The Ramsey Show - App - There Are No Magic Beans When It Comes to Your Business (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 21, 2020

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

Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Chris Hogan.

Ramsey Personality is my co-host today on the air. The open phones are for you. The call is free, and some say the advice is worth what you pay for it. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Kayla is with us. Kayla is in Washington. Hi, Kayla. How are you? Hi, Mr. Ramsey. Hi, Mr. Hogan. It's such an honor to speak with both of you. You too. What's up? Well, I'm a stay-at-home mom.

I've got two little boys and one on the way. And I also run my own business. But I want to expand it, and I really want to grow. Eventually, I want to run my own company. So I guess I have a couple, I have two questions. One is how, what are my next steps to expand my business and get it to this point where it's just really, really successful? And then also, I would like to invest in a mentorship that might help me grow. But personally, we're on baby step two. And so I didn't know if that's okay to invest business money back into your business if you're on baby step two. How much are you making on the business?

Last year, I made about $33,000. Profit? About like $29,000 profit. Okay, good. Very good. Okay. So you're making a couple grand a month after it's all said and done, give or take. And what would investing, what portion of the $2,000 a month or $2,500 a month would you put back into the business?

Well, that's the thing. It's a mentorship, and I'm not sure how to gauge how much I'll get out of it. That wasn't what I asked. I asked what you were going to spend out of the $2,500. How much would you spend? Oh, $500 or $700, either one. A month? Less than $1,000. a thousand a month no just one one time okay okay um well out of 29 000 would i spend a thousand dollars on education or 700 on education yeah once i've verified that the education has a value by studying and learning about it.

And don't look for magic beans. There aren't any magic beans. No one has magic. When we sell leadership training and we're Entree Leadership Summit and those kinds of things, we don't have magic beans. You know what Jack found when he got to the top of the beanstalk? Giants. You don't want magic beans. Right.

Right. No, I want to put in the work, and I that it's going to take time and that's why. Yeah, but don't think that some certain mentor or some certain entree leadership event that we teach or something else is going to suddenly make business easy. It's still going to be hard. Yeah. Kayla, what kind of business do you have? It's a photography business. Okay. And so you are the business, correct? Yeah, I own my job. And that's where I like how Dave says I own it. And I want to get bigger. I want it to expand. Well, but you're also growing your family. So you've got two kids. You've got one on the way, right? Yeah.

And so right now, you're the one that is traveling. Are you going doing weddings? Is that your primary source? Yep, weddings and portraits. Okay. The weddings bring in the biggest cash. Okay. And see, you are the bottleneck for that business as well.

So, you know, you've got to look at it and give yourself ample timing. What can you devote? You've got this new baby that's coming. You've got to be very intentional with it, but you are right now the product and the service. And so how much more of your time can you give? And are you charging enough for it as would be one of the first steps I'd walk you through if I were coaching you? Yeah. Let's do this. Let's put you in Christy Wright's Business Boutique Academy and do that for a few months. And that puts Christy right up in your face because she's got her hands deep in that stuff.

And do that before you pay for this mentoring. And I'll just pay for that for you. We'll give it to you. And see if you can get things moving with that. Because I think your bottleneck right now is that you've got a lot of different things on your plate and probably your biggest holdup is not some magic pill for your business. It's that you just have a limited amount of time because you're raising babies. That's right. And that's okay.

There's nothing wrong with that. And you got your priorities straight if you're putting them first. But maybe there's some efficiencies you can gain. And let's see if you can do that for free before you spend on the mentoring. And I'll put you in her Business Boutique Academy, which probably costs how much is your budget, but you're going to spend on that anyway if I didn't give it to you. And it's not even open right now. You can't get in it.

But I know the guy that owns it, so I can get you in. So hold on. I'll have Kelly pick up, and we'll get you signed up for that. Kayla's in. That's it. Kayla's in. We just spoke it. That's it. We said it. I'll have Kelly pick up, and we'll get you signed up for that. Kayla's in. That's it. Kayla's in. We just spoke it. That's it.

We said it. I said it on the air, and that makes it happen. Somebody fix it. It's kind of like those magic beans. It is. Like somebody make it happen. Noah's in Raleigh. Hey, Noah, what's up?

