The Ramsey Show - App - Think of the Budget Like a Contract With Your Spouse (Hour 2)

Episode Date: November 25, 2019

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Starting point is 00:00:00 🎵 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 am Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Gary in California starts us off this hour. Hey, Gary. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:00:53 Hi, Dave. I've just come to know you in the last year or so, and it's got to the point that I listen to your show so much that it's almost like a pacifier, a soother, when that music comes on. Well, thank you, sir. Thank you. All right, so my question is, how do I prepare for the future, given my situation? And here it is in a nutshell.
Starting point is 00:01:20 I started to listen to you on KSFO about a year ago. I realized I wasn't prepared for retirement. And so I went on your site and got a coach, Cynthia Johnson, who's excellent. And she got me on every dollar, the Financial Peace University, got baby steps. And I've now got three months of an emergency fund. And I only have my mortgage to pay off. Great. Yeah, it's pretty good. Problem is I'm 60 and I've never
Starting point is 00:01:48 lived large, but never really saved either. And when I got my mortgage, it was at the time in California. I know math doesn't change, but you know, the price is here. It was 40% of my take home and now it's 30%. And I just, I spent my retirement, what I'd saved up about a hundred thousand bucks to take a year off work because of a horrible work environment. And I just kind of fell apart. And I've been talking to Ken Coleman about a new career direction, but my situation immediately is my boss, I'm a teacher, my principal said that she wants to get rid of my courses, the courses I teach, which are computer courses. And she wants to drop me down to maybe 60 or 80% of my current job or maybe even lower. And so I've been thinking I need a second job. I mean, not just DoorDash or anything, but a second full-time job if I drop down to 60%
Starting point is 00:02:49 because I won't be able to make it otherwise. Or maybe a new full-time job. Yes, and I'm working very hard to try to find one. I didn't find one in my year off, but I'm trying again. So I guess my question is, any thoughts on how to prepare? There's the immediate situation of saving money to last maybe to the end of next year, whether at least six months of a drop in pay. But then I need something not only to survive but to save up for my retirement. I need some serious action here on my part, and I'm just really not sure what to do.
Starting point is 00:03:33 Yeah. So what do you make now? $100,000. I could make $6,000 after tax. And you teach computer. Yeah, computer applications. I do one little course on coding, but that's not my forte by any stretch. Okay. To what, high school students?
Starting point is 00:03:51 Middle school. Middle school students. Yeah, I used to teach business courses to high school, but people around here aren't really into business courses. Okay. Well, I think the overall answer you already know, and that is that you just need a new job. And so you take these skills like Ken Coleman would tell you,
Starting point is 00:04:20 and you start trying to figure out what you can do to make $100,000 because I think you've got a marketable skill at $100,000. Just the particular school you're in is not going to keep you. And I'm not going to sit there and wait on my income to drop from 100 to 60. I'm going to leave. So when is this drop supposed to occur? The end of this year for the beginning of this calendar year, the next of not this calendar the next school year beginning of next school year oh so you know you have 10 months to figure this out uh till may yeah may plus uh the summer yeah yeah and so i want to i want to get a jump on it because i don't want to wait
Starting point is 00:04:57 till last minute yeah so i i mean i don't think there's a a part-time gig is your answer i think you need a new full-time gig because the one you're having is going away, basically. And so you say, I got a 10-month notice of being laid off is the way I would look at it. And so I'm going to take Ken Coleman's materials, Ken Coleman's book, Proximity Principle, and I'm going to go absolutely bananas. I'm going to go crazy looking for and landing a job making 120 so that
Starting point is 00:05:30 this ends up, this experience ends up being a blessing. And then you never skip a beat financially if you do that. You never skip a beat on getting out of debt or on your house payment or anything else. Instead of sitting and saying, well, looks like it's going to storm. Looks like I'm going to get wet. I wonder if I ought to get an umbrella. Looks like it's going to storm. I wonder if I'm going to get wet. Maybe I ought to get an umbrella.
Starting point is 00:05:54 No, not get it. Like you said, gear it up and let's go land something. I really think that's your option. And I think there's lots of options for you. And I think Ken's materials will lead you right through that. Randy is with us in Utah. Hi,andy welcome to the dave ramsey show hey dave great to talk to you you too what's up i got a couple questions regarding a small business loan and just kind of our general plan and what steps to put it in. Quick back story. So my wife and I have been operating a family business for almost 10 years,
Starting point is 00:06:28 and then exactly a year ago we took out a business loan to buy out our in-laws for $400,000. So starting 2019, we're the sole owners of the business. So that's the bad news. The good news is it drastically increased our income. What is your income going to be? It's going to be about $350,000. Cool.
