The Ramsey Show - App - THIS Is the Fastest Way To Pay Off Wealth (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 22, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze answer your questions and discuss: How aggressively to pay down a car loan, Managing unexpected medical bills, "Should I move to a higher paying job if it changes benefits?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Take our FREE 3 minute assessment: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studios, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, and my daughter is my co-host today. As we answer your questions about 888-825-5225, about your life and your money, 888-825-5225. Kevin's in Indianapolis. Whoops, that's wrong. Let me try it again. Kevin's in Indianapolis to start off this hour. Hi, Kevin.

How are you? Hey, Dave. I'm doing well. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I've got a question. My wife and I have been talking for about a week or two now.

We are trying to get some stuff underway to start saving up for a mortgage on our house. Backstory is we're about one- smart, three quarters dumb. We were one quarter smart off by living off of a $30,000 a year income on her income so I could pay my way through master's school. Three quarter dumb, we needed a reliable car, so I fell into that trap and I bought a car years ago. Where we're at now is we owe about $21,800 left on the car. In one savings area, we have about $19,000, and in another savings area, we have about $5,000. We are torn between being highly aggressive with that $19,000

and being mildly aggressive because we do have a one-year-old, and we're both kind of like, you know, do we go for the full $19,000 or do you go a little less? Wondering what your advice would be on that. Did you graduate? Yeah, yeah. Graduated, got a double year income. Right now I bring in a 125 gross.

125? Gross, yes. Okay, and she's still working and she makes 30? Yeah. So we have $150,000 household income. So we have $150,000 household income, a $21,000 car debt, and $24,000 in your accounts. Yes. And what are they each saved in? What's the $19,000 in?

It's over in Capital One. It's just over there sitting in a high-performance savings. Okay. And then the other five is where? It's just in our mutual bank account. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha.

The five is our kind of our three months. We're just starting to look at your guys' stuff a little bit. And when we're looking at our numbers, the five is kind of our about five months um savings we have a thousand emergency but the five is there the five thousand about a four five months yeah yeah so what what happened kevin was when i was your age i went broke and lost everything rachel was a baby and we couldn't pay the light bill. And so from that experience, I started studying what is the fastest right way to build wealth because I had built wealth the wrong way, and that's why I lost everything, too much debt. And in studying that and in studying people who had built wealth, I pretty quickly discovered that the people who build wealth, not the

middle class and not the people who wander around in a fog with an opinion, but the people who had actually become millionaires, the vast majority of them realized that their most powerful wealth building tool was their income. None of them get rich on a high-yield savings account. High-yield savings account cannot mathematically, by definition, make you rich because you're making 3% or 4%. And inflation is 9%. So you're going backward, period. So the bottom line is this.

The ones that built wealth were the ones that got out of debt and avoided debt. That put us on the journey of, at Ramsey 30 years ago, of showing people how to get out of debt so that they can build wealth more reliably, so that they can change their family tree tree so that they can be outrageously generous okay so that's the premise on which we answer all of these questions we want to take you down that path and never in the history of man has someone keeping a twenty one thousand dollar car loan around like it's a pet been a method of building wealth think about it we were we were we were really aggressive with it to get to start so it was sixty thousand dollars total i paid 40 in two years and now we're looking at it as when we do when we sat down let's just say out loud that that purchase was stupid well yeah was way out of your budget you said that was the 25 not smart i'm agreeing

with you okay i've done dumber i've done dumber i've done dumber but but so you know all of that's going to lead us to a pretty simple answer yeah which kevin is is to pay it off today and then you're going to have three thousand dollars left as a buffer for your starter or your emergency fund and baby step three which is your three to six months of expenses. But you make $150,000 a year. You should be able to put several thousand dollars a month in that account. And so we're not going to be at $3,000, but for 30 seconds. The end of the next month, you should be at $6,000 or $8,000.

