The Ramsey Show - App - The Best Side Hustles To Make Extra Cash Right Now (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 18, 2023

George Kamel answers your questions and discusses: "How do I prepare to move out on my own?" Pausing Baby Step 2 during lower income periods, Financially preparing for marriage, The best side hustles to make extra money right now from the blog: 27 Side Hustle Ideas to Earn Extra Cash, "Is it worth taking a job with a long commute?" "How do I pay my debts that are in collections?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Join a Personality-led FPU class. Click here! Enter The Ramsey Cash Giveaway for a chance at $3,000! https://bit.ly/TRSgvwy Shop our bestsellers during the $10 Sale! https://bit.ly/TRS10Sale 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 Pod's moving and storage studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm Ramsey personality George Campbell, flying solo today. That's right, America. They left me at the helm. There's no one to stop me from making poor choices, and so it could be an interesting show. Could be my last one. It's up to you. Let's make it a good one. The number to call is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money,

whatever's going on. I'm happy to be a sounding board and maybe give you some advice. But remember, it's worth what you paid for it. Let's kick it off with Clay in Perry, Georgia. Clay, what's going on? Hey, what's going on? Thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. How can I help? Yes, I am a little nervous. It's just me, Clay. There's no one even to be scared of. I'm the least intimidating person you could meet. Yes, I'm 20 years old, and I was wondering, I want to move out of my parents' house eventually,

but I don't know how much money I need or how to do that. Where do you want to go and why? Just move out, just start my adult life, whatever, just try to experience that. Okay, cool. So are you moving out of the state? Where do you plan on going? Honestly, just like 20 minutes away from my parents' house. Okay.

And is this an apartment? Where are you going exactly? Apartment, yeah. Okay. And will you be living alone or with roommates? Probably alone, most likely. Okay. And you know exactly how much that apartment's going to cost? Around $1,200, $1,300.

And have you looked into any other fees, like initial deposits that may be involved? I do not know. I'm currently out of debt, and I have a three, six-month saved up. Oh, awesome. At 20 years old. And you're currently working, I assume. Yeah. Okay.

Did you go to college, or you just went straight to the workforce? Straight to the workforce. I'm actually going to school in August to do electrical, be an electrician. That is awesome. Big fan of the trades. And what are you doing right now for work?

I build storage barns, portable storage barns. That sounds fun. What do you make in doing that? Around, last year I made 91. So about this year, probably 90 to 100. 100 grand at 20 years old with no four-year degree. Yep. I hope everyone in America is listening to this going,

oh my gosh, maybe I shouldn't send my kid to school for a random degree they don't need that costs $300,000. Clay, you're amazing. I appreciate it. So you make great money, and this rent, the key we want to look for when it comes to rent is that it's about a quarter of your take-home pay. So the question becomes, do you make $4,800 a month? Yes, about five or six take-home. Perfect.

And as long as you have the initial deposit, I don't want you touching the emergency fund if you don't have to for this because truly it's not an emergency. So you want to make sure you have that money ready to go. So I would call up that apartment complex and say, hey, what are all of the fees involved with me getting into this apartment? I got you. And then do you have furniture?

I do not. That's one of the things. I didn't know how much to save up for to move out or something like that for furniture and stuff like that. Well, you can do it real cheaply. And what I did was just go on Facebook Marketplace and, you know, friends are always giving away stuff, family, Facebook groups in your neighborhood. There's even Facebook groups that are just called buy nothing Facebook groups where they just give away stuff. Okay. So I would go cheap until you need to upgrade, but really you're out of debt with an emergency fund. If you want to buy some decent furniture online on like

a Wayfair or something and really start to kick off your adult life, go for it. As long as you budget for it. Awesome. Sounds good. Also, I have one more question. Sure. I have a, like a $40,000 truck paid off. I didn't know, is that worth keeping? Because gas mileage on it's pretty bad and just like downgrading some, or what do you