Hey, guys. How's it going? Great. How can we help? Hey, so I'm just curious what my conversation with my financial advisor should sound like. So I don't come off like, hey, I listened to this guy on a podcast and he told me to tell you this. Basically, I have a little over 8,000 in a Roth account and a little less, a little more than that, in a non-retirement account that my dad had helped me set up

with a friend of his from high school. He's a financial advisor. And at the time, I didn't know what was going on, and so I was just curious. I was thinking about taking out the, that's about $8,600 and start paying off my student loans. And so I was wondering how I should approach that conversation, what exactly I should say and what questions I should be prepared to answer. Right. Noah, how old are you?

I'm 23. 23 years old. My goodness, this is fantastic. But here's what I would do. As you talk to this financial advisor, you want to talk with them just like you were having a conversation with anyone else. Talk with them, not at them. And what that means is you're also putting them through the paces. They need to prove to you that you want to hire them on your team. And so I would ask them questions.

I would talk with them about your goals and your dreams. They should totally be asking you about that. But you want to find out, hey, what's their level of customer service? How often do they meet with clients? What's your access point to them if you have questions? And just begin to kind of walk them through the process to find out, is this male or female someone that's going to help me reach my dreams? So maybe I misunderstood. Did I understand that you've already have the financial advisor and you're going to take your money out of your Roth

and you want to know how to ask them to do that? No, not the Roth. In the non-retirement account that I have. Okay. All right. Well, okay, here's the thing. The guy that you're currently with, your dad handed you to, right? Right, yes.

Okay. So there may be a bit of a challenge in that because he may, if it's a guy or gal, they may adopt a parental tone with you. And if I were you, I would gently not tolerate that. You don't have to be a young jerk about it, but you can just say, no, you work for me, and I need you to teach me things, not tell me things. And if he can't do that because you were handed from your dad,

then you may need to get a guy that you hire rather than your dad hires that can have the heart of a teacher and walk with you through that that's good so you're looking for someone and they'll adopt a parental tone with a 50 year old too that's just what they do in that business so stay away from that most people's money problems come from not paying attention that's why before i spend a dime of my money on something i do the research and make sure it's going to live up to what it claims. Recently, I got a great pair of sunglasses from a company called Shady Rays. When you're looking for sunglasses, it feels like your options are limited.

Name brand sunglasses cost too much and the cheap knockoffs are ugly and really don't protect your eyes. Discovering Shady Rays is a game changer. With Shady Rays, you can count on premium sunglasses that protect your eyes and are affordable. They give people the best overall value in sunglasses. They also replace your shades with a brand new pair if you lose or break them from day one of your purchase. And they guarantee your sunglasses for life. Plus, they offer an exclusive for Ramsey Show listeners. Go to ShadyRays.com and use the code RAMSEY for 50% off two or more pairs. That's ShadyRays.com, code RAMSEY. Chris Hogan, my co-host today here on the Dave Ramsey Show.

Adam is next. Adam is in Birmingham. Hi, Adam. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. I wanted to reach out to you.

We are currently using your Foundations and Personal Finding It resource tool with our two children who are high school age. Great. And today in the investment chapter, you were discussing having a diversification of roughly 25% of funding in a mutual fund in small, mid, large cap in international investments. And so I went back and pulled my current 401k stuff for myself to see where I had my money and my options. And I'm noticing that I have the option to do small cap and large cap. I don't have a mid-cap option as defined, and the only thing that I have in the way

of an international option is a world equity fund. So I wanted to get your input and see should I follow that same advice, dividing 25%, and what do I do without a mid-cap option? You probably have an index fund, S&P 500 fund, don't you? I do have that, yeah. Yeah, that's mid-cap. Okay. That's right in the middle, and it's, you know, that's as close to mid.

It's going to perform very similar to mid-cap. It might have a little better diversification than a typical mid-cap inside it, but it'll perform real close. As far as the World Fund, the only difference is it'll have some, versus an international, it'll have some versus an international. It'll have some U.S. in it and mixed in with other countries. And because of that, it will actually outperform a typical international fund because of the four categories that we teach people to use, the international is like behind for about eight years.

