. Yeah, but my point is they're all worried about this big thing above and beyond $1,000, or $10,000. Even a $1,500 expense. They go, well, it's not enough, Ken. Yeah, but my point is, they're all worried about this big thing

above and beyond $1,000. What do you teach? What would you tell them if you're sitting one-on-one with them and go, okay, this is $7,000, $8,000. You only got $1,000. What are their options? Well, number one, we say,

pause the baby steps if you've got kind of a storm. And in that case, we're going to go, we're going to pay all the minimums on the debts. We're going to cover the basic bills, everything else, all the luxuries throughout the window right now,

because we got to sell everything we can, work as much as we can to find that gap, to make that margin. Once you've got that expense covered, we're back on track, we're attacking the debt. And in most situations I've seen, they end up not needing the full thousand or they pause it and they end up cash

flowing it. And make sure you have the right insurance in place. This is something we teach because most emergencies, health emergency, you're going to have up to your deductible and then you're covered. And auto insurance, make sure you've got the right coverage there. These kinds of things help me sleep at night to make sure that I'm covered in case of something crazy happening. But a lot of times it's psychological and it's them justifying why they want to keep the card around. George, you know the old phrase where there's a will, there's a way. In other words, it means if I'm willing to figure it out, I'll find a way. Do you poke holes in that when it comes to this very scenario or do you believe that that holds true?

I'll find a way to not use a credit card. I'll find a way to pay it off. I'll find a way. But I'm not going to use a credit card for an emergency. Well, when you take debt off the table, if you just, in your mind, pretend and go, credit cards are not an option, debt is not an option, what would I do? If this was the 1930s and debt wasn't marketed as heavily as it is today, what would I do? You'd go, all right, I'm going to go sell some stuff.

I'm going to go get the side job. I'm going to cut down all my expenses to bare bones. I'm going to work out a plan, a payment plan with the HVAC guy to pay this thing off. And we're going to figure it out. So my challenge to everyone out there is, could you live 90 days without using your credit card, put it in ice in the freezer, lock it up somewhere, stick to a debit card and cash for 90 days and DM me if you're going to do this challenge, I want to report back 90 days from now and see how it changes you financially, spiritually,

emotionally. If it gets you further down the line to where you want to be financially. Wow. I love that George. Good challenge at George camel on the ground right there with a K don't wear it out. And if you're over the age of 50, that means Instagram.

Thank you for that caveat. There you go. All right. Hey, uh, we got to take a quick break, but I mean, it is quick. Thank you for that caveat. Alright, hey, we've got to take a quick break, but I mean it is quick. And when we come back, more of your calls, they're lining up. This is The Ramsey Show.

The Ramsey Show continues. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by George Campbell. The phone number to jump in this hour is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Paying off debt is smart. Saving and investing is smart. But there's another key to winning with money that a lot of people overlook, and that is protecting your finances from emergencies.

And that's where insurance comes into play. George, you love you some insurance, don't you? I really do. i don't know why it's fascinating to me yeah you've always really been good at this content and uh and uh so there's 10 kinds of insurance coverage george that i know you know uh that you might need and we've got a tool it feels like thousands so we've really curated the only ones you need to think about you always make me laugh if i ever need good laugh, I could just walk over to your desk and I could say, George, tell me about a ridiculous insurance coverage.

And you would say- Falling coconut insurance. That's real. That's a real insurance. Do I want to buy it? Yeah. Do I need it? No.

I just want to be able to tell my friends. Yeah. Hey. Get that falling coconut insurance. Yeah. It's a real problem in some countries, Ken. It really is. It's not making the headlines it would be a great lead-in to you announcing to your friends and family you were going on a caribbean vacation maybe you guys have falling coconut insurance for the bermuda trip yeah yeah want to make sure everybody's prepared

you don't need that well you don't need that one but we've got you covered um the coverage checkup is is a great tool that we've built for you. It's going to tell you the types you need to add, drop, or adjust. We even rank your coverage by importance, email it to you, and connect you with a Ramsey-trusted insurance provider so that you can make the changes or the additions that you need. And this only takes about five minutes. One of our users wrote in, his name is Donald. He goes, for anyone who has not completed this checkup, do it now. You never know when something will happen and you never want to leave your family in a bad situation. We agree, Donald. So go to ramseysolutions.com slash checkup.