The end of the next month, you should be at $10,000 or $12,000. So we're not walking around with a one-year-old with absolutely no money as a way of life. It's just a momentary thing here. By Christmas, you ought to have a big old pile of money, man. And that's where we're at, where we're both, when we talk about it, we both see the, like you're saying, Dave, with the get aggressive and then four months you have this, and we're both looking at the one-year-old who does have some medical appointments coming up, going, should we be just slightly safer and span it out over a matter of five months?

You're not going to have a medical appointment unless the child has medical issues today. You're not going to have a one-year-old medical appointment that is going to take more than $3,000. Okay. Unless he's struggling with something but i mean if he's going in for standard checkups you know it's a couple hundred bucks dude and you make 150 000 a year i think you can handle it so be aggressive with it highly aggressive the reason would be that that's the fastest right way for you to build wealth. Get that emergency fund in place, a fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses.

And then with no payments at all, now we save for that house like crazy. And you can do it, man. I mean, you just lean in on a budget. Yeah, and I think, Kevin, too, one of the mindset shifts that is important for you guys, just to say out loud with you and your wife is like, OK, where we are today, we don't like it. We don't like having we had a sixty thousand dollar car loan. Now we've you know, we've we've taken it down to twenty one thousand. We have some money here. We have some money there. Obviously, something is stirring in you guys that you're not content with where you are financially.

You know, there's something in you that's like, there could be a better way which is why you picked up your phone and called the show right I mean like there's something in you the bear cage bear named Dave bear named Dave uh but but so so my challenge to you Kevin would be like to be do something different try this way what we're saying again, it's not going to put you back financially at all. You guys have a great income. You're going to be okay. And there's going to be natural fear, natural hesitation to do something that feels a little different. But what you guys have been doing, if you keep doing the same thing, you're not going to be happy with your results. So you have to do something different. Doing something different is uncomfortable,

but push in, even if it's, even if you're going to be okay. You're going to be okay. You're going to be fine. If you pay attention and play through, good stuff. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And CHM has also

helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org budget budget at chministries.org slash budget. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author multiple times over, and my daughter is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Nick is in Milwaukee. Hi, Nick. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave, for taking my call.

Sure. Have a good day. You too. How can we help? So I have a curveball to throw to you. So we are currently in Baby Step 2, about $55,000 in debt that we paid off from $75,000. That's credit card bills, house improvement, and mostly medical bills. And there's car payments involved.

We've been pretty aggressive in step two. I work about 15-hour days. My wife works full-time as well. However, we got thrown the curveball in that they just told us we have about 10 grand worth of dental work we have to do for all three of my teenagers, because they have to get all three of them have to get braces. The curve, the major issue is, I'm a dialysis patient, so on top of this, I get, you know, medical, I'm on the transplant list, and once that happens, that's going to be an additional $400 or $500 a month that we're throwing

into us just for medical bills because of the medications. So my major question is how would we tackle this added debt for the kids' braces without having to go into even more debt to get those done because we have about $2,000 in our emergency medical fund or emergency fund just so once I'm out of work for about three weeks once I get the transplant, they can cover that. But with having this curveball thrown at us with the kids braces it's kind of put a little bit more anxiety into the mix more than there already is.

What's your household income? Last year, we brought in about $100,000 combined. Okay. How old are your children? My boys are turning 14 next week, and my daughter turns 13 the week after. Okay. All right. So I don't have to put... Okay. 14 next week and my daughter turns 13 the week after okay uh um i'm trying to think how to couch this exactly number one are braces legitimate absolutely okay um i think all of our kids or several of our kids except for me

you didn't okay rachel or denise and daniel had braces so i remember i remember writing checks for this okay i can't remember which ones it was yeah yeah they've all got great teeth and it changed their lives but anyway the uh um uh uh so it's not an illegitimate request or whatever, but it's not a curveball, and it's not unexpected, and it is not an emergency. It didn't just suddenly happen last week when they went to the dentist. You may have gotten new information that made you realize you're going to have to address the issue but the the way you're using your words as is as if we don't do it by the end of the month that we're somehow going to have destroyed our children's lives and that's simply uh uh a dentist making a sale there that's not a reality so if we did the braces six months from now i'm not a medical doctor and i'm certainly not an orthodontist but um