So that World Fund, is that a fidelity by chance? This is actually all SEIs who it's three. Okay. All right. Well, I was looking at a World Fund the other day that had just gone zoom, zoom. So, but the, yeah, I'd pick up the World in lieu of, but it's slightly different, and then pick up your 500 in place of your mid-cap, although it's slightly different. But you've still got good diversification across types of funds,

and that's assuming none of those four funds absolutely suck. I'd look at their long track records and see how they've done compared to other funds in that category and compared to some of the trend lines in those categories. And if it's all right there, then you would be just fine doing that. Yeah. Adam, I'm curious, what is your net worth, Adam? I have no idea. I don't even know how to calculate that. To be honest, I just started following y'all's information a couple of years ago. How much is in your 401ks?

Got a total of about 150 in collected 401Ks between my wife and I. Good for you. Well done. You got a really good start. But that's how I would do it. The large cap is sometimes called a growth in income or a blue chip. The mid cap is a growth fund or an S&P 500 falls within that category in general. The small cap is an aggressive growth or an emerging markets fund, is the way those will sound.

And then, of course, the international, sometimes called a foreign fund, and the kissing cousin is a world fund because it has some U.S. in it. Sometimes a world fund is called a global fund. If you just think, what does it mean? It means the whole world versus just the international or it means the whole globe versus just the international and that's the nuanced difference between those and again because it's got some u.s in it it will outperform the typical international so that's cool man good that you're looking into it teaching your kid caused you to get your 401k to go pull it out and look at it. And I think that's really neat.

And you should probably, I would tell your kids you did that, that, hey, I went to go look, and you know what? I'm making sure that I've got things in order. I think that's a great way for these young people to not just hear about it, Dave, but to learn it. Here's the other thing. Let's be real clear. He wasn't even sure the kinds of mutual funds he had. Right. Or when he started looking at it, what the other kinds were.

And he had how much in there? $110. $150. $150. And didn't even know what he was doing. Right. So what that tells us is he was doing some things right, number one. Right.

But what we keep telling people is, well, I don't know about Dave Ramsey. His rates of return, he quotes, and Dave Ramsey doesn't help you get rich. Dave Ramsey's only good for poor people. Well, you're a stupid butt is what you are because here's the thing. We know that the data tells us that 74% of the reason that people build wealth is they actually invest. That's right. And I get more people, you get more people to invest than all these people writing financial blogs in their mother's basement.

Yelling at us about rates of return. Listen, zero of zero. He didn't even know his rate of return. He had no idea. He got $150,000 out of just bothering to invest. Blindly, somewhat. Not picking on him. He's great. invest. Blindly, somewhat. Not picking on him. He's great.

I love him. But that's not arguing about my P.E. ratio. I'm not worried about my expense ratio. I don't know if I agree with Dave Ramsey's analysis of the S&P. Well, kiss my butt. The guy's got $150,000 in there, and you ain't got nothing. You live in your mother's basement. Okay?

That's the thing, man. I mean, seriously. Is this not just ridiculous no it is what we found is that the national association of actuaries that which is the national association of nerds did an in-depth research study that says that 74 of the reason for retirement build building your retirement success in building your retirement is actually investing. They call it savings rate. Now, what do you call savings rate in Baby Step 4? 15% of your income. That's a rate of savings.

This is highly correlated, more than rates of return, more than expense ratios, to ending up with some dadgum money. In your pocket. Yes. For your future. Bottom line is, you know, you can't get caught up in all the silliness, friends. Follow the recipe. Follow the recipe and stay focused. That's what we found.

All this big study of the National Study of Millionaires, studied over 10,000 of them. The number one reason, they said they invested and they used employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs. And you know what? That's the key. Some of them were so steady that they should have changed some of their funds. Yes. And didn't. Some of them were riding a lame horse all the way down to a million six.

You know? But the thing limped. If it had been running a little bit, it would have been 2.2 or 2.3. That's right. But all they did that all these idiots that talk about things in theory don't do is they freaking did it they did it everybody sits around with paralysis of the analysis and says ready aim aim aim aim aim aim shoot something put some money in your mutual funds my god even if you're doing it wrong you're doing it more than the stupid but people are doing

nothing that live in their mother's basement. No, you're right. And so for those of you that are out there, you may be saying, I don't know what I have. Guess what? Pull it out. Go sit down with a smart Vesta Pro. Find out if you've got something limping. If you can make a little tweak and make it run a little bit better, watch what will happen. Yeah, but here's the thing.