That's ramseysolutions.com slash checkup. Final word on that, George? Or is that good enough for you? Well, I was just thinking about some calls we took last week that were real sad because people didn't have the right insurance in place. Medical, auto, not the right liability coverage, all those things matter. So double check it today. Absolutely. All right, let's go to David who joins us now in Dallas, Texas. David, how can we help? Hey, Ken Head, George. Thanks for taking my call. You bet. I have a question with some of the excess income that I have. So just for some background, I'm just about 27 years old and I'm through all the baby steps

through step four, I should say. No debt. I've got about $10,000 in a savings account. That's essentially my emergency fund. And in um, in terms of, uh, other investments that I have, I max out my retirement, uh, max out an HSA. I max out a stock purchasing program through my employer. You guys don't necessarily like that, but we'll get to that a little bit later. Um, and so, uh, after all of those, uh, allocations allocations, I take home roughly $4,600 a month. And when you take out expenses, I expect to be left with something around $44,000 for the year that I just don't really have anything that I necessarily need to do with it. I'm single, don't have kids, I don't have a house, so I pay rent. That rent's about $1,200 a month. And so I'm just curious what you guys'

opinion is about what I should do with that surplus. Did you say your take-home pay was $4,400? It's about, yeah, $4,600 a month. But then you said you have excess, essentially, $3,600 a month. Correct. How does that work if your rent alone is $1,200? The numbers just weren't adding up for me. I have $4,600 a month that I take home after all those deductions that I just mentioned. And then rent is about, oh, sorry.

I should mention, too, that I have about $8,000 that I get in income from investments that I've made. So it's really about $3,600 that I get from work, from that $4,600, and then for the year, I get another $8,000. So that's not just from your income. Okay. Correct. So do you, are you a homeowner currently? Is that a goal for you? I's not just from your income. Okay. Correct. So do you, are you a homeowner currently? Is that a goal for you? I'm not a homeowner currently. I would say that a home is probably not in the picture for at least another three years. Okay. And why is that? Is that a job, lifestyle? Lifestyle more than anything else. I like where I live. I live around a lot of friends and family. And specifically in the section that I live in, homes are fairly expensive.

And I just, I like the situation I'm in right now. Okay. Well, my next goal for you, if you're walking through the baby steps, you don't have kids, you're single, would be to pay off a home early. And it's a great part of your wealth building journey. And so I'd recommend you're in a great spot to be able to do that sooner rather than later. And if you've seen home prices three years ago versus today, a lot of people are going, goodness gracious, if I had the money, I wish I bought three years ago. So that's my only concern for you is that home prices are a moving target. And three years from now, especially in your area, they're going to be astronomically more expensive. But outside of that, you just get to live, give, and if you want to upgrade the car,

you want to increase the emergency fund, you're doing all the right things. You've got this savings and investing muscle down. I want to see you flex it more in the giving and spending side. My guess is you don't spend a whole lot of money. Maybe a little more than you would expect. I definitely enjoy going to sporting events and doing some traveling. Good. So there is some income there. It's your balance there. Or spending that happens there.

Okay. But it's not hugely, it doesn't put a big dent in my overall income. Good. Well, I would set some goals. Right now, you're go-less, and if just the goal is investing for the future, that's fine. You can park it in some index funds if you've got a home purchase down the line, but I would want to put it down on a house sooner rather than later, for sure. Yeah. Thanks for the call, David. All right, let's go to Los Angeles next.

John is there. John, how can we help? Hey, gentlemen, how's it going? Oh, we're having a blast, John. What can we do for you? Hey, so I'm on babysat three. My wife and I, I'm 30, she's 27. We just paid off $100,000 in debt. And yeah, so we're aiming to have our three months by September. Nice. But really just, you know, after the pandemic, trying to have vision for our life longer term, I wanted to ask, you know, for the early baby step adopters, what do you suggest to do as a gap fund for those who want to semi-retire in their early 50s or mid 50s since you can't take out of a 401k until 59 and a half. Good question. Okay. So we'll call that

work optional where you get to choose what you do, how much you work versus I got to keep this job because I need the money. Correct. So I would max out all retirement options first, which would be your 401ks, IRAs, HSAs, all of that stuff. And beyond that, what people use in order to do that is called a taxable brokerage account. So this is just money outside of retirement that you invest. And let's say you're 50 and you're not going to be able to tap into the 401k till 59 and a half, you've got to have enough money in that account to tide you over for nine and a half years. And that's very dependent on your goals, your lifestyle, your expenses, all of that. So you've got about 20 years to plan that out, which is great.

