The Ramsey Show - App - There Is No Progress Without Pain (Hour 2)

Episode Date: July 11, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman discuss: What to do when you fall out of love with your career, Why Dave keeps working even though he doesn't "have to" work, Cashing out a 401(k) to pay off debt, Handling a pension payout.   Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the 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. This is the Ramsey Show. We help people build wealth, find work and do work that they actually love, and create amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, host of the Ken Coleman Show, is my co-host today. He's also a number one best-selling author and expert in the worlds of career and work. We're here to help you. The phone number is 888-825-5225.

Al and Raleigh starts off this hour. Hey, Al, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? I got Raleigh and Al all tied up there for a second. So I'm beautiful, man. How can I help? All right.

So I'm calling because it's career advice. I got out of the military last year, and since then I've been between a few jobs. I'm currently working as a trucker now, and I'm a full-time college student. I'm going to school online. About halfway through with that, I'm on baby steps four, five, and six.

Thank you for that. And basically, I'm having a lot of self-doubt and kind of falling out of love with my degree program and more in love with my job right now. And I don't know which one I should pursue more heavily. If I should buckle down and keep going, finish up my degree and hope I fall back in love with the program. What's the degree? What's the degree direction? Electrical engineering.

Interesting. And you've fallen in love with trucking, huh? Driving the truck? I have. I'm very fortunate right now to be working a local position, so I don't have to go over the road or nothing. Monday through Friday, you know, reasonable times. See the family on the weekend.

So I'm very fortunate with that. Yeah, so that's a pretty all-inclusive gig in the truck, and you either love that or you hate it. I don't find a lot of guys that are middle ground on that, and I think that's really interesting. I think you have to listen to that. The question I have is if you were to slow down, you're halfway through, I'm assuming you got the GI Bill, so you're not paying out of pocket for the degree correct that's correct and you chose electrical engineering

i'm wondering because maybe you did some of that type of work in the military or no was it just out of left field no no no um so prior to the military um i was on the robotics team in high school i really enjoyed it yeah. But after doing 11 years in the infantry, I kind of, I got tired of being a dumb grunt. I wanted to go back and use my brain, but it feels like things are piling up. And like I said, I'm having some self-doubt on it. What's piling up? There's the answer. What's piling up? Describe what you mean. Well, as the course load gets more and more difficult um i i find myself having difficulty concentrating on the work um but like when i'm on and the days and the days are going well i i get

it and everything clicks and everything moves along but on the days i'm not and there's quite a lot of them um just getting my thoughts together is really, really hard. Okay, so what I want you to focus then is what led you into the electrical engineering degree. And obviously there's something from your past, robotics. You love to work with your head and your hands. You've got that kind of wiring in your brain, but it doesn't mean that this particular path is the best path for you. And so I would not make any decision to walk away from the degree right now, but I would

take 30 days just as a ballpark figure to really dive into what are some fields that I am intrigued by, I am interested in, that would involve that type of engineering brain that wouldn't require the degree and that classwork and that type of engineering brain that wouldn't require the degree and that classwork and that type of work. Because I think there's some silver lining in here in that you've done some robotics in the past, you're intrigued on some days, you're thriving on some days and not on others, and that could be course-related and the type of work. So instead of throwing it all out, I want you to actually dive in a little bit more,

and it's almost an old-school exercise. I've got a pad. Hold on one second, Dave. I've got a pad right here, and I'm going to go to those a little bit more. And it's almost an old school exercise. I got a pad. Hold on one second, Dave. I got a pad right here. And I'm going to go to those classes on the days that I'm struggling. I want to write down what's making me struggle, what's causing me to struggle. And in the days that I'm thriving, why am I thriving? I would dive into that a little bit more over 30 days before deciding to get out of the degree experience.

Absolutely. I completely agree. Hey, Al, when I was in college, I went in this one class, and when I left there the third day, I felt really dumb. It was really hard. Are you struggling with that? Academically, it was straining my brain. No, no. Academically, I mean, I maintain good grades,

but there's just some self-doubt creeping in just because. Yeah, you mentioned dumb grunt earlier. Yeah, just that. And I'm a little bit afraid that this is like your first academic challenge, and I kind of want to encourage you to push through it because I think you got the stuff. Okay. Because I think it's self-doubt. I don't think it's reality.