Starting point is 00:06:53 What were you making before? About $120,000. Okay, cool. So you're going to pay it off in two years? Yes, I think so. Yeah? Well, I mean, $200,000 and $200,000 is $400,000. Right. yes i think so yeah well i mean 200 and 200 is 400 right my question you plan on spending this money
Starting point is 00:07:11 no okay good we've already we've already paid off about 120 this year okay great making 120 you paid off 120 well we started making the 350 this year oh okay all right good well i mean if you had an increase of two hundred thousand dollars and you're already making 120 you should have applied all of that to the debt shouldn't you right okay well we had some personal debt that we cleaned up first off right away okay about 60 there okay good and then we started working on the loan but we're just kind of trying to get idea on how the business what it makes and when it makes it i was wondering about whether or not if that's maybe step two
Starting point is 00:07:56 we just solely focus on the loan or should we start retirement as well we're coming now i wouldn't i worry about retirement do you get this mess cleaned up. Okay. We do not know what three years from now holds. We think we do. We're forecasting. We're planning. We're projecting.
Starting point is 00:08:19 But we do not know what three years from now holds, nearly as much as we know what next year holds. And so I'm going to clean this up as soon as possible, and then you've got this fabulous income to build wealth with after that. But I'm going to get you out of debt as soon as I possibly can. So, hey, thanks for the call. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. If you're going to join this team, we want someone who cares and has a passion about what we do. That's why we trust LinkedIn Jobs. They are the best at matching the right person with the right job.
Starting point is 00:09:06 We don't want someone just looking for a 9 to 5. We want thoroughbreds. One of the things that distinguishes a world-class thoroughbred in racing is the size of their heart. A true thoroughbred in the workplace is someone with a heart that is going to be staying and growing with our company. You can't get a more highly targeted field of thoroughbreds than LinkedIn jobs. They literally screen candidates for both those hard and soft skills that you're looking for, so you can hire the right person. LinkedIn makes sure your post gets seen by the people you want to hire.
Starting point is 00:09:39 It's no wonder someone gets hired every eight seconds with LinkedIn. Get started today. Pay what you want and get $50 off your first job post. Visit linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. Thanks for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We're glad you are here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Every single day here at Ramsey, our team members do work that leads to real life change for real people that have real lives and real problems.
Starting point is 00:10:52 Our team is really sharp, and they care deeply about this mission. So we're looking for people like that, sharp people who care about this mission, not someone that's looking for a job. We hired about 250 folks last year. We'll hire about 275 this year, And we are growing, to say the least. Right now we're looking for experienced web designers, creative directors, UX designers, senior Ruby people. We are looking for just about any kind of sales positions, admin positions. Check it out at DaveRamsey.com.
Starting point is 00:11:23 Click on the Dave's H hiring tab on the right hand side it'll put a full list out there of all the different things we're hiring for so click on Dave's hiring at the right hand side of the home page we have won best place to work in Nashville 11 times because we're the best place to work that That's why. So come check us out. But don't come if you're just looking to collect a check, because the folks here, we go, baby. We go. It's game on here.
Starting point is 00:11:55 We're playing for the Super Bowl. We're not showing up to collect a check and wander home on how late can I come, how early can I go home. We are game on. Now, we go home on time. We don't stay around here all night. We don't work 80 hours. The place is empty at 5 o'clock, 530 for sure.
Starting point is 00:12:13 They're in the soul in here. Got a young team. They go home and be with their babies and that kind of stuff. But when we're here, it's game on. Nobody fooling around around here. All right. Chris is with us in Arkansas. Hey, Chris, game on. Nobody fooling around around here. All right. Chris is with us in Arkansas. Hey, Chris, how are you?
Starting point is 00:12:29 Good, sir. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Well, I was calling. I just currently heard about you about three months ago and started listening to you. We actually started in the Financial Peace University, my wife and I, last week. Oh, cool.