but but i i can you know i i suspect common sense tells me that they'll probably still be okay all right that you don't have to do in the next 10 days but sometime in the next 10 months or 20 months we address them and maybe maybe we address them in, you know, the one that's the greatest concern first, and then we don't all do all three at once. And so the way you're presenting this is if it's nowhere near as important or urgent as your situation is. Your situation now, I can get excited about making that a big deal right you follow me yeah

and so don't don't let the emotions of the teenager yourself your wife the orthodontist trying to make a sale make this a financial catastrophe that has to be addressed by the end of March, because that is simply not reality. That's after I already said this is something we need to address, and I'm okay with addressing it. I'm not saying it's not true. I'm not saying they don't need braces. I'm saying when we do it, how we do it,

is going to be on our schedule, not on the orthodontist's schedule. Yeah, that's kind of, I think, where my brain has been freaking out because where we've been so good going into the baby step two, we've really been tackling it. I mean, I've worked like crazy hours. So when are you going to be finished with baby step two? Hopefully, we're projecting hopefully by january of next

year that's kind of our goal okay so do the braces after that okay that's kind of what we're thinking but then you can handle it i mean you pay 50 000 bucks between non-january you can cover 10 grand in braces after that. You're that guy. My point is, it didn't set you back. It's something you do after baby step two. Okay, so you use it afterwards. That's where my brain

has been freaking out. It's like, oh my God, we've added this is going into the mix now. We have to get it done because I worry about them. Well, I can hear your freak out. that's what i was addressing yeah it's it's not it's not as urgent i don't think as your as your freak out is telling yeah i mean you're yeah if they have braces at 15 years old and if there is one of them that is you know got got a real issue in six months is going to make a big difference that's a possibility i don't know i guess it is um mean, it might save you a year in braces if we go ahead and get it done in the fall rather than in the spring, you know.

Then, well, let's work one of them into the budget. But to stop everything and have to do all of them this month because you got fresh information two days ago, nah. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. It was just, like I said, the brain freak out was kicking in. Well, and the dental world has in it people that have common sense and that are kind and normal and want to help and want to serve,

and it also has people in it that are really good salespeople that um you know and so i don't mind even getting a second opinion about this and maybe get a second if it's a ten thousand dollar item i might want to get bids you know i don't why not it's you know it's braces it's not like it's it's a commodity i mean i don't know. Find three or four other people and find, okay, well, this guy says you're going to be in them for two and a half years. This gal says, oh, using this new technique, we can be done in nine months. You know, I mean, you want to learn about stuff like that. I don't know, but I. And your emotion, Nick, like I get it.

It's understandable. As a parent, when you go into any level of appointment with your child, and it's like this is what's best for them, we need to do that. And if they had a sense of urgency, naturally as a parent, if you're not calming down, thinking about the logic, and having someone else speak into it, it's easy to get where you were, Nick, like when you called as a parent. But sometimes when that emotion, it it clouds judgment very very quickly so

hopefully that that helps to just take the i think it's the urgency part like they're okay they're okay and god forbid again if nothing like crazy medically is wrong people go without braces and then they end up getting them as adults later in life you know what i'm saying like i mean like that that happens too so they're they're going to be okay unless there's a more serious medical need they're fine if they wait another year yeah there's I don't know the medical things I guess and dentists are part or dental is part of that are um we none of us lay people know what's really going on like a mechanic they're like this is the unknown the unknown of it as drama to all of us lay people know what's really going on like a mechanic me and a mechanic they're like the unknown the unknown of it as drama to all of us yes well any area of your life yeah you don't

i don't know i don't know i don't know i mean same with cars we went out to dinner with a couple and uh some friends and they were talking about they took their van in to get work and it came back like this crazy bill of all this stuff they did and they were like oh my gosh so then he like ended up kind of researching he's like they didn't need to do half of it but he but he even admitted he was like i didn't know so i was like okay i mean you know cars better than i do right so any part of life that you feel inadequate you trust the experts you gotta you gotta dig in and so that's that's the point is don't let the emotion drive the decision really get some data points.