Am I wrong? No, I don't think you're wrong. Okay. And you may need some, during the 30 days, you may need to set your study habits pattern up better. Because it sounds like your catch-as-catch can. And if you've got something that's deep and that is scratching the back of your brain, like I'm talking about, that's very hard academically. It's, like, thick and weighty and hard to push through i've been in those classes and i don't like them because it pisses me off

when i can't get something quick and um you know if you have to do that the only way to push through that is a study habit pattern that gets you real quiet real centered away from humans no distractions and you push through the concepts and get your head around them. And that's going to take you on through the – if you've got a heavy academic thing, it'll push you through it. Study habits will do it. And the study setting, the setting – if you're trying to do this, like, while you eat dinner at the truck stop, that ain't going to work, man.

Al, I'm curious. Is there a job in your mind that if we offered that to you today, we fast-forwarded all the degree stuff and you got to go do it, if you got something in your mind right now, would you do that over trucking if you didn't have to struggle through all this and all the doubt went away and we just gave you the opportunity to step into it? Yes, 100%. You would 100% take that type of work over trucking? Absolutely. Okay, so there's the answer. My absolutely okay so there's the answer yeah so there's the answer so again yeah the exercise i gave you plus what dave is telling you um you have to identify what's causing the self-doubt and that's the source of this once we get to the

bottom of so fear is i'm afraid something bad is going to happen it's cousin is doubt and doubt is i don't think something good can happen. And that's what you're dealing with. I don't know. I'm two years in. I don't know that I can get through this, that anybody will hire me because I was just a military grunt. I'm just a truck driver.

I think, Dave, that's the source. It's a narrative in Al's head that he's not good enough. That's exactly. That's what I was getting at. Yeah. Yeah. And what I'm hearing is he's not good enough. That's exactly. That's what I was getting at. Yeah. And what I'm hearing is actually you are good enough.

You've actually got the stuff. Because you didn't tell me like there's no way I can do this. You didn't say that. You're like, I can do it. I'm getting the grades. I've just got to get my head around. I've got to get the habits and the rhythm. You know what else you might do? You might visit someone that is actually doing what you want to do someday. Spend time with them. Maybe hang out with them.

Maybe who you're hanging out with is telling you you can't do it. You've got to be careful who you hang out with. I asked you, Al, if we give it to you, would you take it? You said 100%. Then go get it. So go take it. Go get it. Nobody's going to give it to you.

Get them. Get them. I just saw a study that really made me sad. It showed that families owning life insurance in the U.S. was at its lowest point since the 1970s. After what we've been through the past few years, I'm just lost on how people don't make this more of a priority. How are you going to make sure your family needs are met if something happens to you? This is why getting term life is an absolute necessity. Rates have never been cheaper, and the whole process to apply is pretty simple, with many companies not even requiring an exam anymore.

This is why I send you to Zander Insurance, and I have for almost 25 years. They'll make sure you get the right protection at the lowest cost possible, and they're there for you and your family every day. I challenge all of you to make sure your families are protected. It needs to be a top priority. Call Zander at 800-356-4282 or visit zander.com. That's 800-356-4282 or zander.com. Thank you for joining us, America. Every week on our show, we hear from callers who are in the wrong career or not using their talents.

It's happening in the kin career or not using their talents. It's happening in the kin. It is a lot. And so we, as an organization, Dave, a couple years ago, we got together. We have some smart people in this building, like really smart people. We try not to let them on the air, though. Right. And so we said to developers, what if we could help people identify what they do best?

That's their talent, their top passions, that's work they really enjoy doing, and then a sense of mission, meaning what motivates them? What results do you want to put out into the world? And so we put it together. It's called the Get Clear Career Assessment. And it is a wonderful tool that takes about 20 minutes. And in about 20 minutes, you're going to get a very specific report in those three areas. What are your top areas of talent? What are the top areas of passion, work you love to do?

And then what results motivate you? And you talk a lot about motivation. You've always said you can't motivate wet wood. And this is the idea that if you're in work that you're good at, that you love, and that produces results that get you up in the morning, get you fired up, then you've got a great chance of not just making great money but making great impact. So we created the assessment, and tens of thousands of people have taken it.

It's a $30 price point at RamseySolutions.com. Pretty simple. If you do the Get Clear assessment, I can make you one promise. You will be clearer. Yeah, and that leads to confidence. You can make you one promise. You will be clearer. Yeah, and that leads to confidence. You know, and you can make the right decision. Because a lot of people, Earl Nightingale used to say, people spend more time picking out a suit of clothes than they do their career.