Starting point is 00:12:48 And so we put everything in. We've got our $1,000. We've got Baby Step 1 cleared out. Good. You're making progress quick. Yeah, we started our baby step, too. We've got $11,000 in back taxes that we owe that the IRS audited us from 2017 and didn't accept some of the write-offs, and so they come back on us. We're in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy from 2017,
Starting point is 00:13:21 and we've got a RV that we bought a couple a couple months ago and we're trying to figure out which way to pay i know the uh irs needs to pay off first but i'm trying to figure out how to pay off the other two as far as going the irs the irs the chapter 13 and the rv yes sir okay and so And the RV? Yes, sir. Okay. And so what do you owe on the RV? The RV is $59,000. I work in the oil field. We live in that RV. It's our house, basically, is what it is. What were you living in before you bought it?
Starting point is 00:14:00 We had an old RV that we had bought two years ago, and the floor fell through on us about a month ago. It just completely fell out of it. So we ended up upgrading the RV is what we've done. Yeah, you did. $59,000 upgrade. Yes, sir. I did put it into your system.
Starting point is 00:14:22 It's showing that we can still pay everything off in two years. I'm just trying to figure out. What is your household income? A little over $100,000. Okay. And what do you owe on the Chapter 13 bankruptcy total? $53,000. $53,000 was the last I checked.
Starting point is 00:14:38 Okay. But that included the $27,000 worth of student loans also. Yeah. That was included in that bankruptcy. They included the $27,000 worth of student loans also. Yeah. That was included in that bankruptcy. Yeah, and they pay 100%, and you're paying a smaller percentage on some of the other items, correct? Yes. It's a five-year plan from 2017 to 2023, or 2022.
Starting point is 00:15:01 Yes. Okay. All right. Well, I always, if reasonable, if it's not completely out of school, I pay the IRS first because they have very high fees, very high interest and unlimited power to screw up your life. Right. So I want to pay them as soon as possible. So how much with a hundred thousand dollar income how much debt are you going to reduce a month quite a bit how much quite a bit how much i'm looking at about five thousand dollars going out a month in bills that i'm going to be paying off all right so that's like two months and some change the irs is gone yeah they'll be gone in february the end of february
Starting point is 00:15:45 that's not two months that's four february well the end of february all of january all of february all of december and where i'm sitting oh i guess there's not that much left i'm lost okay so there's three months i'm sorry instead of two yeah okay um that's not that much left. I'm lost. Okay, so there's three months. I'm sorry, instead of two. Yeah. Okay. That's not $5,000 a month. So, all right, you've got to get your math straight, but IRS is first. The RV is second.
Starting point is 00:16:16 Bankruptcy is last. And don't prepay the bankruptcy without arranging it with the Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee. You probably don't need your lawyer most of the chapter 13 trustees or i've worked with them for years most of them have run a very good office a very tight ship and they are very consumer oriented and they if you'll call their office and ask for some help on how you can pay this early they'll help you set that up and you won't even have to go through your old attorney. Okay. Okay. But that's the order I would attack it. And, uh, so you've got $120,000 worth of debt making a hundred. So you're going to be, you're going to be shoveling for a while,
Starting point is 00:16:59 but you'll get there, you'll get there and you've got a plan now and you're, you're dialed in. I can hear it in your voice and the way you're talking about this. So, I mean, if you start talking about $60,000 a year, you'll be done in about two and a half years if you stay on that track. And that's what you said was $5,000 a month. That's $60,000 a year. Doesn't get you to February. It gets you a little over January.
Starting point is 00:17:21 But anyway, on the IRS. But you do want those people out of your life, and you do to get on a tight budget. Beans and rice, rice and beans. And don't buy anything else on debt. That's over. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Zach is with us in North Carolina.
Starting point is 00:17:40 Hey, Zach, how are you? I'm doing pretty good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, so I'll try to keep this as short as possible. Just feel free to ask questions if you need to fill any blanks. So around January, my wife and I moved to North Carolina
Starting point is 00:17:57 to live with her best friend or her best friend's fiance. We lived in a really crappy city in Colorado. We needed to get out and start somewhere new because it just wasn't a good place to live. It wasn't panning out. Now, up until May, I worked as an over-the-road truck driver. Up until May, I worked for a decent carrier. I was with them for two and a half years, nothing against them, but they had some freight problems. I wasn't making any money, so May, I switched to a different carrier.
