The Ramsey Show - App - The Best Way to Get Your Marriage Back on Track (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 2, 2018

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🎵 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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 am Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. Thank you for joining us america it's a free call at 888-825-5225 that's 888-825-5225 marvin starts off this hour gainesville florida hi marvin how are you doing good dave how you doing better than i deserve what's up um me and my wife we uh i just got a military about to buy a house um and uh i'm wondering whether or not we should use our mutual funds we have thirty two thousand dollars in that

and then we also have thirty three thousand dollars in our checking or uh in money market and i'm wondering if we should buy when we buy this, should we take our money out of our mutual funds and our savings to buy the house? The house is going to cost around $100,000. But we're renting it right now, and the homeowners can't really take care of it anymore. They're getting older, and they're ready to get rid of it. Gotcha. Are you out of debt? Yes, sir. We're done with one through three.

Good. And then $32,000 in mutual funds was an inheritance from my wife's grandfather passed away. Okay. And since you're leaving the military, you've got your new career lined up? Yes, sir. I work for AT&T, making around $50,000 a year. Good.

Well, thank you for your service, by the way. So the $33,000 that's in checking, is that your baby step three, your emergency fund? Emergency fund would be separate. We have a separate fund for that, which is what our rent is right now is around $6,000 for three months because our rent's only $450 a month. Your $6,000 emergency fund is probably a little low, so I would take some of your checking and move over there. Let's move, I don't know, maybe

$8,000 over there. That would make it $14,000. That leaves us $25,000 in checking and $14,000. Okay? Okay. That leaves us $25,000 in checking and $32,000 in the mutual fund. Does that sound right? Yes, sir. I'd put all of that on the house. Okay. That's an awesome down payment on a $100,000 house. You're putting

half down, and dude, you're going to get that house paid off pretty quick. Yes, sir. That's what my wife, we just had our second son about nine months ago so she's about ready to go back to work um so she's uh we've been talking about it and we we didn't know whether we should take that money out of mutual funds or not absolutely absolutely if let's pretend you had a house with that with the thirty thousand dollar equity which you didn't have any mutual funds would you go borrow on your house to put money in mutual funds?

No. And it's the same difference. It's just swapping from one pocket to the other. But I definitely would put all of that down on this house. And so we're talking about over $50,000 down payment, $52,000 down payment, or no, $57,000 down payment. And that's great on a $100,000 down payment, or no, $57,000 down payment. And that's great on a $100,000 purchase. And then, man, jump in there and, you know, let's put that thing on as short a term as you can put it on. You're probably best bet on a small loan like that is just get it at a credit union

and just get a fixed rate 15-year, maybe even a 10-year on that. And there should be no closing costs. So you're going to save on closing costs on a small loan like that. But make sure you get a fixed-rate loan. Don't let them push you into a variable-rate loan. And they should not charge you closing costs on a loan like that at your local credit union or your community bank. And, dude, you're in a great position when you do that because you're buying a modest home

and you're able to pay it off with your income very, very quickly. And this turns into a blessing. By the way, one gauge of, you know, if you ever ask yourself, folks, am I using the inheritance properly? Then ask yourself if what you're using it for would cause the person who passed away and left you the money, while they're standing in heaven looking at you doing this, would it cause them to smile? And if her grandpa thought that she was using these mutual funds to buy a house, buy her a home for her babies with her husband, he would smile.

So it passes the inheritance test for me. Dawn is with us in Alexandria, Virginia. Hi, Dawn. How are you? Hi, Mr. Ramsey. Thank you very much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I am a 60-year-old single female, recently divorced. I worked for the federal government for a little while, took a break, raised my kids, and now I've had to go back to work. I make about $52,000 a year. I'm $72,000 in debt, with $60,000 of that being a school loan, the rest of it in credit cards and just trying to keep life going at this point.