Isn't that true? And it's like they fret. And, you know, you're getting ready to buy a piece of electronics. You read all the Consumer Reports data. You do everything else. You do all this deep research to buy a freaking stereo or a TV or whatever. And then you just go, why'd you take that job? My buddies said they were hiring.

Okay, tell me how many times I've heard somebody say, I fell into it. I just fell into it. It was the first thing offered after college. Here I am 38 years later, and I've been miserable the whole time. That's the majority of American workers. Yeah. Yeah, and no reason to be that way. No.

Because here's what happens. Your income and your impact rise together when you're doing what you were created to do. And so that's what the assessment does. It's a great way for those of you that need a bigger shovel. The reality is to make more money to get out of debt faster, you're going to do it by getting promoted or having to pivot, and this will help you. Good stuff. Blinds.com gives us our question of the day.

They have a 100% guarantee. That means if you mess up, and I have, if you mismeasure, and I have, or you pick the wrong color, and I do, they'll remake your window blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Always use the magic word. The promo code is Ramsey. Today's question comes from Tom in Illinois,

and this may be my favorite Blinds.com question of all time. I listen to the show every day, he says. I appreciate how you advise people about money, but I'd like to ask Dave. Given your net worth, Dave, why are you still working? It makes the assumption that I was working for money. That's right. It's true. And I quit working for money a long time ago i make money

and i use it for keeping score because i wonder if i won the game but um am i actually serving because if you serve people they'll give you certificates of appreciation with president's faces on them my friend rabbi lappen says that and so um i like keeping score but uh no i don't you're right i'm not working because of my net worth i'm not working because of that working because of the impact what you said earlier yeah the um i mean honestly let's just let's just be let's just be real okay couple guys i like this okay you ready yeah who wouldn't like a job who for three hours every day people call and ask your opinion about something it's a very good point. Where else would you get that? It's so true.

You don't get that at home. No. You don't. Where else do you get this? Yeah. It's a freaking ego stroke. Yeah. You speak in front of thousands and thousands of people.

You know. Millions here on the air. Yeah. And, you know, people actually ask my opinion, and some of them care about it. And there's the thing. Your name is splashed all over the building. That can't be bad walking in every day. That don't do it.

That don't do it. No, I'm kidding. That gets boring fast. No, I mean, really, it's a great job. Well, it is. And, you know, you talk about this all the time. I mean, when we look at the problems in our culture. I've never run into anybody in 30 years in a restaurant that came up to me and goes,

you know, Ramsey, you got me out of debt. My life sucks. I hate you. Right. That has never been said to me. never been said to me happen i've had people mad at me about other things like you don't need to talk so much about politics you're mean on the radio i hear i hear that kind of stuff yeah but nobody ever said you know you got me out of debt and i hate you it's true it's just never got that in 30 years so um it's fun that's a good everybody loves to give their opinion that's why that whole uh remember jay leno our friend you know they used to go on social media as people their opinion

they'll tell you anything yeah yeah social media is a wreck for that very reason oh yeah gives a bunch of people an opinion that shouldn't have one you know it's just crazy so um that's why you do it i like stirring up a ruckus. Yes. All right. Julie's with us in Atlanta. Hi, Julie. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hello. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? I am currently changing employers, so I'm leaving my current company, and I'm over 55. My husband and I are fairly new to Baby Steps. We're only three months in, so we're in Baby Step number two. It's my understanding that I can cash out the 401K that's with my current employer since I'm 55 or older without penalty other than the taxes that I owe. So I'm wondering if that would be a good idea to put towards our debt snowball,

and then the best way to break up that snowball to have more of an effect. What do you do for a living currently? I'm a physical therapist. Okay. Most, all 401ks are a 59 and a half. I have run into one or two particular occupations that are 55 and i don't think you're one of them i think you might have bad info i don't think you can cash it out to 59 and a half um even if you can i'm going to tell you not to because i have a sense that you have the income to go ahead and clean up your debt now that you've decided to without destroying your retirement to do it how much much is in the 401K? This one is only like $17,000.

Okay. I've changed jobs over the years. My husband's a football coach, so we've moved around. I have a lot of them that I could roll in together, and I just haven't done that. I would get with a SmartVestor Pro and roll them all and get them in one place so that you can manage them in good mutual funds. And then I think you're going to find that this 17 is going to be taxed and penalized. If it is, that means it's going to be like a 30 or 35% hit. Right.