Starting point is 00:18:26 Drove for them for about two months, but they waited two months into my employment to do a background check, and they found a couple of things that they didn't like on my driving record. They're very minor boo-boos, but they got mad at me for not putting them on my application, even though I explained and apologized for the fact that I didn't know they were supposed to be on the application and they fired me. And that cut my income significantly because thanks to the fact that they fired me, I got stuck at a really crappy carrier that doesn't make very much money.
Starting point is 00:18:59 And I'm trying to rack up. The reason I switched to that carrier, I was trying to rack up the reason i switched to that carrier i was trying to rack up some cash and pay off some debt and try to get the money needed to go to power line school i want to learn how to work on power lines and get out of this industry because if i get a job that's closer to home we have a chance of bringing my stepdaughter home all right i'll tell you what hold on we'll come back from this break and we'll try to hear the rest of your story. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. folks let's cut through the bull interest rates are exceptionally low so you're missing out if you have not called churchill mortgage to see if you can save money on your home loan lots of other companies are out there claiming great deals but don't get lured by slick advertisements. No-cost refinance offers do not mean they're free. Churchill Mortgage has a no-bull refinance. This means there are no hidden fees.
Starting point is 00:20:13 They will shoot straight with you. Yes, Churchill can offer loans with no closing costs, different down payment options, or, of course, a traditional refinance. The key difference is you can trust my friends at Churchill to let you know what you're getting up front so you can make the smartest choice and save the most money. Go to ChurchillMortgage.com. Do it today while rates are low. This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Ray and Amber are with us. Hey, guys. How are you?
Starting point is 00:21:15 Hey, Dave. Hi, good. How are you? Welcome, welcome. Where do you live? Chicago. Oh, cool. Welcome to Nashville.
Starting point is 00:21:21 And here to do a debt-free screen. Yes. How much have you paid off? We've paid off? We've paid off $220,000. How long did this take? Three years. Good for you.
Starting point is 00:21:33 And your range of income during that time? We started at $100,000 and most recently $160,000 we ended up. Cool. What do you guys do for a living? I am a product owner in the financial services industry. And I'm a fourth grade teacher. Awesome nuts. Very cool.
Starting point is 00:21:48 How long have you guys been married? Three years. Ah, so that starts this whole process, huh? Yes. So what kind of debt was the $220,000? So $200,000 of that was student loans, $23,000 in a car. And during that time, we also cash flowed $18,000 of grad school. So you, $200,000, what are your degrees in? So I will take more responsibility for that. I have two master's degrees,
Starting point is 00:22:18 one in information systems and an MBA. Oh, okay. All right. And that took up a lot of that student loan debt then? Yeah. We went to expensive private schools. So I have a master's degree and Amber has a bachelor's degree. So we're highly educated. Now a master's. Yes. Now a master's. Now a master's. Highly educated, but we had a lot of debts. Yeah. Okay. Wow. Wow. So you decide to get married. How old are you? 25. Both of us. Wow. You got married at 22. Yep. Straight out of school, I guess.
Starting point is 00:22:51 Yep. And start the new jobs. And this mountain is sitting in front of you. How overwhelming and scary was that mountain when you looked at it in those days? So I would say when we got married uh first few months was the honeymoon phase um we're moving in together like everything's awesome um and then i'm calculating how much debt we're in and looking at my spreadsheet i'm like this is crazy so it was he like holding his chest like yeah i'm going out here i'm going out definitely he I'm going out. Definitely. He was scared. Yeah. So I'm looking for a quick fix. Found out it doesn't exist. Right.
Starting point is 00:23:28 So asking friends on any advice that they have. Friends of ours borrowed us Financial Peace University on audio. We listened to that in about a week and then jumped into the podcast. And from there, we applied the principles and never looked back. Wow. And we coordinated two Financial Peace University classes as well. Wow. into the podcast and um from there we applied the principles and never looked back wow and we coordinated two financial peace university classes as well wow so through the time once you got going you really got going then yeah yeah okay all right because i gotta tell you you're 25 years old you pay off 220 000 in debt and all we read about in these news stories are your age group can't get ahead
Starting point is 00:24:05 you're overwhelmed you're beat up you you're stuck and you guys are like freaking got superman capes on man i mean y'all are amazing i'm so proud of you thank you very much wow what made you uh i mean i know the first thing that has to happen i mean unless you're just weird it would have happened to me i opened that up and you had it up and it's 220. You come in the kitchen going like this, like, I'm going to die. And you're overwhelmed. And then you just decided something flipped and you started believing and you tore into this. Tell me how that worked in your minds and your relationship. I would say for me, I'm very type A personality, very organized, and I tend to do things at an extreme.