think? Well, it's less than half of your annual income and so as far as the the rules that we set for owning things with wheels and motors you're not above that but if you don't need the truck and you can sell that thing for 40 grand and and downgrade to something that has better fuel economy i would do it okay but do you need the truck for work? No, I just like it. It's a big bike. You are very impressive, sir. Most guys that don't even build storage barns say they need a truck for hauling some mulch from Lowe's twice a year. I got you. Yeah. So the fact that you have this level of self-awareness is inspiring. I appreciate it. And I'm telling you, no one understands it until you leave the house that, yes, it's scary, but there's something about not being tethered. And I love my parents. There was nothing,

it wasn't animosity that caused me to move. I just knew it was time and I wanted to step out like you are. And so Dave always says an eagle that doesn't leave the nest is a turkey. And so I'm proud of you, man, being debt-free, having a killer job, doing this the right way. So set a budget. I'm going to go ahead and gift you every dollar. So hang on the line. Austin's going to pick up. That's our budgeting app that I personally use. And it's so helpful when you step out into your adult life, you're making money and you want to give every single dollar an assignment. Income minus expenses equals zero. And this is huge for anyone out there who's going, all right, I'm either out of school or I'm in the workforce and I'm young and I'm just going to stay at home until I get my life together,

until I get my finances in order. Listen, if you have an exit strategy, that's fine. If you're going, hey, mom and dad, give me one year, I'm going to get out of this student loan debt, I'm going to get out of this credit card debt, I'm going to pay off this car, and then I'm on my way out. But I'm personally not a fan of just living with family to live with family because you can save some money. There is something that gets you out of bed in the morning when you have to pay a bill and you have to go to work and you got to kill something and drag it home that gives you a little pep in your step. And I'm not here to knock on any generation or anyone's personal living situation.

And I know culturally, this is a hard thing. A lot of non-American cultures, you just kind of live with family forever and you take care of each other. And this is kind of this cycle that happens. But man, there is such freedom in going, it's on me now. It's on the guy in the mirror. I can't rely on mommy to cook my meals. And gosh, I wish I still could because my mom is one of the best cooks in the world. But it's on me to figure that out. And that's such a huge part of maturing and growing as a person. And I think we should all aspire to grow in all areas of our life. But especially when it comes to taking care of ourselves and taking care of our families, I think the people that are still at home at 34,

they're gonna have a hard time meeting someone and getting married and starting their own family and changing their family tree if they're kind of stuck and tethered. And so I kind of like the fear that comes along with getting out of the house and having to figure that out. So if that's you, I encourage you to make plans to do that. Have the exit strategy,

have the tough conversation with mom or dad, go increase the income, go pay off the debt so that you can start your own life. Because we need less adults who are acting like children. And Clay is such a great example of what it looks like to do this the right way. So I'm inspired by you, man. Enjoy that EveryDollar app and good luck with the move. Check out our friends at Pods Moving and Storage. As you go through that process, they'll take real, real good care of you. Hey, more of your calls coming up, America. The number is 888-825-5225. This is a show about you. We'll be right back. welcome back to the ramsey show i'm geel, host of the George Camel YouTube channel, co-host of Smart

Money Happy Hour, and your solo host today on the Ramsey Show. It's good to be with you. Give me a call at 888-825-5225 if you want to talk about your life and your money. If you've got that burning question you've been thinking about and you're like, I could Google it, but I don't know what Google's going to give me. And I could ask my broke brother-in-law, but I know what he's going to say. I'll try to be as honest as I can without hurting feelings, but I don't know what Google's going to give me. And I could ask my broke brother-in-law, but I know what he's going to say. I'll try to be as honest as I can without hurting feelings, which I've been known to do. Not my intention. It's just a byproduct when you tell people the truth.

