The Ramsey Show - App - The Meaning of "Rice and Beans" (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 6, 2020

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

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. Thank you for joining us. It is a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Melody starts us off in Denver. Hey, Melody, welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I am calling to find out how do I just begin to take the baby step with very little resources. I have your book. I'm about $80,000 in debt.

And I just want to know what to do. I'm very overwhelmed right now. Okay. How old are you? 59. Say it again. 59. 59.

Five-nine? Yes, sir. Okay, cool. And what is the $80,000 in debt? What is that on? New loans and medical bills and back payments to the IRS. Okay. How much is IRS?

I believe it's $16,000. Okay. And how much is student loans? Let's see. $, yeah, 62. Okay, all right, cool. So what did you get your degree in? Business administration. Okay, cool.

And I take it the way you're talking, you're single? Yes, sir. Okay. Divorced. How long ago? In 2004, and as a result of that, I'm taking care of my son who is mentally ill. Oh, okay. What is the diagnosis on your son's mental illness?

He's psychotic, which is why I'm divorced. I found out that my ex-husband had been torturing and beating him while I was at work. Wow. Okay. And how old is your son? He's 37. Okay. And is he in treatments? Yes, we're trying to establish some other treatments that Medicaid will pay for. Good. Okay.

Good. All right. And he's just been approved for SSI, so we're just trying to wait for that to come through because I will be his payee. Gotcha. Okay. And so are you working? Yes.

What do you earn? $36,000 annually. Okay. What do you do? I'm a senior paralegal at a law firm doing Social Security. Okay. Oddly enough. Okay.

Cool. Good, good. All right. What is your career track to get your income up? Actually, my actual background as a paralegal for almost 20 years is business, business law, corporate law. But when the markets crashed in the big bubble, that era, a lot of paralegals and everything were laid off. What I've been doing now is trying to create another stream of income. So I started out doing real estate investing, and I didn't realize I was really good at it, so I'm trying to build that as well.

And I have, I believe her name is Christy. I have her book. And I also have total. Well, here's what I'm saying. I'm just looking at the simple math equation of $36,000 against $80,000 while you've got a 37-year-old you're having to take care of. Okay? And I'm just looking at those are my three big buckets that are money coming in money going out and time and drain and everything else um you fought

through some pretty serious battles with divorce and a really bizarre freaking situation obviously and um and you've still got a you know a bizarre situation with dealing with with your son so um psychotic is bizarre but psychotic in this situation with what you've described with 37 year olds really really it's tough i mean you got some stuff on your plate that's real girl and uh but in the middle of that i'm looking at 36 versus 80 and there's not a lot of wiggle room in 36 after you eat and take care of life to attack the 80 right if it if you did 10 a year out of that, that would be really aggressive, and that's eight years.

That's why I was asking about your income. So I need to do something. And if you're talking about real estate investing where you're going into a bunch of debt to buy a bunch of houses, that's the last thing you need to do. You're broke. That's not what I'm doing. I'm on the wholesale side of it

i just find the deals and i am paid okay have you actually made money doing that yes sir how much um i just recently closed two deals and what'd you make um $11,000. Awesome. Okay. Yeah, so if you do that three times a year, you know, do six deals a year, you doubled your income. Yes, and then that's... And that makes us debt go away in about three years. I'm not overwhelmed anymore.

Why are you overwhelmed? It's just a lot. Trying to work a dead-end job. But you're not working a dead-end job. You've got a way out of this, and you're thinking about where you want to be in 10 years. And where you want to be in 5 years or 10 years is doing wholesale real estate deals, about 10 or 12 of those a year, and not working as a paralegal at all. That's where I would want to be.

And that's where I want to be. Yeah. So let's get about the business i'm not overwhelmed we're going somewhere i gotta tell you your rearview mirror has got some crap in it your windshield is pretty clear but you need to spend more time looking at your windshield than your rearview mirror okay because you got the crap beat out of you back there not literally but figuratively with uh you know jobs and late in life you have to go through this and you got this bizarre situation with your ex and all that stuff and and to have some scars or some bumps on you from all that well that would make you human of course you would be hurting from that but all i want you to do to keep from being overwhelmed, I mean, if you're making $60,000, $70,000 a year,

you can attack this situation. You can get this debt cleared up. You can work these baby steps. But the overwhelmed is coming from looking in the rearview mirror more than looking out the windshield. And you have legitimate pain in your rearview mirror. I'm not saying you shouldn't be harmed. You shouldn't have a sense of emotional scarring from all this.