And I love the second opinion idea because there's plenty of people that have different ways they do things, different timelines, and that'll give you more peace, too, more information you have. There's a lot of really cool stuff that my dentist was telling me about. I mean, there are tools they use. It's an iterating, evolving industry. Glad you went to the dentist, Dave. It's good for me. Way to take care of yourself. Good for me, yes. It's an iterating, evolving industry. Glad you went to the dentist, Dave. It's good for me. Way to take care of yourself.

Good for me, yes, that's right. This is The Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Anthony and Lauren are with us. Hey guys, how are you? I'm very good, Dave. Welcome. Honored to be here. Thank you. Honored to have you. Where do you live? We're from a small town called Fremont, Ohio. It's near Toledo. Okay, fun. Good to have you guys. So welcome to Nashville. How much debt have you paid off? We paid off $221,000. All right. How long did that take? Took about 19 months.

Good for you. And your range of income during that time? So we started out around $105,000 and then jumped up to about $280,000. Whoa. Okay. What do you guys do for a living? So I'm a podiatrist. And I stay at home with the children now.

Okay. Wow. I guess so. Good for you guys. So what kind of debt was the $221,000? All Sally Mae. Oh. know okay wow i guess so good for you guys so what kind of debt was the 221 all sally may oh the open diet the open diet just bill yeah i think lauren that this was anthony's fault i could be wrong just a little bit okay so doc doc ran up doc bills okay but then you jacked your income how did you jack your income threefold in 19 months yeah so

105 was my first contract coming out of fellowship training and then just as the practice got busier and you know surgical volume picked up but so did the income yeah and you happen to time that right off the back side of a pandemic yeah yeah that's very good too when people are coming out going yeah this is electric elective surgery a lot of the times, right? Yep, yep, absolutely. And so, yeah, wow, good for you guys. Amazing. So how long have you been married? So it'll be seven years.

Seven years and a half. Okay, so you married him while he was going through med school then. Yes. And you guys were broke living on student loans. And you come out. It sounds like almost immediately after coming out, you jumped on this. Well, so we have a little bit of a longer story than that, I guess.

So I first heard about you about seven years ago, actually in November before we got married in May. And I was on rotation in the hospital in Lima, Ohio, and we were between cases, and one of the senior residents was talking to a nurse anesthetist, and I overheard him, you know, oh, yeah, we did that. We were on beans and rice, rice and beans. And I'm like, okay, that's an interesting conversation over there.

So I asked the senior resident, you know, what are you guys talking about? Oh, there's this guy. He yells at people for buying cars. It's a great show. You should check it out. Great show. So I thought I could check that out. So I would practice my suturing, listening to the podcast, actually went out and bought

Total Money Makeover. And then when I went back to Lauren, we were living both in Cleveland at the time before we had got married. And I said, you know, when we get married, you know, we're selling your car. We're going to get out. Yeah, I had a couple thousand left to pay on this car. And he just wanted to get rid of it right off the bat. She's like, well, I still need something to drive. I said, oh, I guess that's a fair point. So once we got married, then we sort of combined our incomes, combined our finances. We actually paid off her car.

And I had a student loan. Yeah, she's a hairstylist. So she had cosmetology school. We paid both those out. And then two weeks into our marriage, found out we were married with Ava. Sorry, expecting Ava. And so we sort of went to baby step zero for about four years because about 15 months after Ava was born, Nora was born. Oh, my gosh, 15 months apart. Yeah, it was back to back. And then we were moving around the country for my training. I trained in Indianapolis and then went to Florida for a fellowship.