I'm scheduled to start an FPU here in September. But I'm kind of doing some preliminary work, and I wanted to know, being a federal employee, I have a TSP account that has about $72,000 in it. Right. And so I'm wanting to know what kind of percentage of my income I should be putting into that, being as I'm so far in debt? However, the other aspect of that is that being a federal employee,

if I stay with the federal government for 10 more years, which I probably will, then the rest of my student loan is forgiven. So how much should I put in my TSP? And I do have a Roth with that also. Gotcha. Okay. What we teach folks is to stop investing temporarily until you get yourself out of debt. I would not wait 10 years to get out of debt. So if I'm you, I'm going to lean into this debt and I'm going to knock it out in the next 18 months or so with the numbers you gave me. I'm you, I'm going to lean into this debt, and I'm going to knock it out in the next 18 months or so. With the numbers you gave me, I think you can do it in about that period of time.

That's beans and rice, rice and beans. You're not seeing the inside of a restaurant during that 18 months. But during that time, you stop investing temporarily, and you stop doing anything except attacking the debt. I want all of that debt completely gone. See, when you don't have any payments, you've got money then, kiddo, and you're in a position to really win. And then you're going to build your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses.

We call that Baby Step 3. And then once that's done, we go to Baby Step 4, which now we do 15% into our TSP. And the money that's in the TSP now, we just leave it there. And so we'll do the additional contributions at Baby Step 4 and the current balance at this ratio to answer your original question. Okay? Okay. The C shares, the C plan is the one that has done the best of everything in the TSP.

And basically it's a common stock fund. It works like an S&P 500 fund does, Standard & Poor 500. It's like an index fund. And so it's very predictable, very stable, but it also has outperformed almost any of your other options in the TSP. So we go heavy in that, probably 80% in that. Okay? Okay.

The other 20%, I would do 10% in the S and 10% in the I. Okay. What about the fact that the government currently matches any kind of contribution that I make? It doesn't matter. Right now, I need you to get out of debt. Your most powerful wealth-building tool going forward is your income, and you're giving it all to other people right now. Okay.

You're going to relearn all of this in Financial Peace University, so never fear. So what I would do today is nothing, if you want to, other than just pay your bills until you get in the class. We'll show you what to do in Financial Peace University exactly.

It'll line up exactly with what I just told you, step by step by step by step. Thanks for calling. One question I get asked all the time is, do I need life insurance? Listen, the whole point of life insurance is to replace your income for someone who counts on you. So if you have a spouse or you have kids, yes, you need term life insurance. It's the only way to protect them until you're out of debt and have built up your wealth.

You're only digging a deeper hole if you waste money on cash value plans since it robs you of the ability to make real progress. And that's why I send you to Zander Insurance, and I have for 20 years. That's where I get all my insurance, and they only offer the plans I recommend. It is not expensive. It's not complicated. And Zander will be there as your guide every step of the way. Visit Zander.com or call 800-356-4282.

You need to get this taken care of. I can give you the advice, and I can tell you where to go, but it's really up to you to take that important step to get your family protected. That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you are here. Jeff is in Evansville, Indiana. Hi, Jeff. How are you? I'm doing good, Dave. How about yourself you are here. Jeff is in Evansville, Indiana. Hi, Jeff.

How are you? I'm doing good, Dave. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up? I know you say to never, you almost tell no one to ever sell the house, but I might be one of those guys. My wife and I, we built our family dream home this year, and it turned more like a nightmare. And it's outside of your principles and I feel like

it's stealing my family's future to keep it but I'm going to lose a tremendous amount of money when I go to sell it both because of bad decisions we made in the build and issues with the contractor I'll leave if I sell the home with enough money to put a nice down payment on something that's more in line with your principles, but I'm going to lose somewhere in the $80,000 range worth of money I've already put into the home. Okay. But you lost the $80,000 because of the bad process in the build, right? Correct. Yeah.

Okay, so how much is your house payment today? $1,750 on a 30-year fixed. And what is your take-home pay? $120K. You take home? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's our annual.

It's about $7,400 a month. Okay. Do you hate the home? It was emotionally devastating through the process, and I'm getting past that. We like the home. We don't love the home. But it's getting better. It was just a very, our kids are four and six, and it was very hard on all of us through the process. And so we're kind of healing from that.