Well, hey, if you missed it, we had a great event called America's Labor Crisis. And that live stream is going to be broadcast on TBN on Friday, May 19th, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Sorry, it's 7 p.m. Central time. And if you're wondering what this is all about, well, Dave Ramsey and Mike Rowe are teaming up with five bestselling authors and experts to discuss the state of work in America today. You don't want to miss this. Again, that's on TBN, Friday, May 19th, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. All right, let's get to the phones. George joins us in Chicago. George, it is good to talk to another

George. Always, always. Hey, George, thanks for taking my call. So just a really quick question. My wife and I, we're getting ready for the summer because my wife, being a school teacher, it's not an option for her to get paid during the summer months. So basically she won't get paid for the next like three months. And since we're on baby step number two, my question really is, so I feel like we have enough savings to get us through from July to September. Should we stop doing the snowball, the debt snowball, and just get through these three months? Or do you think we'll be okay to keep paying off the debts with the increasing, with the rollover, right, from the prior debts that we've been able

to pay off? Great question. So the only time I would recommend someone pause baby step two or pause the baby steps in general is what we would call storm or stork mode. Stork mode, of course, you're having a baby, let's pause and save up cash and just pile it up until mom and baby are home and healthy. And storm mode is, hey, there was an emergency we didn't know was coming. There was a medical thing. There was a job loss. But with your situation, we knew this was coming. We knew summer happens. We know teachers aren't in school during the summers. And so I would, if I were you, go, hey, what could she do over the summer to bring an income? Now, you said it's not an option. What do you mean by that? So it used, so Chicago public schools, they used to allow you to get paid.

They would pay your salary throughout the 12 months, but they stopped that like six or seven years ago. But it's not illegal for her to earn income in other ways during the summer. Right. No, it's not. And then the other, so usually, and I guess I should have specified, George. So usually she does work summer, summer school. Okay. But this year, this year she opted out just because she's going to be taking a surgery.

And I was like, well, this would be the best time to do it, right? Because that way you don't have to take your vacation time or anything like that. Got it. So she'll probably not be able to work for like a month. Okay. So aside from that surgery and her healing up and getting better, I would be looking at ways you can increase income and she can create income during that time. And obviously there's ways she can do that as a teacher through private tutoring, maybe teaching ESL or VIB kit or GoGoKit or one of those kind

of online platforms where she can use her skills to create money. But there's also a ton of other ways that might even make her more money. Things like childcare, dog sitting, dog walking, doing Amazon delivery and grocery delivery. Has she looked into anything like that to create income? You know, we haven't looked at, but I mean, those are great ideas. We haven't, but we'll definitely look into that. It's a great idea. We've got a great article all about side hustles that I worked on, and I'll make sure that you get a link from our friend Austin in the booth, and I'll make sure Austin gets that link.

That will help give you some ideas. But what you want to look at with these side hustles is how much time do we have, what talents do we have, and then what's the target? The target you already have set. You've got some debt to pay off. How much debt do you have? We have – are you asking including the home or just outstanding debt outside of the... Just your baby step two debt.

Yeah, yeah. Maybe like $60,000. Okay. What kind of debt is that? Credit cards and student loans. Okay. So what's your next smallest debt? What's the next, I'm sorry. What's the next smallest debt as far as balance goes? I want to say, hold on, I'll tell you right now. I haven't, I don't have it in front of me. I apologize. If they're getting Baby Step 2 done, they've got the list. They've got every dollar. Yeah. I have a list. Awesome. I don't know it by heart, but yeah, I have it right here.

Okay, so the next one isn't really that big. We opened up a medical credit card, and it's only like $1,500, which we can pay off this next month easily. Great. How much money do you guys have in the bank? We have about $4,000 in the checking, and we have about the same in, we have like a separate short-term savings account. So I want to say we have about $8,000 right now. Okay. If I'm in your shoes, other than this surgery now is coming up, I would get the details

on what that's going to cost us out of pocket. And aside from that, whatever you have allocated for your budget for next month, plus a small buffer, maybe 500 bucks in checking, I would love to see the rest of that savings go towards your debt and start to knock some of this out even before the surgery begins. Yes, sir. And so I think if you do all of that, you find ways to increase income. You're going to be able to pay this off faster, but I would not say hey Let's pause the baby steps because she's not working in the summertime I want to see this thing keep moving because you're going to lose momentum Fall is going to come around things are going to get busy again

And all of a sudden it's not going to become a priority in your life And getting out of debt needs to be the number one priority for you guys right now So I will make sure you get that link and for those of you listening We will drop a link into the show notes if you're listening on podcasts and into the YouTube description over there if you guys want to get inspired and get some ideas. Thanks for the call. Joe is up next in Dayton, Ohio. Joe, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, George. How are you doing? Doing great. How can I help?