There's no shame in your game because you're actually in the freaking game. That's right you actually are doing something yep which is 74 of the reason for success the other 25 is the fine tuning right and understand the investments and doing the stuff which is what he was asking about brilliant but listen you got you got the number of times i talked to a guy he's got 250 000 invested in his 401k and some bozo driving a used toyota who ain't got two nickels to rub together is trying to tell him he didn't know what he was doing. And I'm like, hey, Bubba, check the fruit.

You know? It's a Dr. Phil moment. How's this working for you? So don't be shamed by some intellect within the financial community or some article on the Internet or some bozo writing a blog out of his mother's basement when you got more money than five of those people put together because you've actually even though you aren't doing it perfect you're actually doing it that's

right nothing dies unless you pull the trigger baby ready aim aim aim aim, aim. God, you're killing me. We have tapped into a vein. Mr. Ramsey is awake and is ready to roll. Somebody on Twitter, I know, I know, Dave. They're out there, and they're stupid. No, it just, here's what aggravates me. I don't give a crap whether they like me or not. Right. But they're misleading these other people.

Yeah. And they're all sitting around joining the paralysis of the analysis club. Oh, you're right. They get to analyze everything. That's stealing the future away from a single mom. And that'll get me riled up. Sit around and sit and look at stuff and talk about theory. Flapping gums.

Flapping gums. Do something. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Families all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs, whether they're anticipated or completely unexpected. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas. Jeff and Carice had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy. Shortly after, they had another expensive medical issue come up. They could have faced a huge financial setback.

But thanks to Christian Healthcare Ministries, the Olcheskis were spared from a ton of medical bills. As members of CHM, they're part of a group of believers who financially and spiritually support each other. CHM is the longest-serving health cost-sharing ministry and is a Better Business Bureau-accredited charity. It's Christians helping other Christians, and it shared nearly $97,000 to help the Olcheskis.

To be a part of Christian Healthcare Ministries, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, right on the debt-free stage, Crystal is with us. Hi, Crystal. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm doing great. How are you? Welcome, welcome. Where do you live? I live in Boston, but I am a Southern girl, and I have my parents here with me from Charlotte, North Carolina.

All right. Very cool. Well, welcome to Nashville. I'm here to do your debt-free scream. I am, and very excited to do so. How much have you paid off? $200,000. Whoa! How long did that take? Three years and two months. All right.

And your range of income during that three years and two months? Started at about $115,000 and then wrapped up at $193,000. Whoa. What do you do? I am in HR. I started in-house HR at a biotech company, and then I switched jobs this past December into HR consulting. And it worked. It works.

Ding, ding. You're killing it. You are knocking it down, girl. Well done. Thank you. So 200K in debt was for what? Student loans. Oh! Yes. Where did you go to school? So undergrad was at Georgetown University in DC. And then I got my MBA at Duke.

Oh, you don't choose cheap schools. No, although sometimes I rethink it, but it ended up working itself out. Wow. That's very impressive pedigree there. Very well done. Good for you. Thank you. So your MBA and your undergrad was in HR? So my undergrad was actually finance and international business. Okay. So did investment banking for a little bit, then also did nonprofit before making the switch into HR after getting my MBA.

Why do I have the feeling she could do anything? Yeah, she is a very focused young lady. Crystal, what did you learn throughout this debt attack? You know? I learned a lot. I would say the biggest thing was resilience. And knowing my why and keeping my focus there. There were so many times where it got really difficult having to say no to myself and to my friends and the budgeting process.

That was not fun. So what started you on this journey? So if we flash back to May 2016 when I graduated, I had my job lined up to start off in August. And as you know, they give you that six-month grace period, which I feel like is a sham. But I got the six-month grace period and decided to take it as such, which was not smart. I took the summer off to hang out, vacation, just chill out a bit. And as I got closer to that six months, I realized that I needed to figure out what I was dealing with because I knew I still had undergrad loans in addition to my grad school loans.