But it's getting better. $1,700 is on a 30-year. Granted, it's not on a 15-year. But it's much less than a fourth of your take-home pay. Right. But I'm looking at the idea of not paying for this thing forever. And in my numbers, if I try hard and cut back, it's still going to be, you know, 18 to 20 years to pay this thing off. That's assuming you never get a raise.

Well, and I'm assuming that because as our kids grow up, my wife is wanting to work less. So I'm assuming as my income goes up, her income comes down, that things will probably stagnate near the area where we are now. What do you do for a living? I work at a second generation of a family business that does retail sales of various outdoor living products. Okay. All right. No, I wouldn't sell that today. I think you're just hurting and you're mad. And driving home up that driveway every day still reminds you of all the crap you went through.

Every day. I think there's nothing here that's killing me mathematically. And, you know, your prediction into the future of all this negative stuff rather than positive things might not come true exactly that way. So, you know, let's relook this. If you still feel the same way in three years, yeah, maybe you want to sell it, but maybe it's gone up in value during that time and you don't lose as much, too. Okay. The reason it came up, I actually had, you know, sometimes God talks to you in different ways,

and, you know, I had out of the blue someone knock on the door interested in it. And they're willing to pay a fair market value for the home out of the blue. But that fair market value is, you know, that substantial loss. And I felt like, you know, this is, you know, am I getting told to move? No, no. There's somebody knocked on your door as well. No. I mean, it doesn't make sense for you to move no no somebody knocked on your door as well um no i mean i it doesn't make sense for you to move right now uh unless you guys are just you know emotionally devastated to the point you

can't live there and that like eighty thousand dollars worth i'm not that it takes a lot to make me eighty thousand dollars devastated so uh no'm going to sit there for 36 months and then re-ask this question of myself if I'm in your shoes. I'm going to delay this. Let's tap the brakes on this and let this play out a little bit more. Let's see what happens with your incomes. Let's see what happens with the house. See what happens with your emotions around the house. Let's kind of let it play out a little bit.

John is with us. John's in St. Louis. Hi, John. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. John's in St. Louis. Hi, John. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up?

I have a similar question, I guess, to the last caller about a house. I have a 30-year fixed mortgage. Well, it's actually a 30-year arm. And I'm wondering if I should sell it or if I can actually cover it. And it still kind of follows the plan. Okay. Okay. cover it and it still kind of follows the plan okay um so what is your take-home pay my take-home pay is um about fifty two hundred dollars a month but that's after my 401k comes out and my hsa right so before those two things come out what is it um before those two things come out, what is it? Before those two, well, my per paycheck, it's $644.15 for my 401K and $200 for my HSA.

So I guess you've got to times that by two. So $1,600 more. Okay. So what's that make your take-home pay? $7,000. And your payment is how much? $1,602. And I pay extra $100 a month.

I wouldn't pay extra until you get to that baby step. Are you out of debt except your home? I do have a car loan of $15,000. You need to put all your money on that, and let's get that paid off. No, I wouldn't. Again, I wouldn't sell it. I'm going to ride this out a little bit and see where you stand up. I wouldn't have bought it in this situation, but you're there now. And so what do I do next?

Well, let's ride it a little while and see if we can get this thing turned around. But you need to get rid of the car payments, which you need to get rid of. Elgin's on the line in San Diego. Hi, Elgin. How are you? How are you doing, sir? I'm better than I deserve. Good.

How can I help? All right. So I'm calling because I just want to know where to get started with my finances. I'm in a world of mess, and my finances have created a world of mess in my life, and I'm just trying to take the necessary steps. I just now started listening to you about a week now, and I've learned so much. What happened? What kind of mess is there in your life over your finances?

Well, just bad management. Due to that, you know, my wife separated from me because she doesn't feel like I'm managing the family and protecting the family. How long ago did that happen? About a year and a half ago. We're still married. I feel like he's trying to get myself, you know, just managed and just fixed myself. And I've been doing that. It started with a book someone gave me as a gift, and that kind of pushed me into really getting myself more focused.