Yeah. Now, let me just tell you something, John. If you think you're just going to not work and all of a sudden have plenty to do, there are a lot of retirees that are getting back into it because it wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. So I love the strategy, and it gives you options, my friend. But as you get to that age, know that you need to be very, very active, and even with hobbies, you might want to be doing something more productive. And just keep that in mind.

We've got a lot of these young people, and I'm not saying it's his situation, but you're familiar with this, this financially independent retire early. Big movement. And this is not John, let's be very clear. But a lot of them are working crazy hours. I mean, give them credit, crazy work ethic, but they're working to try to make a certain nest egg by 40 and never work again. And we're beginning to see some of the leaders of that movement

who have already announced they either get bored or go back to work. Right. And there's something to that, this idea of being productive and doing something. And I like how you called it work optional. What does that look like? What does that feel like? I'd rather sink my teeth into something I love for the next 20 years instead of something I hate in order to retire early. Yeah. And here's what I want people to understand. We're all about investing, so you have options. But I think retirement as a, I'm never going to work again, is overrated. There's a lot on Netflix to catch up on, Ken.

Financial peace is not overrated. That's true. And options are not. And our investment strategy is going to get you there. All right. Good stuff. All right. Don't move.

More of your calls coming up. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined by my colleague, George Campbell. The phone number to jump in on the conversation is 888-825-5225. We're going to talk about your money. We'll talk about your relationships and your work, because all of those are just very,

very relevant to you having a peaceful and successful life. 888-825-5225. Amarillo, Texas is where Manny joins us. Manny, how can we help? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. But I'm just really torn and kind of stressed about the situation I'm in.

Just to give you guys a little background, I just graduated college last December. I played football in college, had a pretty successful career there. And I gave it my best shot at Fort Hayes. It's a B2 in Hayes, Kansas. Nice. What position did you play? I had a pretty successful receiver.

Nice. All right. George doesn't understand any of that we just talked about. I'm learning some. I'm taking frivolous notes. But I find it interesting and I'm trying to bring him along when I can. Anytime we can talk sports on the show, it's good for George. It's a touchdown. There you go.

Yeah, but I had a pretty successful college career, so I gave it my best shot at the NFL. Ended up talking to some scouts and everything. Short story, basically didn't end up making it, didn't end up getting a call. So now I'm back home. I've been applying to some jobs. And now I'm kind of torn between should I do a commission job or should I do –

I've applied to both jobs. I've gotten a job offer in Dallas Commission, um, financial advisor. And I think, I think that would be awesome. I think I would do great at that. But, um, my parents don't know if that's the greatest decision. Um, I don't have, um, just because the rent there is super expensive. Um, and honestly, I don't have much money to my name right now. But at the same time, you know, there's no commission cap, but there's no base. And that's kind of why they're really worried right now. And I got a job offer somewhere else that's just $50,000 annually.

And I don't know if I should just take the $50,000 that way I know what I'm making or if I should bet on myself. My parents said they would help me with the rent a few months, but at the same time, I don't want them. I'm 23 years old, so I don't want them to be worried about me. I feel like I should be worried about myself. Well, my colleague, George Campbell, there's no one better on the planet to address this whole rent issue. All right. So I'm going to bring George in a second, but I'm going to focus in on what I heard. And what I heard was option A, as you presented to us two job opportunities, option A is a job that you described in detail and you described with great excitement. And then you told us about job B, but I know nothing about it other than it offers you a $50,000 base. And so when I listen to that, it makes it very clear to me, tell me if I'm wrong,

that the job in Dallas that is in the financial advising investing space, you're genuinely excited about it. And even though it's straight commission, the athlete in you, the competitor in you, you want to give that a shot. And B, option B, literally when you think about it, your soul starts to seep out of one of your ears. That's what I'm hearing. Is this true or false? That is very true. The reason I feel like that for option B is because I can work there for 10 years and then get a $5,000 raise.

Well, I'm still, you know, like I'll never be financially stable. It doesn't matter what your reason is. The point is we have some real enthusiasm and fire for option A. And if mom and dad are willing to help you and you can swallow your pride for a couple months until you figure it out. I'm open to that, but this is where I want to bring George in. George, I mean, I get what Mom and Dad are saying. Dallas is expensive, or certainly more expensive than Amarillo, but I think he's got more options than he realizes where he may not even have to tap Mom and Dad's money for a couple of months.

Yeah, so what would rent be for on your own? We're looking about $1,400, $1,500. Okay. What about a two bedroom where you get a roommate? I don't currently know anyone in Dallas. I've thought about that. Yeah. Okay. I think that's a, we can overcome that with mutual friends and Facebook groups and all kinds of things and good vetting. You're not going to have a crazy roommate. But let's say you had a great roommate and you got a two-bedroom for what? $1,600? $1,700? Yeah, probably about $1,700.