Starting point is 00:24:50 I'm not an in-between type of person. So as soon as I saw this challenge, I'm like, we're going to hit the ground running. Came home, baby. Yes. Came home. And I took some convincing. Yes. All right.
Starting point is 00:25:01 All right. So was he super extreme? I mean, you had to calm him down just a little bit to, like, buy food? Yeah, every once in a while, definitely. But I knew it was something we needed to do, so I was a trooper and, you know, stuck with it. She is the reason why we had a life. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:16 Are you both glad you did this? Yeah, definitely. This fast? Very glad. You did the Band-Aid ripoff. I mean, you didn't let go. We're just going to take 20 years. You said, nope, game on. I'm knocking this out it's killing me exactly wow so when you're doing these financial peace classes now i mean y'all are just amazing 25 years old you have 220 000 it's like
Starting point is 00:25:37 you got to be wanting to look at these people and just go you know right i mean and so uh because you did it i mean they got no excuses with you standing in front of them right no excuses and so um what do you tell them the key is getting out of debt so we would say the key is three different things the first one is to be content with what you have um that was something that we definitely learned together is that there's not much that you need and to get rid of those wants and be content. The second thing that we decided was a key was having faith in God and knowing that he's going to provide for us. And he showed up several, several times when we, when we needed him the most, As long as we were tithing and everything,
Starting point is 00:26:26 we knew that he would be there for us. And then the third thing... Doing it together. Oh, yeah. Doing it together. So we really worked together, and we budgeted every month and made sure that we were on the same page. So that was the third thing.
Starting point is 00:26:42 Yeah, because, Dave, as you say, the budget is like the contract. So we both have to agree to it. If one, as you say, the budget is like the contract. So we both have to agree to it. If one person's doing it, it's not going to work. So you and your spouse have to do it together. Yeah, absolutely. Wow. Way to go, guys.
Starting point is 00:26:55 Way to go. Great answers. Really great answers. So how does it feel now that you're done? I mean, we're done with this part. You've got to move on. You've got the next chapter, the millionaire chapter. But, I mean, we're done with this part. You got to move on. You got the next chapter, the millionaire chapter. But I mean, the way you knock this out, boom.
Starting point is 00:27:11 I mean, there's nothing going to stop you now. It feels amazing. We recently found out that we're expecting. We're starting a new family debt free. So that's a really great feeling to have. Very cool. To do that. Very cool. Well, congratulations. Thank cool. To do that. Very cool. Well, congratulations.
Starting point is 00:27:26 Thank you. Life is good. Baby on the way. $220,000 in debt lighter. You're ready to go, man. This is amazing. Making great money. Both of you got masters.
Starting point is 00:27:37 You're in good shape. Here we go. Game on. I mean, you really have the, you got this thing by the tail. Very, very well done. Thank you. Life's not going to be perfect. You know that.
Starting point is 00:27:46 But by learning to work together on something this big, this fast, you can work together on whatever comes at you. You're going to be great. You're going to be great. Who are your biggest cheerleaders? These people over here. They're definitely our biggest cheerleaders. But everyone. Who are these people? So I have my parents and my two sisters and then my aunt and raised parents.
Starting point is 00:28:10 Ah, okay. We have a lot more family that couldn't make it. This is who we could have come down. But, of course, our closest family and friends, they were cheerleaders throughout the way. A lot of our church members as well. To the point they come to Nashville from Chicago with you to cheer. Exactly. That's pretty stinking cool.
Starting point is 00:28:24 It's awesome. Yeah, that's neat. Well, they ought to be impressed with with you to cheer. Yes, exactly. That's pretty stinking cool. It's awesome. Yeah, that's neat. Well, they ought to be impressed with you. We are. Thank you. Congratulations. Very, very proud of you guys. So we got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, of course, signed by him.
Starting point is 00:28:34 Number one bestseller. Everyday Millionaires. You are on your way. You've changed your family tree. Isn't that a neat idea? Yes. That's a neat idea. And you did that at 25 years old.
Starting point is 00:28:45 Wow. You're impressive. at 25 years old. Wow. You're impressive. Impressive young people. All right. Here we go. Ray and Amber from Chicago. $220,000 paid off in 36 months. New baby on the way. Married 36 months.