So I just wanted to wonder what your opinion of being financially ready for a single income marriage was. I wanted to see if I met those criteria and if not, what I need to do next. Okay. Hit me with some of your criteria. What do you have going on? Right now I'm single. I'm looking to start dating, but I don't want to start until I know I'm ready to. Oh, wow. This is your very future thinking here. There's no lady in the life right now. Well, there was, but she took a break to get some more school done. So I'm thinking before I get started again, I want to make sure I'm ready. So. Okay. So you're thinking, what do I do to become financially ready? Not for a couple to get ready.

Right. Okay, cool. So I make about $52,000 a year. That's plus benefits. That's not including taxes. I have about $15,000 saved up. I have about $40,000 in private investments and a $12,000 Roth IRA. How old are you?

I'm 21. Oh my goodness. How'd you do this? Well, my dad has been a big fan of Dave Ramsey for a while, so he's been a bit of a... Yeah, he's been a bit of a Dave Ramsey, honestly. So you're kind of a financial peace baby, and the apple didn't fall far from the tree. Yeah, exactly. You are so far ahead of most adult Americans twice or three times your age. Well, thank you. Okay.

I have to give the credit to my dad. So you're saying, hey, how do I get ready for marriage? I mean, financially, you're in a great spot. You don't have any debt? No. Okay. And what are the investments for this $40,000? So my dad has a property management company.

He bought some real estate investment properties. He didn't want to use operating funds, so he borrowed from me. I'm getting paid back at 3.5. Whoa. Okay. Well, do you rent right now? Actually, I'm still living at home. That's part of my compensation. Oh, cool. Okay. Well, my next goal for you, if you've got the emergency fund, you're already investing 15% of your income, I would be looking at getting a home eventually. So save up that down payment. And so when you do meet that special someone and you've got a home or even a paid for home, you will be light years ahead and on your way to building wealth.

Okay. Awesome. Thank you. You were checking all the boxes. If any ladies are listening who are in your age range, they're going, how do I find a Joe out there? This guy's got it figured out. He's not trying to stay broke. He's trying to build wealth. That's who I want to hitch my ride to. So way to go, Joe.

I'm proud of you, man. Thanks for the call. I'm inspired by the young people. Listen, they get a bad rap out here, but I'm getting calls from 20-year-olds, 21-year-olds who would out-school anyone out there when it comes to their money management. So I'm inspired during this episode today. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, your host this hour. Riding solo, our crew is all over the place right now.

We've got Rachel Cruz, Dr. John Deloney, and Jade Warshaw down in New York City, or I guess up in New York City as the crow flies. And they were doing a Fox Business panel this morning, having a good time over there. I'm a little jealous, but I also get to hang out here in this wonderful studio with some wonderful people and a wonderful crowd. So who's jealous now, Rachel? But hey, we've taken a lot of calls so far from young folks in their early 20s, 2021. And this article right here is interesting. It says almost half of Gen Zs have side jobs as money fears take over, according to Deloitte. And here's the stat. 46% of Gen Zers currently have either a full-time or part-time job in addition to their main one, a new Deloitte survey shows.