So I go through my email and I total up all of the numbers and the balances across private and federal loans and see that it's $200,000. You had never totaled it before? Nope. Freak out. Exactly. So complete freak out. And I'm thinking everything from, okay, how am I going to pay this off? When am I ever going to be able to buy a house? Who's going to date somebody who has $200,000 in debt? Of major concern. Yes. And at some point during that freak out, I actually called my dad.

And he said something to the effect of, you know, you are where you are. All you can do now is make a plan and make it happen. So very practical. Didn't make me feel good, but it was practical. And thankfully, around that same time, my church had announced Financial Peace University. So I enrolled there, and that's how it all got started. Oh, wow. Okay.

Good timing then, huh, guys? Yes, very much. Well done. Yeah, so I met your dad and mom at the break a minute ago, and they seemed like really reasonable people, like smart people and all. So I imagine when your dad heard $200,000, he was staying calm for you, but he probably went, oh my God. So, yes, what's funny is I was, if I'm being very honest, Dave, I was, not only was I freaking out, but I was ashamed because I see myself as someone who typically has a handle on those

type of things. And so I didn't tell him the number. Oh, I didn't tell either my parents the number until I was maybe, you know, maybe $40,000 out of completing it. So you were almost done before you. Yeah, I didn't want to I didn't want to tell them. So I told them that it was a lot, but I didn't. But they didn't know how much it was. A lot is a variable term. Yes. I love it. Oh, look at you. Yeah. you know what that does and you know to your credit sometimes when you look at that and you go how did i do that that sense of shame does come that sense of regret comes sometimes that paralyzes people yes but in to your credit

it caused you to bolt into action action no Not this girl. That's what you said. Yeah. And, you know, you got a freaking finance degree. The irony. Yeah. Well, the irony. Yeah. Me too.

And I went broke following that stuff. Yeah. So, yeah, that's, oh, man, that's amazing. I love the motivation you had to total it up, to just stare it in the face. And I think I would love to hear your advice to people that are out there that are young or maybe not so young that are staring at that student loan debt. We've got $53 trillion in student loan debt impacting 47 million Americans right now. I'm sorry, 1.7 trillion.

1.7 trillion affecting 53. It grew. It grew a lot while you were talking. Crystal, what advice would you give to people out there that find themselves in that first step? It is definitely one step in front of the other. You can't, elephants happen to be my favorite animal. You can't take a whole bite, but it's taking it one step at a time. And just realizing, okay, it happened. And how can you get organized? And not just having a budget, but actually sticking to it.

That was one of the most humbling aspects of it. There was one time where I recall I had figured out a way to get my grocery bill to only $100 a month. And a lot of rice and beans. And so I am in the line and I purposefully, when I went to the grocery store, would not bring my debit card just to prevent myself from spending more. I love to eat and I love to cook. So I'm in line and I remember the cashier ringing up everything and I might have been, I don't know, seven or 10 bucks off. And so there's a line behind me and I have to say, I'm sorry, but can you take those items off? And so that was hard because I know in my bank account there's money, but I was committed. And so to answer your question, Chris, I think it's, you know, one step in front of the other,

having a plan and actually sticking to it because it's so easy to make excuses or just quit midway through. Oh, that's true. A hundred dollars a month in groceries, girl. I am impressed. Okay. Tell me a meal. What were you eating? Ooh. Like, yes. So, um, there was actually a farmer's market that was not too far from where I stayed walking distance. So didn't have to pay, uh, you know, a cab or train wide to get there. And, um, they would have a lot of produce. So I was a vegetarian a lot, uh, a lot of potatoes. And so was a vegetarian a lot, a lot of potatoes, and so I could get like a bushel of stuff for like $10. Yeah. And so I would just meal prep, and that would be it for the week.

That's fantastic. Really good for you too. Yeah. Look at you. Very, very well done. Thank you. I'm proud of you. I know your mom and dad are proud of you.

That was incredible. What an incredible thing. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, the degrees you got from the places you got them are incredible. What's more thing. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, the degrees you got from the places you got them are incredible. What's more incredible is this story. Thank you. That power of resilience, that power of self-discipline, you apply those things.