Are you guys doing any marriage counseling? No, we're actually not. Are you on enough speaking terms that she would go through Financial Peace University with you? No, honestly, we speak mainly about bills and our children um other than that uh what i'm saying if you were going to go to a financial class to try to help get yourself straightened around would she attend with you i i would have to say no at the moment not to be to be 100 honest with you when i was was in the military, we did a class with a VA, but it was only shortly because I had to go on deployment.

So it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't. Yeah, but this is different than that. This is different than that because this is you saying, I want to take the steps as a man to straighten up my act, to earn my marriage back, to earn a foothold in our relationship, and, baby, would you go with me while I'm working on me in this class? It'll help us with the bills overall, even if we don't get back together,

but we're still married, and you can go with me. I could ask. I could ask, I could suggest, and you can go with me. I could ask. I mean, I could ask, I could suggest, and I would do that today. I want you to go through Financial Peace University as our guest. I'm going to pay for it. And if nothing else, it'll help you get on track personally, and hopefully that'll give you a foothold to discuss with her some reconciliation. And that's the direction we want to take you

so god bless you i hope this helps with your marriage let us know how it turns out okay hold on kelly's gonna pick up we'll get you signed up we're paying for it this is the day ramsey show Okay, I need you to listen to this, because one normal routine that everyone does can cause total chaos in your life. Folks, I'm talking about the simple act of using Wi-Fi. When you're on Wi-Fi anywhere in public or at home, you're at risk of hackers easily seeing every site you visit and search you're doing online. It doesn't matter if you're doing it on your cell phone or your laptop.

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That's hotspotshield.com slash Dave. You can be secure in seconds. Download Hotspot Shield today. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Rodney and Angela are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. Welcome, welcome. Good to have you.

Where are you guys from? Galesburg, Illinois. And what's that in there? Peoria, Illinois. Oh, okay. Cool. Well, good to have you all. Welcome to Nashville.

And here to do your debt-free scream. Yes. Love it. How much have you paid off? $91,159. Love it. And how long did that take? 19 months. Wow. And your range of income during that time? We started at $78,000, and we ended currently at $144,000.

Whoa, big jump. What was the big jump? I took on a full-time second job. A full-time second job. Okay. A lot of hours. Yeah. Okay, cool. What do you all do for a living?

I am actually a registered nurse, a hospice nurse. That's my primary job. And I missed my hands-on, so I did go back to the nursing home. Okay. All right. And I'm a service technician for a fire truck company. Oh, great. Very cool. Good. Excellent. So what kind of debt was the $91,000? We were what you call normal. We had everything. We had signature loans. We had a car loan for an SUV that I just deserved and I had to have. And of course, we had credit

cards ranging from just your bank credit cards to my clothing store credit cards to even a Sam's Club credit card. A full array. Everything. Very good. Everything. Okay. And so how much of the 91 was the suv 27 a little over 27 000 and did you keep it or pay it off i we did keep it oh okay we did keep it i'd keep it or sell it i should have said but yeah right we did keep it good so you worked all the way through this or did you sell anything big all my hunting stuff oh kept her car but all hunting stuff. So what did all that sell for? Not enough. Altogether, because it was kind of we split it up, you know, because a lot of people won't buy hunting stuff during certain times of the year. But altogether, it was probably upwards of $1,000 or a little bit more.

So that was probably our biggest thing that we sold. But we did have a couple of garage sales through the years and the last 19 months and so nothing real big wow so basically you guys have just lived like nothing like nobody else and paid all this off yeah wow that's impressive that's a lot of money in 19 months to cash flow. Very cool. So what got all this started 19 months ago? Actually, my sister and my brother-in-law, who are here with us, they were back here in May, did their debt-free scram. You asked them a question that day if they had anybody who kind of went up against them. Well, that was me. Teased them for a very long time about Dave Ramsey. And, oh, well, he wouldn't approve of that.