And the figure is slightly lower for millennials at 37%. It goes on to say side jobs are on the rise as folks struggle to make ends meet. Some of the most popular second jobs are selling products and services online, working gig economy jobs like food delivery or ride hailing, artistic outlets, or creating social media content as an influencer. Look at that. It says, while money is the top reason for having a side job, respondents also see it as a way to monetize their hobbies, unplug from their primary job, expand their networks, And of course, the survey shows that cost of living is the biggest concern, and it's especially pertinent as over half of each generation say they live paycheck to paycheck 5% more than a year ago. So here's what this tells me. Obviously, there's a sad part to this of inflation's crazy, we're in debt like crazy. People are trying to make ends meet. So they're turning to these jobs for those reasons. But there's a byproduct of this that I love that they mentioned, which is it monetizes their hobbies. It helps them unplug from their primary job. It expands their networks and helps them develop skills for a new career path. And I lived this out in my 20s as I sat there with $40,000 in student loan debt and credit card debt going, oh my gosh, I did everything the system told me to do, everything society told me to do. I worked hard in school, got good grades

so I could get into the college of my dreams, only to find out I couldn't afford the college of my dreams. And then you take out student loans to pay for it because you had to, because there's no other way. And this is how you get by and make it. And so what do you do as a 22-year-old, 23-year-old sitting there with a pile of debt and mommy and daddy aren't around to help you anymore? Well, I turned to side jobs. And of course, I got my first big boy job here at Ramsey Solutions 10 years ago, which was awesome. But I went through Financial Peace University for the first time back in 2013, and it got me fired up to pay off this $40,000. And I wanted to do it fast. And so on top of my salary, I went, what else could I be doing? and I was a second shooter for videography for weddings. I was building websites using Squarespace for small businesses and entrepreneurs

and authors and speakers charging 1,500 bucks a website. I was driving for Uber and Lyft on the weekends instead of going out with my friends to make an extra 100 bucks, 200 bucks, 300 bucks. I also was a Nielsen family, if you know what that is, which means Nielsen, who does all the ratings for TV, media, radio, like this show. And I'd carry it around a little beeper-sized device that would listen to all the media that I listened to, and I would get paid based on how long I had that turned on. And I cannot tell you how uncool I looked in my khaki

pants carrying around a little beeper, but it made me an extra 20 bucks a month and it was almost no work on my end. On top of that, I was in marketing at the time. So I went, I could do some marketing consulting. And so I started doing that for those small businesses, for entrepreneurs and help them launch podcasts and launch books. And as I stepped into an MC and host role, I went, okay, I have talents on stage to be a host and MC. I can go do this for other events. And so I did that to help us save for a down payment when it came time for us to get a house. I also was a musician.

And so I would license my music online to make some extra money that way. And, you know, sometimes it'd be 50 bucks for a wedding video or a church's video. And sometimes it would be Ford saying, hey, we want to use your music on our YouTube channel. And I'd get a $1,500 check for one song that I had already recorded. And so there's a lot of creative ways to make money out there, depending on your talents. I have zero talents when it comes to handyman work, when it comes to cooking and baking. But some of y'all out there have amazing talent. And people will pay for those

adorable smash cakes for the one-year-old's birthday party and for that wedding cake when they're on a budget and can't go to the fancy bakery. And people will pay to have light bulbs changed out because they're too lazy. They can't do it physically because they're older, have disabilities, whatever the reason is, you would be shocked at what people are willing to pay for. And we know rich people are scared of leaves. They hire people just to blow the scary leaves away. I pay people to watch my dog, to mow my lawn, to do the electrical work that I have no clue what I'm doing. And I don't want to sit there on a Saturday watching YouTube videos from some guy named Larry who's going on for 30 minutes about how it was back in his day while trying

to teach me how to change the socket out. And so get creative with this. Think about three things, your time, your talent, and your target. Time is simple. How much time do you have to devote to these side hustles? Some people it's two hours. Some people it's 20 hours. Some of y'all that are single out there and you're sitting at home figuring out who the next bachelor is going to be and who's going to get kicked off the island. Y'all, there is so much work to be done out there that you can make 20, 25, 30 bucks. And beyond your time and your talent, which is what are you good at? And let me tell you, if you have a car, you are hopefully good at driving and you can deliver packages for Amazon Flex. You can deliver groceries with Shipt or Instacart. And so beyond any having any talents or time, we all have a target. What are you doing this for? Because if you're just doing it