And you wouldn't borrow money at 35% interest to pay off this debt. Right, right. So in that reason, I would roll it over. Yeah, I think it was. Yeah, and I would would roll it over. Yeah, I think it was Clark Howard or something said you could do it at 55, but that, again, it might be bad info. Who did? Who told you that? Clark Howard didn't tell me that.

I mean, I heard on one of his radio shows. Clark, he may have been addressing one of the particular occupations, and there's a few of them, and I'm pretty sure you're not it, okay? It's usually some kind of a special school district thing or uh maybe a railroad person something in those areas it's not a mainline corporate job like you've been having so um you know clark's clark's a friend of mine he's very smart and uh so probably probably who he was addressing at that moment was in that area but but most all of them are 59 1⁄2. So I'm going to tell you to roll it with the others, with the SmartVestor Pro, not into your new 401K, but into mutual funds, into a good rollover IRA, into good mutual funds.

Alex is in Boston. Hey, Alex, what's up? Hey, not much, Dave. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. How can I help? All right, Dave. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. How can I help? All right, excellent. Well, Dave, so I'm on Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6.

I'm holding no debt except for my mortgage. I pay approximately $2,600 per month. I'm contributing 15% to my 401k. I make about $150,000 per year working as an outside sales rep. I drive approximately 30,000 miles a year for work. Now, my employer provides me with a company car. I've had it for about 10 years, a couple cars over 10 years, and I just received word that that benefit will no longer be available come July 30th.

Wow. My question is... No notice, huh? No notice. It came as a shocker to me. Actually, it was this morning. And my question is, I have a large commission check coming at the end of the month. How large?

Give it 21K. Okay. Yeah, that's probably just buy a car with it. That's what you're going to need to do. You don't want to drive too expensive a car because whatever you drive with the miles you put on it, you're destroying its value. You're a road warrior. And so this is a cost of doing business. So they just gave you a pretty

substantial pay cut even if they're giving you a car allowance they're doing this because it's good for them mathematically so pay cash for something that you can wear out and that is reasonably comfortable and reliable but you're going to wear it out and you're going to destroy its value so yeah 20 grand is probably max. This is the Ramsey Personality bestselling author, is my co-host on the stage, the debt-free stage in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions. Wayne and Whitney, join us. Hey guys, how are you? Doing good, Dave. Good to have you guys. How much have you paid off? Go ahead. $350,000. Very cool. How long did that take? We're a little atypical. It took us about four months.

Okay, that works. And your range of income during that time? $230,000. Okay, and what do you guys do for a living? I'm a physician. I'm a stay-at-home mom. Okay. So obviously you didn't make 350 in four months. So how did you do this? What was it? What kind of debt was it? Most of it was student loans, obviously being a physician. And I guess we didn't really know what to do with money. So back when I graduated residency, we had over $600,000 of debt. Most of it was medical school, and I felt a moral obligation to pay it off. And we were slowly chipping away at it, but we didn't have any plan or direction.

And then COVID ended up hitting, and fortunately, you know, I work in an industry where I was able to keep earning a fair amount of money. And then, yeah, it got to a point where I was in a toxic work environment, and I was just living not necessarily paycheck to paycheck because we were investing in real estate at the same time as being a physician. And I was just sick and tired of being sick and tired as you guys always say and uh i didn't want my children to have to deal with the stress that i was bringing home from work so in the fall of last year we found you guys for the first time and at that point we had knocked it down about 350 000 but we realized if we liquidated everything we could pay it off really quickly yeah everything what'd you say yes so i approached him and i said hey i have this idea everything, we could pay it off really quickly. Yeah. Everything. What did you sell?

Yeah. So I approached him and I said, hey, I have this idea. Why don't we go ahead and the market's really good. Well, let's go ahead and sell our house and move to, we had a rental home at the time. And I was like, let's move back to our rental home. And so we looked at when that lease would end and the lease would end actually February of 2022. So it would end in about two would end actually February of 2022. So it would

end in about two months from when I had this idea. So we said, this is perfect timing. Let's go ahead and put our house on the market, sell it and put that towards debt. And then we'll move into our, at the time, our rental home that would become available. So that's what we did. We put our house on the market and we sold it. We had a it. We put it on one night, and the next day we had a contract. We sold it, and we put our net profit towards the student loan debt. Okay. We had that. And the renters, or the buyer, lets you stay for two months?