We all do. I mean, I've got legitimate pain in my rearview mirror. But you're going to go where you look, and I want you to look out the windshield more, because your future is a lot brighter than your past. A lot brighter. So let's go that way. I think you're doing a lot better than it feels like you're doing, and that's what I'm telling you. So, hey, thanks for the call. I hope that helps you. If I can help further as you're walking through this you give me a call back and next time be smiling and have a little more energy in your voice because you're looking forward not living

in the crap of the past this is the dave ramsey show Thank you. We've been voted one of the best places to work in Nashville 11 times. You want to know how we do it? Well, our team has been using LinkedIn jobs for years to find the best people from all over the country to come and help us change lives. Think about it. LinkedIn has more than 600 million active members. I'm talking about people who come to LinkedIn to make connections, grow their careers, and discover new job opportunities. In fact, 90% of LinkedIn users are open to new opportunities but not actively scanning job boards. This means LinkedIn Jobs gives you access to an entirely different demographic.

Don't wait. One hire can change the direction of your company. Post a job today at LinkedIn.com slash Ramsey and get $50 off your first job post. That's linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. Thanks for joining us, America. How many of you know someone that's struggling with money? That would mean you are breathing. If you don't think you know somebody that's struggling with money, you are living in a cave or you're in denial. All of us know somebody that's struggling with money. You are living in a cave or you're in denial.

All of us know somebody's struggling with money. I'm betting every single one of you do. And a lot of folks are hurting and they cover it up pretty good. A lot of people are doing better than you think they're doing. That's okay, too. Either way, you can learn more about handling money. And the best place to do this is to volunteer to lead a Financial Peace University class in your community, in your church.

We need some coordinators to get some classes started right now. Our nine-week class has helped almost 5 million people change their lives and take control of their money, and we're always looking for more coordinators to lead these classes. Now, they're not a trained coach. You don't have to be a trained coach. You don't have to be a financial expert. They're just people like you. You love people.

You have an interest in this subject in general, and you want to influence folks. These coordinators are the heartbeat of Financial Peace University. Without them, we couldn't offer the classes that help all these millions of people. So if you're ready to lead a class, one of these life-changing classes, you can sign up to become a coordinator. Just go to DaveRamsey.com or call us at 888-22-PIECE, 888-227-3223. We're glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Our question of the day comes from blinds.com. With blinds.com, you get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you're going to save even more. Always put in the promo code Ramsey, and you'll see the best possible deal out there. That's the magic word, Ramsey, at blinds.com. Michael is in Florida, Dave. How long does it take to lose your credit score? I want to buy a house, but I want to wait until my credit score is zero. Michael, we don't know for sure. The experience that we've had with people doing this,

meaning getting out of debt, closing all accounts. You cannot have an account open of any kind, and you cannot have any bad debt outstanding all accounts are zero and closed and no outstanding anything on your credit bureau nothing active and it appears the experience that we've seen among our people that do this dave ramsey stuff is a sometime within the next six months after that last account is closed, your score will become indeterminable or zero. You'll have a zero credit score, in which case you will have a lot of trouble borrowing money.

Thank goodness. That's the goal. We're not in the business of borrowing money. It doesn't make you rich. Being out of debt is your shortest path to being wealthy. Now, then how do you get a house? Well, you get a house with someone like Churchill Mortgage or any other mortgage company, for that matter, that knows how to do manual underwriting.

We recommend Churchill. They're our endorsed advertiser for almost 25 years now, and they can do manual underwriting. But a lot of mortgage companies are stupid. The only way they know how to make a loan is a FICO score. They just look at one number, and based on that number, they make you the loan. Now, that's stupid. They don't really have to think, in other words. A monkey could make that loan.

Woo-hoo, right? And you just make the loan, right? That's all you've got to do. And so these loans, you actually have to look, see if people have jobs and have a down payment. We actually do real underwriting on the loans. It's called a manual underwriting process. And you can get a loan that way with zero credit score.