And so when we started out at that 105, that's after actually Will was born, and we were stable. Wow, we were ready to hammer it. Yeah, we were ready to put down some roots. So that's when we sort of jumped out of baby step zero and we went really hard. So there was about five years there of just job craziness, kid craziness, and it was like, gosh,

but you still kind of kept it in a sense, even though you hadn't really fully started. I know you guys paid off some of Lauren's stuff. Yeah. But it's like right when you got out, you're like, we are on this, which is impressive to keep that momentum of the longing to do it, right, in the middle of kids and all that all the way to 19 months ago.

Yeah. And then hammer down. Yep, absolutely. That's so great. Was it hard to be making that kind of money and continuing to live like you're broke, you know, on rice and beans, beans and rice? I mean, to be honest with you, I don't think the living was that hard because we had sort of, we were under such a fine margin for so long with little ones. We were sort of used to,

we didn't, all of the furniture in our house was hand-me-down furniture. Everything was hand-me-down. So we were okay with that. But I think the hardest part was just giving so much of that money just back to the government. That was really hard. That was painful showing all those checks just straight to Sally Mae. So yeah, that hurts. Our date nights were going to Home Depot looking at appliances that we'd want someday. Yeah, like just dreaming like, oh, yeah, someday. Which backsplash do you want later? Well, that is a good point, though, because you didn't have to go backwards in lifestyle. Because for a lot of people, they're like, oh, they were living this lifestyle,

and then they have to stop it, go backwards. But you continued to consistently do what you guys have been doing, which is great. And then cranked up the income. Oh, yeah. That's awesome. And dumped it all on them. Oh, yeah yeah yeah that's awesome did people think you were crazy i'm sure they didn't tell us to our face they were nice to our face that's fun well that's impressive you guys i mean that's that's a lot of tell people the

key to getting out of debt is we both talked about, we feel like it's mindset. You know, you have to be prepared to make all the sacrifices and know that your life is not going to be probably quite as fun as it could be. Yeah, I think there's a quote that I heard by Pope Benedict, and he says, you know, the world will offer you comfort, but you are not built for comfort. You are built for greatness. And I feel like that, I just sort of feel like that really applies to this scenario. You're going through the discomfort now so that later you have that

and you can also be a source of comfort for others. It's just another way of saying, you know, live now like no one else so that later you can live like no one else. Yeah, so good good very good congratulations heroes proud of you thank you how's it feel to be free oh it feels great yeah i mean you got a lot of young doctor age you're walking around around they don't even know what freedom looks like they got so much hanging around their neck don't they yes and you just

you just walked right past them well you just did you just blew past them and now you got three little babies and you've changed your family tree life is great man well done you two a student loan didn't fit in with our lifestyle that's not what we wanted so it's awesome we didn't like sally may in the spare bedroom we're gonna pick the old lady put her on the street she's ugly i like it way to go guys hey we've got the live and give bundle for you the baby steps millionaires book you're gonna be there in 20 minutes thank you and uh of course total money makeover you can give that to somebody if you want and the financial peace university membership and all the babes and if you haven't been there so yeah bring the babies up and let's see their names and ages so ava is six

nora is four and will is almost two all right very good not far off of rachel's ages yeah ages of her three very good you guys congratulations thank you all right have uh ava and nora and william been practicing their debt-free screen yes they have they're ready are you ready kiddos you ready here we go all right anthony and lauren ava nora and William from Fremont, Ohio. $221,000 paid off in 19 months, making $105,000 to $280,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right, guys.

Ready? Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Yeah! That's the sound of a family tree being changed. we scared the little william got scared that's what it sounds like of her family tree to be changed oh i mean you make uh 280 a year she's at home full time with the three now and um you got zero debt oh my goodness do a lot there's gonna be a lot of change there'll be a lot of possibilities a lot of things they can do a lot of people they'll be

able to help and certainly those three littles will have a completely different life because of this last 19 months of sacrifice absolutely very very very well done that's how you do it folks live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else that poke benedict quote is really good it's really good not built for comfort but built for greatness yeah and that's it it's like you just want to be comfortable and you're not comfortable the comfort crisis we read that book yeah same idea it's like it pushes against everything that you were actually you really were created for on so many levels we have too many people searching out comfort rather than searching out greatness.