Well, no. We sold our main home, and so the rental contract was up in February, and we just told our tenant, who was a wonderful agent. Oh, so you were able to move directly in. We just moved directly in. I got the timeline confused. Okay, cool. So what did your house sell for?

The net profit was about $120,000. Uh-huh. Yep. And then we liquidated all of our savings and other investments because we were trying to do the Burr method, trying to really flip homes and things like that. And so the rest came out of savings. We dropped everything down to $1,000 like you were saving, and we liquidated everything except our small home and our retirement that I had. So what was the sale price on your home? $420,000.

Okay. And what is the home you moved into worth? Right on your home? $420,000. Okay. And what is the home you moved into worth? Right now it's worth about $180,000. Okay. So you cut in half value wise, a little more than in half. Yeah. And you liquidated everything in sight. Yes. To be free and get your life back. Oh yeah, definitely. You wouldn't be standing here if this wasn't true, but I assume it was worth it. Oh, totally worth it. Yes, absolutely. Yes.

We are free, and we feel wonderful getting out of debt. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So the Ramsey Method. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, the Ramsey Method. Yeah, we were really financially just in the wilderness, not really knowing what to do and kind of putting money here and there towards loans.

But once we came across the Ramsey Method, we got on board. I'm just joking with you, but that's good. Yeah, four months. I thought we would – honestly, we had talked about our student loans, and we had at one point said, are we ever going to pay off these student loans? We're going to be paying these student loans for life is kind of what we thought. And then we kind of made this – we're like, well, we'll set a goal for 2025. And so that was our goal was to pay off student loans by 2025 but then we came across the you

know ramsey method and started we got on board with each other and here we are in 2022 we were able to pay it off three years earlier than what our goal was still make a quarter million dollars a year but you're on payment in the world except our small mortgage yes the little mortgage yeah yeah and yeah and we're on track to paying off that um mortgage this year this year i'm so proud of you yeah it's got a feel like you lost 300 pounds oh definitely yeah yeah i was coming home stressed and having to deal with everything at covid and everything it was it was bringing home all the angst from work, and it was just not worth it. But the one thing I wanted to mention was realizing that, yes, I could get out of debt quickly once I ran the numbers,

but I had to really humble myself because I had a lot of pride, and I was like, oh, I don't want to give up all these resources that I've accumulated. And realizing I need to humble myself before God, and the fact that you showed us that path was so helpful. that have accumulated and realizing I need to humble myself before God. And the fact that you showed us that path was so helpful. I mean, from a stress perspective, your mind has to be clearer. Your quality of patient care had to go up. I think it did, yes.

I mean, it bothers me a lot that the entire medical community is stressed out. That's a great point. Oh,'s just it's a little bit scary you know some of the most stressed out and debt-laden people are the people that work on our bodies oh my god that scares me oh but yeah i'm so glad you guys are free you have an area of specialty you work in or uh family medicine just general practice yeah that's great wonderful very cool all right so um my gosh for for you guys you know you know not caring what other people think not measuring by other people's yardstick sets you free oh yeah you said this is what we want we want to be free more than we want to own that thing oh yeah definitely it's a trade-off yeah and now you're free and now you get to live

like no one else and you'll be able to do anything with this kind of income long term. You're young. You've still got a lot of time to do this. So very, very cool. Yeah. Quick question, Wayne. When Whitney comes to you and proposes this, I mean, this is the stay-at-home mom with all the kiddos, right? She's going, I want to downsize.

I want to sell this nicer home. We're going to go in this small. I mean, were you immediately like, oh, wow, or were you hanging on a little bit? Were you shocked? What was the reaction? I was definitely hanging on. I mean, I was worried that since she has to be home with the kids, moving to a smaller home, I knew that would be stressful. And so it took me a while to, I guess, to come around.

By a while, a month and a half. Wow. And Whitney, I've got to give you some love. We get calls all the time. People think they've got to have a bigger house with more kids. And you've actually downsized for this journey. And it's absolutely worth the chaos, isn't it? Oh, it is, yes.

It's worth it. And it's not permanent. Hello. Yes, that's right. That's the thing. It's not permanent. But, you know, we no longer have the debt. So that's the big thing.