But the truth is, Michael, it's a little bit, it's up to FICO. When do they drop it out? And you can't have anybody reporting anything to your bureau. If you do, it'll drag along and, you know, you'll end up with a 500 credit score or something with one person reporting or something, and it gets all screwed up and tangled up. So you got to make sure everything is zeroed out and closed and verify that. Be anal about it. I mean, jump all over it. Make sure, check the credit bureau, make sure nothing's popping up, all this stuff stuff and then somewhere around most most credit

bureau rhythms uh fico rhythms seem to be on a quarterly basis so one to two quarters three to six months we usually see them catch on but there's no activity on the account and they can no longer calculate a credit score indeterminable which makes you have a zero credit score and again that's what i've had for oh well over 20 years i just don't borrow money i don't have any accounts at all in my name mickey is with us in chicago illinois hi mickey how are you i'm better than i deserve thanks and you better than i deserve, thanks, and you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Yay. So I am calling because I am 23 years old.

I'm financially stable and out of my parents' house. But my parents have continued to pay my cell phone and car insurance bills because I'm on the family plans or whatever. And I've tried to talk them into letting me start taking over that responsibility because I'm financially stable and everything, but they want to keep on helping me out. And so I was wondering what you thought about how hard I should try to convince them to let me take those over. I don't think it matters.

I think it's a nice gift that they're giving you. It's not causing you to be entitled. It's not causing you to be a brat. You're financially stable. You're a very mature 23-year-old out here doing your own thing. Congratulations, you're out of the nest. And they're giving you a nice little gift, and I wouldn't worry about it. If I thought it was the other way around, I'd put the burden on you.

If I thought you were being a little participation trophy chick, I'd get all over you, right? But you're not that girl. You're the girl that gets stuff done, right? I guess so, yeah. That's what it sounds like to me. I mean, you told me three times early in the conversation, you're financially stable.

A lot of people don't do that, right? I know a lot of 53-year-olds that can't say that. So what's your income? It's about $33,000 a year. Good for you. What do you do for a living? I'm actually a science graduate student, so I get a stipend for that. Oh, okay. All right. So you're doing your graduate work, and they're supporting you a little bit while you're continuing your education by covering your insurance and your cell phone i don't think that's a problem at all now if you're 44 and you call me back i think you probably should have gotten off their plan by then but right now you're a 23 year old grad student who's doing a great job managing their money you're personally responsible and

mature emotionally and i don't think this is crippling your relationship with them or your ability to uh emotionally mature yourself i think you're doing great i personally just leave it emotionally, and I don't think this is crippling your relationship with them or your ability to emotionally mature yourself. I think you're doing great. I personally just leave it alone and not worry about it. But again, you look up in five years or something and you're on your own, you're married, yeah, you need to get off their plan. That's a good plan.

That's a good way of doing it. Thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Julie's with us in Youngstown, Ohio. Hi, Julie. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm good.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I just discovered you a few months ago, and thankfully we didn't have any debt. So coming in at steps four and five right now. But we haven't actually set up those accounts yet. We're planning to move this year. So I didn't know if I should just go ahead and open up those investments,

or should I wait and pile up some money for the move and then open them up once we get settled? That wouldn't hurt anything to pile up some money for the move. One year delay. How old are you? 37. Okay. And what's your household income? My husband owns, he's a partner in a business, but we take home 65,

and I am home with our one- and three-year-old right now, but I am just going to go back a little bit here and there, so I'll be contributing a little. He's partners in a business, and you're going to move? No, we're just moving houses. Oh, in town. Yes, in town. Yeah, we've grown out of this home, so we are going to buy his family home.

And I just didn't know. I know we're going to probably need money to maybe fix up this house. We're going to be using the equity we have in our home. Yeah, I think you're probably going to need some cash for this transitionary time between your house and the other house you're moving into and put down as big a down payment as you can. Yeah, I'm going to take one year and throw it at houses. Okay.

So that you end up with as little debt on the new house as possible, the family home, when you get into it. And you put that on a 15-year fixed, no more. That's the plan, yep. And it shouldn't be any more than a fourth of your take-home pay when you do that. And then that's an okay move. And then when you get settled in, you unpack the boxes, dust settles a little bit, then let's make sure we get baby steps four, five, six going.

Four is 15% of your income into retirement. Five is kids' college. And six is pay off that house early then. So you're setting yourself up to do all of that. The good news is you're actually thinking about it. You're doing it on purpose, not wandering through life wondering what hit you. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Tyler and Jensina are with us. Hi, guys. How are you?

Hey, great. How are you? Welcome, welcome. Where do you all live? We live in Roanoke, Virginia. And all the way to Nashville to do a debt-free scream? That's right. Love it. How much have you paid off? We paid off $199,500. Whoa!

And how long did this take? 36 months. Wow. What do you guys do for a living? I am a podiatrist, so I finished residency last year, and now I'm doing a one-year fellowship in Virginia. Ah, very cool. And I'm a chemist. Very cool.