Starting point is 00:28:58 Making $100,000 to $160,000. Do the numbers again. That's $70,000 a year for three years. They've lived on beans and rice count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one we're debt-free i love it wow wow well i get uh boomers on here to do their debt-free screams. I get second marriages on here to do their debt-free screams.
Starting point is 00:29:30 I get single moms on here to do their debt-free screams. Inordinately, in the last month or so, an inordinate number of millennials, married couples in their 20s, that have paid off all their student loan debt. So please don't tell me that this generation has lost their minds. This generation, this millennial generation, they're amazing. They're amazing. They're absolutely awesome. The ones that are awesome. The other half sucks, But the ones that are awesome are awesome. And they're game on, man. You can't deny them.
Starting point is 00:30:09 They're going to run. They're going to run on the touchdown every time. I love them. I'm so happy for them. Well done, you guys. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. All right. As promised, I'm back with Zach in North Carolina. Moved to North Carolina, staying with some friends, took a job with a different carrier. They let him go because he didn't disclose some traffic violations.
Starting point is 00:31:19 Now he's got a crummy job with a carrier, and he wants to work on power lines. I think that's where we left it a minute ago. Is that a fair summary of what you told me so far sir that is a fair summary and then uh uh i'll try to make this brief uh me and the fiance uh the best friend's fiance are the only two that are working in the house right now uh his girlfriend's got ssi income because she's disabled my mother-in-law moved out there and she's disabled and working on getting SSI for it, but has yet to get it. So it's a two-income household.
Starting point is 00:31:52 We make roughly – we both recently started our jobs, but if you add up what we should make in a year, it comes to roughly $2,880 or $2,800. You make $2,800 trying two of you together you're not together that's the two what do you make that would be the two of us together yeah what do you make uh 12 by 12 i make 14 400. Yeah, it does suck. Okay. And why is your wife not working? Oh, wait a minute. Your fiancé or your wife? I thought a while ago she was your wife.
Starting point is 00:32:33 No, I married the other couple in the house or not. Oh, okay. So your wife, why is your wife not working? She's got severe anxiety problems. We're trying to find a job that she can do that her anxiety won't affect because she's had a cycle of she'll get a job, her social anxiety gets really, really bad, and she has to quit. Okay.
Starting point is 00:32:57 And has she seen a counselor for this? We're working on getting one where we are. The other problem is we ain't got a vehicle and we have no way to get into town to get to the doctor. The vehicle we had just completely crapped out on us about five months ago. Okay. All right. And so you're not working, you're not even getting 40 hours, are you? To be technical, I work more than that. I get paid by the mile, and they do this crappy thing called the sliding pay scale.
Starting point is 00:33:37 No, I mean, the bottom line is. If it's $400, I make $0.34 per mile. If it's a 600-mile load, I make $0.27 a mile. And if I might dispatch it, it's $1.00 a mile. Here's the thing. So what was the nature of your traffic violations that got these folks so upset that they fired you when you didn't tell them about them? Now, I had a couple of tickets that they knew about. The couple of violations that they got mad at. I had a small rollback accident two years ago.
Starting point is 00:34:06 My foot slipped off the pedal. I rolled back about 100 feet, and I bumped into another truck. They didn't have to call the law. It didn't hardly do any damage, but it goes on my record. Yeah, what else? And then back in May, I turned a little too short, and the backswing of my trailer clipped another truck. It took out the headlight.
Starting point is 00:34:25 Again, minor accident, not a big deal. They were just mad that I didn't disclose those accidents. I got that part. How old are you? 26. Okay. I'm trying to think of you doing almost anything else starting tomorrow because you don't make a dollar an hour.
Starting point is 00:34:47 I mean, you're just getting destroyed on this current gig. And so I'm wondering if you can't get a job driving somewhere else and make – I mean, you ought to be making four or five times what you're making. Unless the two small wrecks and the two tickets from just make you unemployable. It's not really that that makes me unemployable. It's the fact that the company fired me because I tried getting another job. Nobody will hire me due to the fact that I got fired from that last carrier. That's just not true.