You can, as smart as you are, you'll be able to do anything you want to do. You are on fire. And you are doing anything you want to do. I mean, you're making a serious bank. Well done. Thank you. Very, very well done. So who were your biggest cheerleaders? Oh, gosh. Definitely not just my parents, but my family

in general. We have a group, a family group chat. And so I would give them milestone updates. Sometimes it would be strategy solutions and all of that good stuff. And I would also say a couple of my really close girlfriends, too, who I traveled a lot with and ate out a lot with, so having to say no to them too sometimes was hard when we wanted to hang out. So I would say those two groups were very helpful and were with me every step of the way. Okay, so you said who's going to go out with somebody with $200,000 in debt? So now you're going out on a date, and he sits down,

and he tells you he's got $200,000 in debt. David got quiet. He's gone. He's gone. So now you're going out on a date, and he sits down, and he tells you he's got $200,000 in debt. David got quiet. He's gone. He's gone. He's out of there. He got so quiet. Wow. Do you have a plan?

That's the first question. Do you have a big income? That's right. That's right. I don't blame you. I love it. That's great. Well done, Crystal. Well done. Thank you. Thank you. We've got a copy of Crystal's book for you don't blame you. I love it. That's great. Well done, Crystal.

Well done. Thank you. We've got a copy of Crystal's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. No question that you will be one before we know it. Thank you. You have completely done everything perfectly. Well done. $200,000 paid off in three years and two months, making $115,000 to $193,000.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I a debt-free scream! 3, 2, 1. I am debt-free! Yeah! Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Congratulations. Yeah! This is how

it's done. Wow. I'm telling you, this is not a generation of victims. No. They've been painted up that way by people that have agendas. This generation's on fire. That's exactly right. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. our scripture of the day romans 12 12 love one another with brotherly affection outdo one another in showing honor william arthur ward said the mediocre teacher tells the good teacher explains

the superior teacher demonstrates the great teacher inspires wow that was a good one that is a good one that's that's wall worthy right there so good stuff excellent excellent excellent john is with us in texas hi John. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hi, Chris. Thank you for taking my call. I'm having trouble hearing you, John. Can you hear me?

Yes, sir. That's a little better. Oh, okay. Well, thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? So I am new to your show and a little bit about me. I'm 28 years old. My wife is too. We have a nine-month-old. I am a student working on my doctorate degree and I have a nine-month-old

daughter. So I have about $300,000 in student loans, $40,000 in personal loans, $26,000 in credit card debt. You're working on what kind of a degree? A doctorate degree. In what? Organizational leadership with a focus in healthcare administration. With a plan to do what? Within five to ten years, hopefully be in an executive leadership position vice president coo or ceo why do you need a phd to do that uh it's it's a little bit more leaning into the

health care administration side so i can get a better aspect of of that realm. Okay. I have about 17,000 remaining on my SUV and my wife and I together have about 116,000 remaining on our mortgage. Right now we bring home a total of about 57,000 together together after taxes. And so last year, my parents advised me to go file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. So I went to an attorney. I've been retained with her since August of last year. However, she's requested that we kind of suspend or we kind of push back the bankruptcy until later this year, like December or early of next year, because she wants to see how the elections turn out and see if maybe with the new party coming in, if she can bankrupt or file Chapter 7 on my student loans. I'm skeptical about that, but it's the only advice I've been given up to this point. So I guess my question to you

guys are... Okay, so what do you file bankruptcy on? Your student loans aren't bankruptable, your mortgage isn't bankruptable if you keep the house. What do you file bankruptcy on, a car? No, the $40,000 in a personal loan and $26,000 in credit card debt. So my question was, should I continue on this path to do this? Should I do it sooner? Or should I even follow chapter seven and follow through with a different set of resources or steps to getting? When do you graduate? In about two and a half years. And you're not, you're not working, but your wife is? We both are working. I work full-time as well as being a full-time student.

Oh, I see. Okay. But your household income is $57,000. Yes. I bring home about $38,000 after taxes, and she brings home $19,000 after taxes. And your undergrad is in what? My undergraduate is in chemistry. Huh.

Okay. Chemistry and then respiratory care. So I'm a respiratory therapist. How are you paying for this Ph.D. for the next two and a half years? So, unfortunately, I had to take out a student loan on top of what I already owe. If you file bankruptcy, you're not doing that. How are you paying for your PhD? I haven't filed yet.