So what's your household income? We started at around $89,000, and now we're up to $150,000. Way to go. Way to go. So you did this while you're working your way through then. That's right. Residency. And was this med school loans then?

Yeah. So it was four years of podiatry school, and I borrowed $160,000. And then after the loan capitalized six months after I graduated, it was $180,000. And by the time we paid it off, it was about $200,000. And then after the loan capitalized six months after I graduated, it was $180,000. And by the time we paid it off, it was about $200,000. Man. Wow. You guys got after it. I mean, you really leaned in. So how long have you two been married? Six years. Okay. And three of that has been cracking the whip on this debt, huh? Oh, yeah. We tried to keep our expenses low starting off, but even so, with medical school, it gets pretty expensive fast.

Yeah, really fast, really fast. So what made you decide to get this intense and this focus 36 months ago? How did this story unfold? Well, after I graduated, we calculated that it would be about $30 a day that our loans grew just from the interest. And so it was tempting to wait until I had that big first job as a doctor. But we decided that we were in debt and we borrowed all of this money. And so even though we were working hard on call and we felt like we maybe deserved to have a lot of nice things and to live large,

we were in so much debt that we set our own standard and we made a goal and we lived very below our means to make that debt go away. What made you decide to do that? I mean, were you raised this way? Yeah, both of our parents are all about Dave Ramsey, so we've kind of grown up on it. But sometimes when you get to medical school, you get stuck with a big bill. Gotcha. Okay. So you're a financial school, you get stuck with the big bill. Gotcha. Okay.

So you're a Financial Peace baby, so you knew what to do. Yeah. My mom actually offered to give me $100 if I completed the Financial Peace University DVD set before the summer ended. And I finished about 70% before the summer ended, and so I never ended up getting the $100. She's hardcore. That's right. You didn't play through man that's it yeah i love it well done well this is impressive way to go so now you're set you got

the incomes starting to climb everything's happening everything's in line and no debt well it wasn't an easy process um as a resident we're working a lot and then it's also difficult to do any moonlighting so jensina did a lot of the heavy lifting during my residency yeah so i um worked full-time as chemist but getting up at 4 30 working 10 hour day till six then i'd go tutor students so three to six days a week i'd be tutoring students after working hours wow and then after that on the weekends i would do brand ambassador gigs so I'd work for different companies promoting their products or whatever they had going on. And I was a hair model even.

So I tried to find any other job I could get just to make ends meet. And I think that was how we made more income. But then we also really decreased a lot by, well, Tyler can tell you about our students and everything. Well, we tried um host medical students that were rotating through the hospital so we had about 20 months worth of students living in our two-bedroom one-bath apartment and then um i ate a lot of my meals at the hospital uh jensina cut my hair and um i liked to run races so i found a company that would sponsor me to run races while juggling. And we really just tried to limit our expenses and increase our income. Wow.

You guys went all in. I mean, you went crazy when you decided to do this. You did it, right? That's right. We went for it. So looking back on it, was it all worth it? Yeah, absolutely. Right now, I'm finishing up my fellowship and starting to look for my first full-time job as an attending physician.

And it's given me a lot of confidence because instead of picking the first job or feeling pressure to take a certain job, I can choose what's best for me because we're out of debt and we're in a great position to raise our seven-week-old baby girl. Yeah. And what is her name? Sophie. Sophie comes along seven weeks ago in the middle of this deal, or towards the end of the story, I guess, towards the end of the debt-free story, right? So, well done, you guys. Very well done.

So, I guess both parents were cheering you on, right? That's right. We had a lot of support from our friends. You know, we would really, really limit our expenses. Sometimes we'd walk to the airport with our luggage. And so we got made fun of a little bit from some of the folks I work with. But we, you know, we had a lot of fun. And ultimately, just by being creative, we were able to do a lot of the things that we wanted to do.

We just found a different way to do it. So when we went to a wedding or a big conference, sometimes we'd go camping or stay in a hostel and still do all the stuff we wanted to do, but on our strict budget. But you were just weird. You were just completely weird. I love it.