And, you know, can you go to lunch? No. So after teasing her for so long, I realized one day that SUV that we bought, we were truly living paycheck to paycheck. And that had a lot to do with it. Not to mention our truck payment was more than our house payment. I'm like, this is ridiculous. So we kind of jumped on board a little bit. And it wasn't until I sat down and actually did the budget that I realized that we were spending a whole lot of money on eating out.

And just Walmart trip was never less than $100, even though we only went for two or three things. So we just realized that we had a whole lot of money left over in the end. And I thought, you know, we could actually probably do this even though they're crazy. We may be able to do this. Don't tell them. I know. Um, never admit it. So then we started and the next thing you knew it, it's an adrenaline rush. It is addicting next thing you knew, it's an adrenaline rush. It is addicting. It truly is. It is an adrenaline rush.

And we've been to see you live a couple of times with them and Chris Hogan as well. And so now we don't know any other way of life but Dave Ramsey, including this one. I love it. So, Rodney, when she starts deciding that her sister's not crazy, did you think she was crazy or did you think it was a good idea? Do what I'm told. Oh, my gosh. Okay. That'll work.

Oh, man. So what do you all tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Want to do it. Wanting to do it. You have to want to do it and realize that even though society kind of encourages you and pushes you to be in debt and that it's okay because you're always going to have a car payment, you're always going to have this payment and that payment, it's really not the case at all. And to be able to get into that SUV now that I actually own is such an unbelievable feeling. The student loans that are gone, even though you can't physically see those, that one was probably our hardest debt to pay off, but definitely working together, supporting each other. This poor guy, bless his heart, and I love him dearly,

he went for over a year in a vehicle, in a truck, that had no reverse. Oh, no. One year, four months. Yeah. One year, four months parking in the parking lot. Oh, yeah. Out there where you could pull all the way through. Exactly.

Exactly. So just a lot of sacrifice, a whole lot of sacrifice. Even this one here went through a lot of sacrifice. And, you know, being told no and has now accepted that as a way of life and that it's okay. You don't die from no. No, no, and he hasn't. You don't. And so what is your son's name and age?

He's Diesel and he's eight and a half. All right. Very cool. Well, congratulations, you guys. Very proud of you. Very, very well done. So we got a copy of Chris Hogan's retire-inspired book for you. That's the next chapter in your story.

Why don't you be millionaires? And you're on your way, by the way. You make $100.50, or you have the ability to make $100.50. I don't know if you're going to continue to work that many hours, but with no payments, you ought to have all kinds of room. So you're on your way to really having some wealth for real. This can really be you. And on top of that, you can be outrageously generous along the way.

So very, very well done. All right. It's Rodney and Angela and Diesel from Peoria, Illinois area. $91,000 paid off in 19 months, making $78,000 to $144,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! three two one we're dead free

well done you guys very well done absolutely incredible man i love it i love it i love it guys you always hear me say this and i want to make sure that you hear me say this and financial peace university you know we have the families going through they pay off fifty three hundred dollars worth of debt in nine weeks and you know save twenty seven hundred dollars they have about an eight thousand dollar change in position during the first 90 days of the time they start the class a big push push in Financial Peace University, and a big push when I'm saying stuff here on the air, is I always say outrageous generosity. And if you're not careful, that becomes a throwaway term.

I want to get rich and be outrageous generosity. Let me just tell you, there's a huge correlation between generosity and your ability to build wealth. Huge correlation. Not because if you give money away, you're guaranteed to get some back. That is not, I'm not a prosperity preacher. That's not what I believe, nor is it what I teach. But there is a high correlation between people who are generous

and people who build wealth. You know why? Because generous people are grateful, happy, kind, gentle, fun, celebratory. These are the kinds of people you want to be around. They're the one to hold the door for you. Even if they're worth $2 billion, they'll hold the door for you. Because it's in their nature. They're generous. And there's a correlation between their ability to build wealth and if you're generous or not.