because you're bored, that's fine. But if you're doing it because you want to get out of debt, you're going to stick to it. You're going to work harder at it. You're going to work harder for those tips and you're going to make some good money. And I'll throw a list at you right now, rattle some off because a lot of you hear Dave say, go deliver pizzas. And you're like, okay, I want to deliver pizzas. First of all, pizza delivery can make some great money. And here's a list. Number one, working overtime. A lot of you have jobs you can work overtime. People can flip furniture. You can get that couch off Facebook marketplace that's a little dusty, a little crusty. You get that couch for 50 bucks. You can get that couch off Facebook Marketplace that's a little dusty, a little crusty. You get that couch for 50 bucks, you clean it up, you take better photos of it,

and you can relist it for 200 bucks. Like that. You can flip things that you buy at Goodwill. You can sell old clothes on Poshmark and online. You can sell stuff on Facebook Marketplace. You can dog sit through apps likeplace. You can dog sit through apps like Rover. You can dog walk through an app called Wag. Childcare is a huge one. There's a huge shortage of babysitters right now, and babysitting has gotten crazy expensive. I'm hearing parents saying, oh yeah, our babysitter charges 30 bucks now an hour, 35 bucks, 40 bucks an hour for two. I'm going, oh my goodness, why are we not all just babysitting constantly? House cleaning. This is a huge one. You can make $100, $200 for sitting there for a

few hours and scrubbing the toilet because someone else didn't want to. You can donate plasma. Josiah from our Borrowed Future documentary, this was a way he made hundreds of dollars a month for his family that helped him get out of debt. Of course, you can drive for Lyft and Uber, deliver food with Uber Eats and DoorDash, grocery delivery through Instacart and Shipt. You can teach ESL or teach through VIP Kid or GoGo Kid, tutoring, cutting grass, mowing the lawn, doing the yard work, pulling the weeds, power washing, snow plowing, valet parking, bartending on the side, focus groups, research studies, retail jobs that are now paying 15 or 20 bucks an hour. You can be a transcriptionist on sites like Rev.com where you just type out things you're hearing for money. That's a cool

way to make some extra dough. Mystery shoppers. If you've got a camera and some know-how, you could do photography, videography, graphic design work. If you've got a camera and some know-how, you can do photography, videography, graphic design work. If you've got some Photoshop skills, you can help people move, help them pack, help organize. You can be a virtual assistant. You can be a financial coach. We have a great program that trains financial coaches. And some of these financial coaches out there, they're making amazing money helping people follow the Ramsey plan. And you can make $150 a session doing that while making an impact. So don't tell me you can't. Truthfully, there are so many ways in America today to make money. So you can tell me you won't.

You can make all the excuses in the world. But don't tell me that you can't make more money in America today to keep up with inflation, to get out of debt, to save the down payment, to build wealth. And it's not forever. It's a season. So ask yourself, what am I willing to do right now that's going to set me up for the long term? What am I willing to do? And none of the people that do this stuff look back with regret. Their kids watch them work hard and those kids end up working hard because they saw mom and dad do that. So whatever that goal is, look at your time and your talent and your target and go after it and get creative and see what happens.

This is the land of opportunity, and this is The Ramsey Show. We are back right here on The Ramsey Show. Don't call it a comeback. I'm George Camel, your host this hour, flying solo, taking your calls at 888-825-5225. And hey, if you're a new listener to the show, first of all, welcome. We are so glad you're here. We talk a whole lot of jargon on this show, like gazelle intensity and baby step 3B. And if you want to dive deeper into what all that means, what are these Ramsey baby steps,

go to ramsesolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. When you do that, you'll fill out a few simple questions, and we will help you figure out the next best step for your financial journey based on where you're at today. That's ramsesolutions.com slash get started. And if you want to take it a step further, you want to dive even deeper than that, I've got a great opportunity for you. You can go through Financial Peace University and get the whole picture in just nine lessons. And this is the same course that I went through when I first started here at Ramsey Solutions 10 years ago. And those nine lessons changed my life, quite literally. It gave me this paradigm