Michael Easter, that's the author of that book, Comfort Crisis. We're going to have him on. Are you really? Yeah, we're going to do an event with Mike Rowe and me and him and some others talking about the labor crisis in America. We'll be announcing it soon, a big live stream coming up. This is The Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today.

Thank you for joining us. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. When was the last time you were excited about Monday? What if instead of waking up exhausted and dreading your week you actually look forward to work because you're doing work that you love work that mattered work where you got traction where you were functioning in your passions hey that's why career expert ramsey personality ken coleman created the get clear assessment to help you discover your top talents passions and a clear mission statement that'll

help you find the work that the world needs you to do when you find that you're going to be very fulfilled you're going to make more money uh and you won't be thinking about stupid stuff like quiet quitting uh instead of reaching for uh communism you'll embrace capitalism you know i mean it's a good idea when you you know when you actually find what you love that's what ends up happening this week only the assessment is ten dollars off the sale ends at midnight on friday get the deal today go to ramsey solutions.com slash get clear now what we know is that since the first of the year the ramsey show ratings and viewership and listenership and all of our various formats are way up.

Thank you for that. We appreciate that. But what that also means is a bunch of you that are newbies around that when we're talking in code like baby steps and debt snowballs and stuff, you don't even know what the flip we're talking about. So because we like this tribal speak and you don't necessarily know the tribal vernacular yet. Hey, we want to help you move along your financial journey, your life journey. Go to Ramsey Solutions for free and click on the Get Started button. We'll tell you what your next step is and begin to indoctrinate you into the tribal lingo. But show you why we're doing what we're doing, and you can begin to plug in to say, this is where I am, and here's a good next move for me. And according to Ramsey, this is what I should do. I wonder if I should do that or not.

And we'll show you. Get started at RamseySolutions.com. Logan is with us in Dayton, Ohio. Hi, Logan. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, sir. How are you doing? Better than I deserve, sir.

What's up? Hi. Me and my wife have been kind of getting into listening to your podcast, and we're getting ready to start our debt snowball here soon. And one of the best ways to help with that is to increase our income. I am currently a mailman. I make about $50,000 a year. My wife is a travel respiratory nurse.

She makes anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 a year. But she's not wanting to do that for much longer because we have a one-year-old and a newborn. So I'm thinking about trying to switch jobs possibly. One idea is like truck driving because you can start anywhere from $70,000 to $90,000, but I'm worried about with the host office that you have benefits of a pension and your health insurance is getting paid after you retire. Our goals are to build a house one day and retire early. So I'm just trying to figure out which way is best to take the better pay now

or to take the long road with the post office. If you take better pay now and spend it all, then you're going to end up with none of the things that the benefits would have done. If you take better pay now, get out of debt, and become wealthy, you can buy your own freaking health insurance. That's kind of what I was hoping. I just didn't know, like, would $30,000 a year replace a pension and health insurance?

Easy. And stuff like that easy easy okay that's what i was worried about i just i just i want you know a good life for me and my kids and you mind if i answer a question you didn't ask of course um i'll make a statement instead i think you're taking the truck driving gig only for money not as a long-term career goal that you think this is going to be awesome and you're going to love doing it the rest of your life. That's probably true. Yeah.

I think I wouldn't do that. I think you can find something else that makes $80,000 that gives you a high quality of life or make $70,000 with you learning a skill that you want to do the rest of your life and you move from $70, to 90 to 100 over time? Yes, sir. So I want you to take that get clear assessment I was just talking about a few minutes ago and think about where you want to be working.