So I can tell you if you don't tip well, you don't tip the valet well, you're probably going to struggle on your wealth building journey. You don't tip the waiter or waitress well, you're probably going to struggle on your wealth building journey you don't tip the waiter waitress well you're probably going to struggle well they don't deserve it yeah you go try doing that job shut up i don't understand somebody parks a car pulls 110 000 mercedes up and gives the guy a dollar to park it are you To start with, that's a bad transaction. But on top of that, it's lacking in generosity. Let me just tell you. Valleys are out there in the heat,

the rain, cold, snow, driving everybody else's car and they're never fast enough to suit you. Not the car. The return of the car. Be generous. Be generous. not the car the return of the car be generous be generous this is the dave ramsey show guys let's talk about that timeshare pitch that you fell for they promised you exclusive access

to travel anywhere you want, tropical beaches, mountain getaways, or whatever. Oh my gosh. They claimed it was the affordable way to travel, and then they convinced you it was a good investment. But here's the deal. Search any auction site for your exact timeshare and see what it's selling for. It's listed for a dollar with no bids. That's not a good investment. Now, I know I'm just adding salt to a very old wound, but look, if you tried calling the resort and they won't take it back, if you tried selling it and no one will buy it, call Timeshare Exit Team. Timeshare Exit Team will get you out. You'll have to be patient. It can be a long process and it costs money, but it works. They're so confident in their exit service that if they don't get you out, you get a 100% refund.

Call 844-999-EXIT. It's free to talk. 844-999-EXIT. TimeshareExitTeam.com Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 24, 16, For the righteous fall seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity. As St. Lauder said, When I thought I couldn't go on, I forced myself to keep going.

My success is based on persistence, not luck. You know, I am convinced really that probably, there's two or three factors, I think, that you could say the number one thing, the number one correlating thing with success is what? One of them is integrity. It's hard to be really successful if you're a dadgum crook and people say all the time the crooks get ahead but that's just on tv i mean the real world once

somebody messes you over you tell everybody nobody else does business with them it's very difficult and so really crooks don't get ahead in the long run i mean they bounce around from thing to thing they constantly have to start over on all their relationships and contacts and everything else. It's very difficult. Integrity is one of them. You know what the other one is, is perseverance. People that are successful, they're not necessarily smarter than other people.

Matter of fact, they usually don't have the high-level GPAs that some of those brilliant people have. Typical millionaire has a GPA below 3.0 in college. Mine was a 297 and that three one hundredths of a point still pisses me off. Mr. Three by three one hundredths of a point. It's unbelievable. Still mad about that. But, you know, the typical millionaire doesn't even have a 3.0 GPA.

It's not it's not GPA. It's not GPA. It's not unusual brilliance. It's not, you know, they invented the next toaster or bread slicer or whatever. Sometimes they do those things. But, you know, I know thousands of millionaires. I probably know thousands of decamillionaires. I know at least 20 billionaires personally, and none of them are shiny, brilliant, blow you away with their intelligence people. None of them are.

Not a one. Maybe a one or two are. But, I mean, most of them are just like, really? Him? Most of them are such regular people. It's unbelievable, except they're not regular people. They don't quit their ability to persevere, to not be denied, to just keep after it,

to scratch and to claw the ability to push through. There's just a high correlation between that and success perseverance bible talks about it in romans 5 3 through 7 rejoice in your tribulations because tribulations produce perseverance and perseverance hope and hope is a gift of the holy spirit hard times make you learn how to hang on they make you learn how to fight through any of you have a grandma grandpa that survived the great depression changed them didn't it change the way they looked at things went to to World War II, the greatest generation. Yeah. Those people wouldn't quit.

I mean, the average guy on the street in those days wouldn't quit. The people built America. They wouldn't quit. They would not quit. They wouldn't quit. You couldn't stop them. They wouldn't quit.

And here's the interesting thing about that. It's not some kind of lightning in a bottle, God's strike, just randomly dropped on certain people and not dropped on other people. The ability to not quit is a choice. You can choose. Just choose. I'm just going to keep going. i'm just going to keep going i'm just going to keep going we're the third largest talk radio show in north america rush limbaugh has 623 my friend

sean has a few less than me but he has more listeners than i have and he's number two we're the third largest talk radio show in north america no one else in the 400s. My friend Glenn Beck's 378 stations. You know why we're in the number three? It's not because I'm a better broadcaster than some of those other people. I'm not even that good at radio. Radio people make fun of me all the time because I'm really sloppy.