And so the money that we get now, we're actually able to save or we're able to invest in our kids' future, their college future. And that is so reassuring to us that the money that we're taking in now is no longer going to our student loans, and that's what it was. But now it's going to our bank account or investments or our children. And so that is just so freeing. It is. You have so much.

You now have control of your greatest wealth building tool. Yeah. Which it turned out was not the accumulation of stuff. It was your income. Yes. Very true. And you got rid of that mythology. Way to go, guys.

So proud of you. Very cool. You're a neat young couple. Very, very neat. All right. We've got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you. You're going to be that if you're not already very, very soon. You're on your way. And also a copy of the Total Money Makeover for you to give to someone. Maybe you can start them on this journey. And the Financial Peace University class for a year. A membership for that for one year. If you've not been through it, go through it. If you have, give it to somebody. The brand new videos are

up. It's the best class we've ever done. It's up right now. Thank you guys. Alright, we're going to get the kiddos in for the debt-free scream. One of their names and ages. We have Lachlan. He is five. Logan's three. Liam's one. Soon to be two.

And then Liliana is five weeks. My goodness. Five weeks for a debt-free scream. All right, Whitney and Wayne and the tribe, $350,000 paid off in four months. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free!

They have been practicing. Way to go, guys. On behalf of the little sister. Well done. Well done. Man, that's a beautiful story. This is The Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Ken, that last debt-free scream was incredible. But what was so interesting is that it illustrates how fast you can turn your life around. Sometimes it takes a little time, but how fast the whole process can begin. And 100% of that is between your ears. That's correct. You have to decide. You're not worried about, you know, once he saw something he believed in, once she saw something they believed, this, I would rather have this than where I am.

Then you no longer care what you know whoever's going to say your broke friend from college your broke brother-in-law that votes the wrong way you know you don't really care what they say once you reach that point because you're like you're not giving me any money anyway yeah i want to be free and once they said okay freedom is the trade-off they went for it fast and hard and the contentment came man oh yeah she goes to a house with four little tiny babies oh yeah uh that's half or less the size well you know it speaks to motivation you know they get to that point and you just laid it out beautifully where you decide okay what do i want my desired future to be do i want to be future to be? Do I want

to be free of all this debt, all the stress, the practice, you know, he's running, maybe he's running a practice, get all these things. And then you go, okay, wait a second, on the other side of the sacrifice of getting rid of my really nice home and the really nice neighborhood, downsizing, dealing with the chaos, all of the things, on the other side of this is true contentment and peace. Then you get motivated. You go, okay, I'm willing to sacrifice to put up with that for a season. And you pointed out, it's only for a season. Yeah, but there's a tradeoff.

There's always pain. You know, live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else. Back in the golden age of golf, if you want to call it that um the great gary player was one of the long drivers of the day and uh the old story goes that he was standing there at the uh driving range you know just whipping that ball out there 300 yards 300 yards 320 yards this kind of stuff back when no one did that i mean there was no dechambeau in those days right that's right and um you know a guy came up and said you know i'd give anything to hit a ball like that i guess he caught mr player at a bad moment yeah because he turned around and kind of let into him as the story goes and says no you wouldn't the guy goes yeah i wouldn't he goes oh no you wouldn't you wouldn't go the driving range and hit balls until your hands bleed and then you tape your

hands and then you hit balls for another three hours after that. You wouldn't do that day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year after year, until you had calluses over your hands, until you could swing a club like that. You won't pay that price to win. You'd rather watch me do it, and that's why I'm here. But that's kind of a smart-aleck answer, but it's also accurate. That's right. You can't say I'd give anything to be thin like that uh yeah you would you you can you just give up the pizza yeah you know back away from the soft drinks uh

the bread table the whatever it is it's killing you uh exercise more eat less you know when you're ready to do the trade-off to get the win that's when you'll get the win that's correct there is no progress absent of pain it's just not there's always going to be some pain emotional pain if you want your marriage to get fixed means you have to sit your butt with a counselor and deal with some stuff and dig and yeah you're got to give up some things you've been doing that's causing that yeah there's always pain uh as part of the process to make the progress you want in any area of your life, certainly financially. And we just have to embrace that. It's true in your career.

Oh, my gosh. You're going to have to start out on the lowest rung of the ladder if you're making a pivot. Or if you're coming out of school, you've got to pay your dues. That's painful for some people, right? You know, we did this thing 1,000 years ago. I guess I was in high school, which was a thousand years ago. And I actually think maybe we did it. No, we did it with the early versions of the Ramsey personal finance curriculum.