And I want you to go get your income increase, but I want it to be with something that gives you purpose, fulfillment, and then at the end of your life you haven't dreaded Monday every day and just done your duty as a good husband and dad. And right now that's what you're doing. You're just saying, I'm going to do my duty. My wife wants to come off the road, and I'll go handle the discomfort of being an over-the-road truck driver in order to make more money

so she can do that. And you're just being a good man, and I appreciate that about you. That's what I'm trying to do. Yeah, think i think there's a way to do both it's going to take more effort and a little bit more mental strain for you to think through it and figure it out it's not as obvious as just going oh i can make more money doing that i'm gonna do that but that's gonna get old fast man you have anything, Logan, in like a dream world? Have you even let yourself go there of, man, what if one day I could do X, Y, or Z? If you could do anything you wanted to do and money wasn't a problem, what would you do? If money wasn't a problem and I had the time to go back to school, I'd love to be like a psychologist or a lawyer, but that's a lot of money,

and that's, you know, seven, eight years of school. Okay. That's what you're right about but there's something in those is it helping people what's what what in those careers is it that you find interesting I think it's a little the mental aspect of it just you know understanding people

and why they do things and I'm always I'm not saying I like to argue, but I'll play devil's advocate in, like, a debate with somebody just for the fun of it. I don't know anybody like that. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, I mean, the same kinds of things motivate me exactly,

and that's how I end up here in a weird way but so it may be that there's other ways you can manifest those exact same desires other than two careers that have long education paths to them yeah and I would say though too Logan in the meantime and your wife's home with a toddler and a new baby and I know jumping from job to job isn't ideal but if they're like if you guys were in a more urgent situation you know for me driving for for six months while you figure out the long-term plan could still be in play just to get her home like that would be okay but I wouldn't I wouldn't say let's just sign up with this with no no exit no I would have I would have a goal i want an exit strategy yes

yes but in the meantime as you call our show today if you guys don't want to wait six nine months till you figure something out if there was a quick move you wanted you both wanted to make sooner you could do something in the interim until you really found that thing that you're like as a step yeah as a step absolutely so austin uh we're gonna have you pick up and give logan the um the paycheck to purpose book and the get clear assessment because i just told a truck driver he needed an exit strategy so a mailman well he said he's going to be a truck driver oh he will be getting off he'll be getting off at the exit i can just tell you so okay i'm glad i missed it that makes me feel like i'm enough not plugged in you're part of the

family you're part of the family if you missed it because i missed it until it came out of my mouth but oh you gotta love it all right i am uh well known for those wrong metaphors at exactly the wrong time so it's it's kind of a classic dave move open phones here if you want to talk about your life and your money, 888-825-5225. Thank you for jumping in. Rachel, I think it's important to reiterate for everyone, I remember Earl Nightingale who did the talk, The Strangest Secret, many, many years ago. With that baritone voice, he would say, too many people spend more time picking out a suit of clothes than they do their career. And you're going to spend the next 30 or 40 years, maybe. At least some kind of version of what road you start down. And so don't just pick something for the money.

And the other assumption you can't make is that just because you're doing something you love, you have to make less. I don't know where that comes from. It comes from the same place that as soon as I get laid off, the next job I get, I'm going to make less. Why don't we assume we're going to make more? And why not, if you were doing something you love, would you not be more enthusiastic, more creative, more engaged, and work harder at something you love, and therefore end up making more? But we think we have to go work for Mother Teresa or something, or go in the non-profit in the Peace Corps in order to be doing something holy,

or be doing something that is of meaning or purpose, or be doing, and that's just absolute bull. Just wrong. Yep. Yep. So don't assume less. Assume more. And that's not some kind of prosperity or abundance thing. It's just factual. I mean, if you're better at something because you love it, you should make more at it. Hello. Hello. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz. If you like what you heard in this episode

and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey baby steps, go to ramsesolutions.com and click the get started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. That's ramsaysolutions.com and click Get Started.