shift where I went, oh my gosh, the system is designed to keep me broke. It's designed that way. That's how they like it. And when they do that, I can stay in that cycle. I can be the rat in the maze trying to keep up with this weird credit score game and use my credit cards to get the cash back because somehow that's what's going to be the ticket to wealth and freedom. And then I realized by watching Financial Peace University that there's a way out, that it's not all my fault, but it is my responsibility, that I'm going to be in control of my financial destiny. I'm not just going to have to hope for it. And then by the end of Financial Peace University, it showed me how I can buck this system completely and get financial freedom on my

terms and build wealth way faster and get out of the clutches and the grip of this toxic money culture. And so I want you to join me because I'm going to be leading folks through that same class that changed my life. And get this, the average person who takes Financial Peace University becomes debt-free of all their consumer debt in less than two years. That could be you. And this is the proven system, everything you need to know about money in one place. And the reason you'll pay off debt faster is not just because of the advice you hear in the lessons. It's because you have a community of people in your corner. And for the first time in your life, maybe you're going, oh my gosh, I'm not alone. Other people have done stupid stuff too. And other people want

to get better. And other people want to learn how to live without a credit score and get that house of their dreams the right way. And they're going to push you. They're going to hold you accountable. And I will too. We're going to encourage you. So right now we're pouring jet fuel on the whole thing because all the Ramsey personalities are going to personally lead you through a class. And it's an honor to be one of those people. My class starts June 20th. We're going to meet twice a week for about four and a half weeks, going through all nine lessons. We're going to meet at 1130 Central Time, 1230 Eastern Time. And you do not want to miss this. You don't have to keep wandering around trying to figure out how to do this thing by yourself, hoping for the government

to fix your life, hoping for student loan forgiveness to be the saving grace. So go sign up for one of our personality classes right now. Whether it's mine or someone else's, I just want you guys to be a part of one of these. Go to fpu.com, sign up today. The spots are limited. That is fpu.com. All right, let's get back to the phones. Will joins us up next in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Will, welcome to the show. Hey, George, how are you? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing good. Thanks for taking my call. I'll try to be pretty brief with this. I work as a CRNA in Philadelphia, but I recently changed jobs, and now I work out of Allentown, Pennsylvania. The reason why I changed jobs was they were offering a very nice sign-on bonus,

a change in schedule, and the retirement package is pretty awesome. They contribute 20.6% of my annual salary, free money at the end of the year. So I was just in kind of a predicament because taking this job means our family would have to move out of Philadelphia because it's an hour, 15 minutes each way to commute. Yes. So the schedule is nice. The retirement package is nice. The sign-on bonus would mean that we would be debt-free besides our house. And I'm just kind of in a bind of what to do.

Also, we're in Philadelphia. Our area isn't really doing the best. There was just gunshots on our block. So high crime area? Well, it's not like high yet, but I mean, there were gunshots on our block. And you crime area. Yeah. Well, it's not like high, high yet, but I mean, there were gunshots on our block. So, and you've got little kids and I have a 13 month old. Yes. So it's not really the place where you're going to send them out and go run around the block. Well, what's holding you guys there? Why not just move? Well, our mortgage is nice right now. That's a problem. We're. Our mortgage is probably about like $1,500 a month.

Okay. And I wanted to pay off all our debts first. And we will move pretty soon, but the homes in those areas are pretty high. So if you moved towards Allentown, what would your rent be if you rented for a while? If we rented for a while, I would assume it's around $1,200 to $1,400. Okay. I'm not going to hang on to this life because of the mortgage, if I'm in your shoes. I don't think it's worth it. Because if you're saying the mortgage is nice, but we can rent cheaper, and you could get a house later on down the road once you're debt-free, do it the right way, go go slow and maybe interest rates change maybe