I know. I got that. But if you file bankruptcy, you're not getting a student loan. I was not aware of that yeah i mean so all right uh i'm trying to figure out where to start john you you right now my friend do you feel the weight of this right now i do do you really because you said you just recently found us and so what you're hearing is the wheels turning as we're processing because you've been sold a fake dream if you think bankruptcy is going to fix it. Okay?

Because it costs money. And you've already had this attorney on retainer. And they're telling you we're going to wait for the election to find out if, listen to me, student loans are not bankruptable. Okay, those aren't going anywhere. Yes, sir. And so I want you to start to look at this and feel it and not look for the quick fix, but look for the fix. Here's the problem. That's certainly why I'm trying to find other resources, because that made me so skeptical when she said that.

Yeah, I agree. She was trying to push this back, and so that's why I wanted to find other resources out there, and I found you guys. That's more of a, yeah, I appreciate this. So I've got to figure out a way to get you guys, to get your income moving sooner than two and a half years from now. And that's what's that's what my hold up here is because I'm not trying to. The thing is, the debt is always not the problem. It's always the symptom of what's going on. And when including when I lost everything, went bankrupt 30 years ago.

So I know how scared you guys are. And this is a huge pile up on you guys um and so you have bet the you bet the farm on this phd turning into serious income i did yes i mean with three hundred thousand dollars plus continuing to pile it up so i'm probably going to start talking to health care companies now about working there and letting them finish pay to help you finish the as their continuing ed program pay to help you finish your phd and you go ahead and get your career track started now instead of a 38 000 job you've got a chemistry degree you've got the intellect to step into this you've got a lot of the training to step into this and let's accelerate the ph completion and let someone else pay for that. Get that off of you and then get your income

up to begin to address the 300. While you're doing that, you can address the other stuff. You can file seven if you want to and clean it up, clean up some of that stuff. But you've got to, in good conscience, you can't continue borrowing if you're not going to pay other people you owe from a moral standpoint and you've got to stop and address that as well in this so i can't i can't recommend you uh that you not pay someone in bankruptcy and that while you're on the other hand borrowing money on the other out of the other side of your mouth right and so um that that's just inconsistent from an integrity standpoint for me so um i gotta put a stop to the bleeding meaning we gotta have a way to complete this phd without any more debt um and that that keeps us a from having any more debt, and then, B, it gives us the leeway to say,

okay, can we fight through these other types of debt, or do they need to go into bankruptcy? You guys are just under an amazing amount of stress. And I'll tell you what, Dave. What I'd like to do, Kelly, get his information. I want to get him connected with one of our financial coaches. Yeah, you guys are going to have to have somebody walk with you. Sit down and unpack this. And we'll pay for it. Yeah, and the first session. Instead of you filing bankruptcy, let's have him sit down with one of the coaches. Yeah. You guys are going to have somebody sit down and unpack this. We'll pay for it. Yeah.

And the first session instead of you filing bankruptcy, let's have him sit down. Absolutely. That's a good idea. Absolutely. Because we got to find out, Dave, with this doctorate program, this could be the kind that you got to go to school for three years and then spend two years writing your doctoral dissertation. Well, he said he could have it completed. Oh, well but the the thing is you're so far into this i can't pull you back but um the bet that you've made is untenable a three hundred thousand dollar bet on the phd causing you to have a degree in executive health care is that's an untenable bet um is it a reasonable thing to get a phd sure sure you You've done it in such an unreasonable way. It's put you under all this stress.

I'm so sorry. I know you're scared. So what we can do is walk with you, and we'll just pay for it. Don't file bankruptcy. Let's see if we can help you get this turned. But you're going to have to attack this from multiple fronts, not merely getting rid of the credit card debt and the personal loan, just getting rid of that, you've still got all the other mess.

Yeah. And it's still getting worse if you don't make that better. And that's what's scaring me here for you, brother. You hang on. Kelly will pick up, and we'll pay for your counseling. We'll help you get some help. We'll get you some help. Chris, good job.

Thank you, sir. That was a good suggestion. Good suggestion. That puts us out of the day. Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you, sir. That was a good suggestion. Good suggestion. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. 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, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show.

If you would like to do your debt-free screen live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.