That is so well done. Very well done. So obviously cutting expenses, increasing your income. Any other tips for getting people out of that? I think just being content with what you have. I think sometimes it's easy to justify your needs and wants and getting those mixed up. But I think just getting them on the right track and being content really can help that too. And then avoiding the lifestyle creep and realizing that you need to work hard and get out of debt right now

and not just wait until you have a larger income. Yeah, it occurs to me that you've put a series of habits, character traits in place that you'll probably never look away from. I mean, you can make a half million dollars a year between the two of you. It's possible later in life. And you'll probably always be looking back on these days that there's some stuff that's set in place in your life agreed absolutely yeah and we'll be living below our means no matter what we make and hopefully we can be generous and really give a lot back and we're looking forward to the life on the other side of being in debt yeah well you live like

no one else later you get to live and give like no one else well well done you two we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you retire inspired and of course that's the next chapter in your story for you to be completely uh not only debt free but now become millionaires and outrageously generous along the way now since sophie is so young are you gonna leave her over to the side or do you want her in the picture when you do your scream? It sounds like she's already screaming. It's okay with me either way. Whatever you want to do. You have to pry her away from Janelle, I guess.

Oh, she's precious. How fun. Very cool. We'll try not to scare a seven-week-old. There we go. Ready to scream debt-free, kiddo. I love it. All right, Tyler and Sophie and Jensen, well done, you guys. Very well done. $200,000 paid off in 36 months, making $89,000 to $150,000.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're dead free. Wow. What a great story. What a great story. I love it.

Man, they did everything. They didn't leave any, I mean, man, everything but plasma. I mean, it's just unbelievable. Wow. Well done. plasma it's just unbelievable wow well done open phones at 888-825-5225 justin is on facebook dave i hear you talk a lot about rice and beans is that just an expression well you know it depends on what part of the country you're from you know i'm hillbilly i grew up it was white beans and cornbread right that's what you eat what. It's broke people food, dude. What are you going to eat while you're broke and getting out of debt?

So it's sort of an expression, but, you know, a lot of our listeners are in Texas. It's not really an expression there. It's what you do. You live on rice and beans, beans and rice. I heard people in Texas say that for a long time and from Southwest, anywhere else. I mean, I've heard it said, and that's where I picked it up. Somebody said it on the air one day and i'm like okay it means we're gonna put our lifestyle on scorched earth so we can get out of that we're not going out to eat and we're certainly not

eating filet mignon from whole paycheck not going over there and picking it up you know so it's a different thing it's a different that's what we call whole foods at our house whole paycheck it'll take your whole paycheck but anyway yeah yeah it is both literal and an expression so there's your answer this is the Dave Ramsey show Thank you. Holly is in Minneapolis. Holly, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Hi, what's up?

Well, thank you for taking my call. I'm sorry, say again. well, thank you for taking my call. I'm sorry, say again. I said thank you for taking my call. Sure. Can you speak directly into your phone, please? Sure, I'm trying. Is that better? There we go.

How can I help? Well, I've been listening to your show for a couple months and listening to even some of your other Ramsey Solution personalities podcasts and reading their books and just really trying to get a handle on our finances. Um, so it's, it's kind of a big mess, but my specific question is, um, regarding our home. In your various resources, you've talked about not having anything more than a 15-year mortgage and having that payment be 25% of your income. Correct.

And we have refinanced. We had purchased our home in 2006, Correct. Okay, what's your question, Holly? Well, the question is, should we sell because it's more than a 15-year loan, and our payment is $2,200 a month, including insurance. What is your take-home pay? Property taxes. Anywhere from like $7,800 to $8,500 a month. Well, no, I would not sell your house in that situation if you'd like your house.

The idea of having a house payment on a 15-year fixed is to get the house paid off. The idea of it being no more than a fourth of your take-home pay is to keep you from becoming what's called house poor, where all you do is pay house payments and you have no life because there's no money left over and you can't save for the next car, couch, or vacation, and it ends up putting you into debt. House will drive you into debt if you have too big a payment. Yours is not that far off and it's survivable. And so but the point being that you need to move towards, of course, being debt free and, of course, hitting some of these other goals. And along the way, your income will come up and you start paying extra on your mortgage and pay it on down and start paying it like a 15 at some point. But right now it's not killing you. But I hear people call

in here all the time with, you know, $7,000 take home pay and a $3,500 payment. That's 50%. You can't breathe and do that. That's not where you are. And so the whole point is to leave wiggle room margin in your budget and to be able to make some of these other goals happen for you. That's that's it's not a rule that is just a made up rule. The point is leave room in the math. You don't have much room in your math, but you've got enough room and you can hit some of these other goals and eventually, as your income comes up, begin to pay extra and you'll be fine. Jean is with me in Cincinnati. Hi, Jean.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hey, what's up? Well, thank you for taking my call, first of all. Very, very nice to talk to you. You too. So my husband and I, my husband just turned 65 this year and just got on Medicare. He's not taking Social Security yet. He's a self-employed farmer.