they don't and maybe we refinance down the line when they do go down but man i'm not gonna i think your mental health is gonna deteriorate yeah you're gonna have more time with your family you're gonna have a better life you're gonna be in a safer community you're gonna have your mental health back because two and a half hours in a car, I just don't think humans were meant for that kind of life long-term. Now we can do it for a season. I don't think so either. You can stick this out for three months, but this is no long-term plan just because of the motor. So I'm going to start talking to my wife going, hey, we need to figure out a game plan to get out of here. Here's what I'm thinking. What do you think about this? Let's

go check out that area. Let's go check out the neighborhood. Let's go find this apartment. And this is a season we're going to find ourselves in as we pay off debt. Because I'm guessing if you sold the house, you could pay off all your debt. I think so. I think so. And we could pay off our debt now from the sign-on bonus. That's amazing. We could pay it off now. And then the retirement package, I will make 180 a year, so they contribute 20.6%. That's roughly like 35,000 plus a year of free money. That's incredible. That's why I'm just like, okay, all the stones are in place. Let's just do it by default time. That's what we were thinking. I just wanted- I would be making the trip to Allentown this weekend to start looking at apartments. Yeah, yeah. And that's a beautiful

area. I've spent a lot of time over there. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a beautiful area. I've spent a lot of time over there. Yeah. It is. There's some nice neighborhoods outside of Valentine and around there. Yeah. So I would let go of the, like, I'm going to do this because of the mortgage.

Cause that's really the only reason I heard. And we would be away from family a little bit, but other than that, we wouldn't be too far. It's like a half hour to 45 minutes. If we weren't to pick out on town, if we were to be in the middle, which is still fine.

Well, they come to you now, they want to get out of the city. They want to see the 13-month-old. So that's on them now for a little while. That's true. And maybe down the line you go, all right, we're going back to Philadelphia one day. But my guess is you guys love it out there and you plant some roots over there.

Gotcha. Okay. Thanks, George. I appreciate it. Thanks, man. Thanks for the call. All right, let's take one more. We've got Jordan in Salem, Oregon.

Jordan, welcome to the show. Jordan, you with me? George, it's a pleasure to talk to you. Yep, I'm here. You too, man. Sorry, we're right up against the clock. Get right to the question. So I have several credit card debts that I have stopped paying on,

and they went to collections. And I'm wondering if I should try to negotiate and pay them off or if I should just let them get cleared after seven years and if that will affect my credit score at all. Yeah, it'll tank your credit score. How much debt is in collections? Around $12,000. How much money do you have today?

Not a lot. Around $2,000. How much money do you have today? Not a lot. Around $2,000. Okay. So number one, we need to get our savings up. I don't know that they'll negotiate with you at this point. How old are these debts? Around six months old. Okay. So they're pretty fresh. I don't think they're going to negotiate on debt that's six months old. If it was six years old, they may take two grand and be done with it. But right now, I would be proactively communicating with them, saying, hey, here's how much I have. It's not a lot. I'm working on it.

Here's how much I can give you today. Yeah. But I would not give them access to your checking account. And if they do give you any numbers, get it in writing. Yeah, absolutely. Those are the two main things. I'm getting married at the end of the year, and I'm trying to buy a house as soon as possible. Dude, listen. That's my main motivator. Right now, we got to focus on one thing at a time. Obviously, the wedding's going to happen. The home ownership dream may be delayed. We got to clean up this mess. Do you have any other debt?

Oh, for sure. For sure. No, no, just the credit card debts. Okay. So let's stay out of debt, close all the accounts. Let's make some arrangements with them. Be proactive. Don't wait on them to knock on your door, metaphorically speaking. And you can look up the Fair Credit Collection Act if you want some kind of hard data on what they can legally do and can't do. But I wouldn't bank on them negotiating. I'd rather you just come up with 12 grand and be done with it, man, and quit playing this game. I'm rooting for you. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back before you know it. Hey, it's George Camel. If you like what you heard in this episode

and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey Baby Steps, go to ramseysolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. That's ramseysolutions.com and click Get Started.