Great. Now your rent is $850. And now we can reasonably, even if we don't make $100,000 the first year, we're able to afford that. And could you work nights and evenings while you get your book of business going for your financial advising role? Yeah, yes, sir. And when do they want you to start? Second week in July. So how much money, if we worked our tails off, could we make between now and moving to Dallas, where you've got yourself set up for two to three months and we're not even asking mom and dad for money? Could you do that?

Yeah, I could do that. I mean, it's coming pretty quick, maybe a few weeks, but I could probably gather up some money for sure. I'm just saying, man, you're an athlete. Do you have any debt? Yeah. Go work hard, dude. I got school for free. Amazing. You got no debt. Let's get a little pile of money for some moving expenses and get settled in. I'm telling you, man, George, he can make a thousand, two thousand bucks between selling stuff, doing stuff, working like crazy.

At least I'm going to challenge you to do that, Manny. Here's the other question I have that I want George to hear on this money and budgeting thing as you get started. Is this a true straight commission gig or are they going to give you some type of a very small base or is it straight commission? Something that I really like is it's... You broke up. Is it straight commission? It's straight commission, yes. Okay, and then what are they telling you as what they believe, if you do things the way they train you, what do they think your ramp-up period looks like to where you actually start making your first commission?

What are they telling you? A couple months until I make actual money, but the projected first year is 94. Oh, dude. Just like you said, the athlete in me just wants to go for it and work my tail off. Bro, you listen. You tried out for the NFL from a D2 football program.

I understand what kind of a leap that is. I'm not worried about you. And I think you tell Mom and Dad, look, I'm betting on myself, Mom and Dad, I'm going to be fine. I'm not going to end up under a bridge. And I think George gave you some very good tactics here george and i think i think if he saves up some money he really works hard to try to find a roommate or here's one why don't you try to find a an old lady in dallas who's got a room over a garage like matt damon in the rainmaker i mean

this is possible i'm serious You can get creative for sure. And I think if you want it badly enough, I'm the guy who moved across the country with the hopes, starting here at Ramsey Solutions as an intern and a temp. And I think you're going to look back with a regret if you don't do this. That's exactly right. And keep in mind, we put a restraining order on George for a while. It was a thing. After it was lifted, he finally made it here. You know, George, I love this.

Thank you for the call, Manny. We really believe in you. There's a lot of Mannys out there right now. There really are. And I love where, again, you just said, look, there is a way to figure out how to not get the nicest, brand-newest, shiniest, most expensive apartment where all the hipsters are at at the pool, you know? When I first moved here, I was way out of town. I wasn't close to downtown Nashville. I had a roommate or two.

I got my rent low. My expenses were low. I wasn't going out to eat every weekend. Do you remember the numbers, roughly? Yeah, I want to say when I first moved here, it was like $1,200. And so my rent was $600. Nice. How did you get the roommate?

It was an old friend from college that had also moved to Nashville. Oh, I thought you were going to say an old fart, the way you said that. It was an old fart. No, I didn't live with an old person. I would. I think it would be great to live with an elderly folk. It would be. You wouldn't have to worry about noise.

No, they'd always go to bed before I did. They're in bed at 930 after they're watching Murder, She Wrote. I would watch Golden Girls reruns with them. I'm an old soul. But there's a great lesson there. If Manny wants it badly enough, he's going to figure it out. And that is absolutely what we're saying here. And what are your thoughts on mom and dad? We don't know the situation. I don't want to project too much on them. But again,

we were talking about fear earlier in this hour. Mom and dad have a healthy dose of fear when Manny goes, I want to go to Dallas and I want to do this. It comes from a good place a lot of the times. It's not toxic. They just want their kid to be successful, whether it's for their own reputation or because no one wants to see their kid fail. They don't want to see their kid struggle. But I think them letting him experience this,

whether he fails or not, is the healthiest thing they can do. I think that's true. So good. All right, young man. Thank you, Manny, again for the call. I love this. And this is a guy who went for it for the NFL. He's not worried about failing.

I love it. I'm not getting in his way. No. Physically or career-wise. Good idea, George. Hey, George Campbell, good hour. I want to thank James and the entire crew behind the glass to keep us on the air. I want to thank you, America.

This is your show. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Ken. If you love the show and want a deeper dive on your money journey, we have a weekly newsletter that gives you trending and helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Go to ramseysolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.