Starting point is 00:35:20 People hire people that haven't gotten fired. They got fired all the time if they need a driver and they think you can drive and these things don't count too much against you. And so, I mean, you could get, even if it wasn't a traditional trucking outfit, if it was a manufacturer that had a truck and needed someone to drive it, you could get a job making $60,000 doing that as long as you don't tear up their stuff. I see what you're getting at, yeah. I'm looking into one of those because the roommate, one of my roommates, grand doing that as long as you don't tear up their stuff i see what you're getting at yeah i'm
Starting point is 00:35:45 i'm looking into one of those because the roommate one of my roommates he did find a place that holds propane tankers and they're short on drivers and they even said they'd help me get my hazmat endorsement right now it's just a matter of working with what i got to get me into a position where i can stop and switch jobs because the problem with trucking is I have to turn the truck back into Nashville and get a ride back home from Nashville because otherwise they're going to charge me to send a driver out to recover the truck. Yeah, I understand. Okay. Well, we've got the, the real problem is mathematically that you're, you're laying flat on your back after getting knocked out. And, gotta get you up far enough that you can start making some money i mean if you had a basic
Starting point is 00:36:30 little car of some kind you could deliver pizzas and make more than you at night and make more than you're making now just at night yeah no joke and so just getting a basic car would go a long way than just getting you up off your back. And so if we can get your wife earning some kind of income, get you earning some kind of income, get you guys in a better position than you're in now because your living situation is horrendous. The two of you need to be on your own in a tiny one-bedroom garage apartment out back of somebody's house, living your life, not living with this crazy world you're living in, and get your careers going, both of you, and get her some counseling so that she can deal with some of this anxiety
Starting point is 00:37:14 that she's dealing with, not only so she has a more productive life, but so she has a higher quality of life, because I'm guessing that this affects a whole lot of things, not just the workplace. So the best thing I can think of is I'm going to give you a copy of Ken Coleman's book, The Proximity Principle. And, Madison, if he would prefer to have the audio since he's in the truck, that would be fine. Send him that if he'd rather have that than the actual book itself
Starting point is 00:37:40 because, sir, this is all about your income. This is all about you getting a different employment situation. And if I can just get you making $20,000 a year, that's a substantial raise over where you are. Get you guys set up in a little apartment. Get her making $20,000 a year. Wow. Then we can afford to pay for her coaching or counseling. We can afford to get you a little car of some kind we pay cash for. All of a sudden, this thing starts to unfold. But we got to get you a little car of some kind we pay cash for all of a sudden this thing starts to unfold but we got to get you up off a 14-4 living with a bunch of other people who are disabled and not working um that's just a weird situation you've gotten yourself into so you've got to get free of all that and get a real clean up the life that's in front of you here all right melissa
Starting point is 00:38:22 is with us in arizona Melissa, I'm short on time. Ask your question right quick. Hi, Dave. I was wondering if I should quit my part-time job to stay at home with my two children under five and kind of take advantage of this developmental time that I've always wanted to have with them. If that means that we won't be able to save up much,
Starting point is 00:38:41 our finances would be really tight during that period of time. What do you make at your part-time job? I'm making $27,000. What do you do? For 16 hours of resummoners. 14 hours? 16 hours. I work 16 hours a week.
Starting point is 00:38:58 My husband works full-time, and so I make $27,000 around 16 hours a week. Okay, that's really good money for the time you're putting in. I've always had to stay home with my kids. Well, the thing is, you know, let's add up how many hours you're in a week and take 16 off of that. I don't think your children are suffering. Sure.
Starting point is 00:39:24 I mean, it's not like you're working 80 hours a week and you never see them no no you're not working five you know you're not working ot in the er and everything else and um i mean you're probably doing that 16 in just two days right um over four days i actually do it while they're in pre-k oh so you don't even they're not even with you anyway no so how are they missing out on you i think it's just it's very um stressful because i'm still having to do work from home um and so really you do that if they go to sleep just do whatever work you do you do from home when they go to sleep. Just do whatever work you do from home. When they go to sleep, you're working while they're in school anyway.
Starting point is 00:40:08 You're not even seeing them. You do what you want to do, honey. I don't care. I think you've worked this up in your head, though. There is not a lot going on here. Your children are not suffering. Doesn't sound to me like. I'm just an old grandpa, though.
Starting point is 00:40:24 What do I know? That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Hey, guys, it's Blake Thompson, senior executive producer for the Dave Ramsey Show. This hour's over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Rants, deathly screams, and the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment. Go to the Dave Rantz Show YouTube channel and click subscribe.

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