You would draw. The teacher's guide had a series of jobs with dollar amounts on them. And they would cut them out, and you would draw you the teacher the teacher's guide had a series of jobs with dollar amounts on them and they would cut them out and you draw out of a hat and if you drew a good job you know your budget was going to be a lot bigger if you drew a not so good job your budget was going to be smaller but either way you had you drew and you know what that's just not how it really works is it no not at all no you don't get to draw no you do not doctor yeah you gotta learn and then you gotta earn the school forever oh yeah and you can say doctor right but you're not gonna it just doesn't you don't get to draw it out of a hat you gotta go do it it's true no discipline seems

pleasant at the time but it yields a harvest of righteousness that couple was impressive they were they were you talk about the pain i mean the early days of you starting this company i mean that's painful yeah i'd give anything to heaven you know you're so lucky that one does piss me off exactly luck had nothing to do with it no no unbelievable hard work over and over 30 years in god's blessings that's the only thing you luck had nothing to do with god chose to grow a crop after we chose to plant it correct and those two things work together you work like it all depends on you you pray like it all depends on god and both show up luck had nothing to do with it that's true so don't talk to me about luck and please don't tell me that the democrats built this please

i'll just really get upset then it's a problem um a few of them worked here but you know that's not not that many but a few of them and um a few of them still do they sneak into buildings sometimes i'm kidding i love you democrats i love you he does he probably he does i promise i do i really do tom is with us tom is in green bay wisconsin Tom, what's up? Hi, gentlemen. How are you doing today? Great, man. How can we help? Well, my employer is terminating the pension. Well, they actually stopped the pension in 1996, but now they are freeing their hands of it,

and I need to do something with it by August 5th, and we either have to take a lump sum an annuity or defer payment till later i want to take the lump sum yes you do i want to invest it yes you do i and it's a critical investment for me at this time in my life i'm 57 years old absolutely you do that's exactly what you want to do here's the thing when you die a pension dies with you right okay so how much money is this lump sum 53 000 okay good good you don't want to lose 53 000 upon your death so we're going to roll it you lump sum you can roll it into an ira it'll have no taxes and um 53 000 is not going to make you rich uh and it's not going to make you poor if you lost it all,

but you're not going to do either one. So it's great with this. I hope you do some other things that make you rich. And it's a good start. I'll take it if you send it to me. I'm not mad about it, but it's not $500,000. It's not $5,000, right? So what I would do is I would sit down with one of our SmartVestor pros, people we recommend.

We're not in the investment business, if you didn't know, Tom. We just have a group of brokers out there, a group of financial guys and gals that we endorse that we have vetted. And you can choose from among them by clicking SmartVestor at Ramsey Solutions. And here's the thing. You're feeling the weight of this decision. Anytime we have a decision that has a lot of weight to it, the way to get comfortable with it is study, knowledge, and sit down with that smart investor pro and tell them, I'm worried about this, and the only way my worry is going to go away is the more I know. So you've got to teach me a lot between now and August the 5th. I need to learn a lot. You don't have to get a master's degree in finance 5th i need to learn a lot you don't have to because you don't get a

master's degree in finance but you need to know what a mutual fund is how it works what the track record is i'm going to buy this mutual fund like the one of the first mutual funds i ever bought tom gave me a lot of peace because it was one of the first times i'd ever done it and it was a it's a mutual fund that today is over 80 years old and it's got like a 12.2 percent rate of return over 80 years average that gave me a lot of comfort and out of the 80 years or whatever it is 83 years however old the thing is there's only like i don't know 12 years or something it was down the rest of the time it was up see when you start getting that knowledge then the weight of the decision starts coming off your shoulders and you go okay it's like buying a house in a good neighborhood.

The trees are big. It's predictable. We don't know if this is going to work. We do know this is going to work because it's worked for a long time. And so we're looking at track record and history, and you're studying and learning, and that will remove a lot of the stress. Do not transfer the stress from your shoulders to the other guy and go, well, he picked it out. No, you're going to pick it out.

You're going to learn. You need an investment person with the heart of a teacher. So click SmartVestor Pro, SmartVestor at Ramsey Solutions. You'll find one of the SmartVestor Pros, and you'll be just fine, Tom. Just learn, learn, learn. It'll give you peace. This is the Ramsey Show. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone.

It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.