All I did was for 25 years I didn't quit. I've outlasted a whole bunch of people that were supposed to be the biggest thing in radio. I just survived because I wouldn't quit. That's all I did. It really isn't very pretty. It's just kind of ugly. But we just did it.

We just didn't quit. Joe's with us in Arizona. Hi, Joe. How are you? Good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So Arizona. Hi, Joe. How are you? Good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

So thanks for taking my call. So basically my question in a nutshell is should I sell everything I have that I can, get rid of, and, you know, quit my job and focus on my business? You have a side job. So Your side You have a side job Kind of have My buddy and I started an LLC We're manufacturing concrete pumps

And I work for the postal service But it's a part time flex job So it's a career position Full benefits But I only get about 20 hours a week Plus I've got... So how long have you been manufacturing concrete pumps? Well, we've got our first prototype just about finished, but we plan on doing concrete pumps

and just other fabrication applications. Okay, so you've not sold any? We haven't sold any yet, no. Well, yet no well in time to quit your job and sell everything you haven't sold anything yet you need to you need to sell something right right yeah well the the problem i'm running into is is that um i don't have a whole lot of time to put forth into this um just because of why You only work 20 hours a week. Well, I've got a two-hour drive time on top of that, plus I'm going to school online.

You drive two hours to work 20 hours? Right, one hour each way. Okay. Are you single? No, I'm married. Okay. Does your wife work outside the home? She does. What does she make?

She makes about, well, let's see, our total is $35,000 a year, and I bring in about $16,000. So she makes about $17,000, well, about $20,000 a year. Okay. Well, I want you to do something to replace the sixteen thousand dollars in income before you drop the job and what would you sell if you're going to sell everything to go into business well just uh just kind of the stuff i have so like generators or just stuff that i can sell and my idea was i sell everything i can for you know know, about $4,000 to get me through to the next three months. Yeah. And then I spent two months working on the business,

and if we can't get anything going in two months, then the third month I buy another dock. You need to get the boat closer to the dock or you're going to get in the water. Okay. You're trying to jump too far. You know what I'm saying? Okay. By that, I mean I want you to get some track record in this business because I want the business.

Here's the thing. When you get desperate in business, you get stupid. I know I've done it. And so you don't want to get yourself in a pinch where you're having to push something through. You're having to push something to market to eat that's not ready for market yet. And the thing about prototypes we all know they don't come out the first time right it takes a few iterations to get something to work whether

it's a service business or a manufactured product or whatever it is nothing that's you know version 1.0 makes you rich it's version 10.0 that makes you rich uh if you keep pushing it through and so i want you to get this this pump you've built to market and actually make a little money with it and i want you to pick up some kind of something in and it can be part of this business but let's get some revenue stream in this business that that's proves your concept you know concept proof that's what we're talking about uh to where you know you get to10,000, $12,000, and you can drop a $16,000 gig that has a two-hour drive associated with it, right?

Right. That's getting the boat closer to the dock. But zero and a prayer is a good way to end up desperate. Right. And so that's your proof text so far. Your concept proof is not there. I think you can do it, but I think you're probably, you know, there's a rule in business on this kind of stuff. It takes twice as long as you think it's going to.

It costs twice as much as you think it's going to, and you're not the exception is the third rule. You know? Right. And so these things, you know, you can see this. You can visualize this pump going to market and selling and making you money. I can, too, actually. I can see it. But it ends up taking you a little longer than you thought.

And then you get yourself in a pinch. And that $4,000 from the generator sale doesn't cut it then. So let's get the boat a little closer to the dock before you make the jump. That's what I'm saying. Hold on. I'm going to give you a copy of the book, Entree Leadership. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace,

and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, Dave's phone screener. We finished 2017 with a bang as the fourth most downloaded podcast of the year. Thanks to all of you for listening and helping us spread the word. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost sharing ministry, a Better Business Bureau accredited organization CHM members share to

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