And we have the opportunity, as you know, to put a certain amount into retirement every year. I think it's 6,500 per person. And we're confused about what to do with that. My husband, um, the last few years has put it into a CD IRA. And, um, I'm not sure based on what you said about cds if that's the best avenue to go no it's not about roth no cd a cd only pays about one percent so you're not making any money on your money as a matter of fact you're going backward after inflation and taxes and so you want to

make taxes on a roth ira but um you've got to make more money on your money than that to be able to move ahead. At your age, I would not do Roths. I would do a traditional IRA, and I would put $6,500 each in a traditional IRA each year, and I would go with the mutual funds that I personally have done. I'm a little bit younger than you, but not much. I'm 57, getting ready to be 58. And so, you know, I'm using the same mutual funds that I tell people to use, and so there's no inconsistency around here.

Growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international. And, Gene, if you want to sit down with someone to help you do all of that, we don't have investment people that work for us, but we do have people that we endorse that do things the way we teach and, more importantly, have the heart of a teacher so that you can learn about this and your husband can learn about this and do a much better job than a CD. We call them smartVestor Pros. You are becoming a SmartVestor because you're starting to answer the questions,

a smart investor, starting to ask the questions and get answers to them. Just go to SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com or SmartVestor.com, either one, and you put in your info. It will drop down a list of people in your area that we do recommend and that do have that heart of a teacher. You pick from among those, and the SmartVestor Pro, you can sit down with them, and they'll help you. There's plenty of them in the Cincinnati area.

You can choose and find somebody that connects with you, that you feel good about. But don't do stuff until you understand it. So take the time to meet with someone and learn. Don't put money in stuff until you understand it. So take the time to meet with someone and learn. Don't put money in stuff until you understand it, including mutual funds. Don't do it because Dave Ramsey said to or the people Dave Ramsey sends you to or anybody else for that matter. Never do that.

Josh is with us in Arlington, Virginia. Hi, Josh. How are you? I'm doing well, sir. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So my question is when should I go full time with my business? I'm doing well, sir. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up?

So my question is, when should I go full-time with my business? I currently do sales during the day for a tech startup, and then I run an exterior remodeling company at night. So 9 to 5, I'm doing full-time normal sales, and then during the evenings and weekends, I do sales for my company. Yeah. So what do you make on your daytime job? So it's looking like it's going to be around 90k um what are you making on the remodeling job yes sir so last year uh we i had a net profit as a 50 co-owner 42 000 from may until the end of the year why do you have a partner? We're 50-50 partners. It's pretty standard in the industry.

No, it's not. No, it's not. Nothing standard in the construction industry about partnerships. Yes, sir. I had worked for a couple of companies prior to starting this company and both companies that were successful had a partner for sales

and a partner for the management of the production yeah and some companies have a salesman that is an employee and they and the other guy and the guy owns the company uh and that's what's normative actually um sometimes two guys get together over a beer and start something up and they end up being partners but anyway i'm not a fan of partnerships that's why i ask so the answer to your question is when can you go full time is uh when your income doesn't drop in half yes sir yes so the 42k was made basically in half the year our first sale was may 29th of last year um and we're we've had about four hundred and eight thousand dollars in sales in our in our first 11 months um and it's it's going well we've got about 150 000 in the bank

at this point four hundred eight thousand dollars in profit or in gross in gross what was your net about well our net from just last year which ended up no on year. On the 408, what was your net? Right around 190. Okay. Then you made as much doing this, your half, as you are doing the daytime job, right? Yes, sir. In the last 12 months. Yes, sir.

Okay. Not the calendar year, but the last 12 months. So you're ready. You can quit. I mean, if you can make 90 doing the thing you love and you can leave the daytime job, that's fine. I mean, your income is going to drop a little bit because you've obviously had this $90 times two, but I suspect you can make it on $90. And so you're ready.

I mean, I just want you to pull the boat close enough to the dock that when you jump, you hit the boat, you know. And that means get your income up from the side hustle enough that it doesn't destroy your life when you jump over there. And so, and it's not theory, it's not a dream. But I think you're on track, man. Be careful of partnerships, though. They're dangerous. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, guys. This is Blake Thompson, senior executive producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know over 15 million people listen to The Dave Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen to one of over 600 radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.