The Ramsey Show - App - Trying To Give Money Advice to Family (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 2, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Dr. John Delony discuss: How to give financial advice to family, Paying off your mortgage, Building up cash during pregnancy, Regaining motivation after grieving a family death. 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. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Dr. John Deloney. Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk about your relationships, your mental health, your job, your career, your money, and your life, all right here on The Ramsey Show. We do it every day. We talk about you right in front of you.

It's a free call at 888-825-5225. Again, Dr. John Deloney, bestselling author, brand new book in presale right now, Own Your Past, Change Your Future. You can pick it up at ramseysolutions.com. Dr. John's new book is absolutely amazing. Micah is going to start us off this hour in Philadelphia. Hi, Micah. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. Thanks so much for having me. Sure. What's up? Hey, so I'm just looking for a little bit of financial advice here. My wife and I, we got married this past May. We are both full-time and fully employed or employed full-time, I guess what I'm trying to say. We have about $135,000 left on our mortgage. We have no other debt or payments at this point.

I have about, I should say we have about $35,000, $40,000 in liquid cash at this point, not including our emergency fund. I'm just wondering, Dave, what do I do with it? Wow. Way to go, dude. You've got to feel like you're on top of the world. I do and I don't. It's weird in this financial climate. I'm looking for advice. What do I do and I don't. It's weird in this financial climate. Yeah, looking for advice.

Yeah. Well, we teach a thing that we believe and have proven to be the shortest distance between where you are and becoming a millionaire, becoming wealthy. And that is the baby steps process that we've taught for years. And baby step one is $1,000 saved. You've done that. Two is you're debt-free, but the house. You've done that. Three is you've got your emergency fund.

You've done that twos you're debt free but the house you've done that threes you've got your emergency fund you've done that you should now be putting away 15 percent of your household income into retirement out of your budget are you yes sir yeah way to go more yeah actually i uh we have 500 towards the roth ira each month more than 15 percent uh i did not do the numbers. I believe that that's right around, that's on top of our, we each have 401Ks as well. Okay. You need to add up what you're putting into retirement. It does not need to be any more total than 15% of your household income. Then you don't have kids.

You just got married, I assume, right? That's correct, yes. Okay. So baby step five is kids college. We can skip that one for now and baby step six is we put everything else on the house until the house is paid for so that means 35 000 is going on your house today and if you back down the retirement to 15 probably more of your budget monthly can go on your house as extra payments the average millionaire that we have studied in america pays off their home in 7 to 12

years. We call them baby steps millionaires because they followed these baby steps. How old are you? I'm 25. What's your household income? About $130,000. What's the balance on the mortgage? $135,000.

Oh, you're going to have this house paid for in five years four years i would love that i would love you're gonna have a paid for house by the time you're 30 if you do what i'm talking about because we threw 100 we just threw 35 at it that leaves 100 you make 135 and so 20 000 bucks extra a year and you're gonna be done in five years yeah you're gonna you're gonna really be cooking man and that's gonna put you in a position with no house payment to save like a maniac for retirement and wealth building. And you're going to become a millionaire probably by the time you're 35. Yeah, and then you have kids. You can dump into their college fund and be done with that real quick.

Easy. Easy. Good for you guys. College fund becomes a wink and a nod at that point because you've gotten yourself so in control and you're just ready to go. Cash flow in college. Man, what a great a great start yeah that's pretty cool man that's what when you do it right and you take when you're when you it was modeled for you the right way to do it and then two people had that model and they come together man now you're talking about you're not changing family trees you're changing family legacies at that point right this is this kid's a legacy move yeah

yeah way to go dude very well done. Caleb's in St. Louis. Hey, Caleb, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave and John. I appreciate you all taking my phone call. Sure, what's up? I have a question. My father-in-law, whenever my wife was young, his company offered a stock option that he could buy into for her.

And then when we got married, it became ours. And it's grown. It's about $16,000 now. And we're wondering, is there any way to put that into some kind of child's college saving fund or anything like that without any tax implications? No. No. Cash it out.

Pay the taxes. They're not going to be much yeah so what was it worth what was it worth when she got it do you have any idea um it's gone up uh these past couple years um you know by 60 70 uh cents um and we have about a hundred uh hundred uh units of stock but i mean let's say 16 000 total dollars right so let's say it was worth 10 000 when she got it you're only going to pay taxes on the gain over what it was worth when she was when she got it and the gain is at 15 and so if it's six thousand dollars six uh 15 is only 900 bucks okay so you're not you're not going to have a big tax bill here it's going to be a tax one other one other follow-up question to that then so if we would put that into a 529 or something um is that something we could use to pay for children's private education,

you know, while they're in grade school and high school and stuff? Yes, but I wouldn't. You wouldn't? No, I would save it for college until you've got college covered. If you've got more than you need for college, then, yeah, I might start doing some private schooling at that point. But you need to cover private schooling out of your budget or not do it. Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate it, guys. Sure. Thanks for the call. Hey, Dave, if you get a lump sum like that, they would have 15 grand to dump into the Roth, I mean, to a 529.

Is there a cap on how much you can roll into a 529? It's not a roll. It's just a purchase. Depends on the 529. Some of them are up to 50,000. Some of them are maxed at 10,000. Is that annually or at a time? absolutely okay so but college would be um more important to pay cash for in a student loan epic failure environment than worrying about paying cash if you don't you don't bleed your college fund dry paying cash for private school for the for a kindergarten right right and people do that because there's very little data that shows that where you went to kindergarten causes you to succeed very little data i mean between the you went to kindergarten causes you to succeed. Very little data. I mean, between the extremes. Well, especially the gap between public and private school.

Well, that depends on the school system, obviously. But I'm saying that the bottom end versus the top end, yeah, there's a gap. But the bell curve in the middle, not a lot of gap. My wife reminds me all the time that there's a few things you do inside your home that have much more predictive value on where your kids, how successful they are than the other. Exactly. Very few pieces of data that say you went to a $25,000 a year kindergarten, and that's why you're where you are today. If parents will read, parents will read to their kids, and parents will connect to their kids.

The long-term data there is much more predictive. Exactly. Exactly. This is The Ramsey Show. No matter what time of year it is, focusing on your family's financial plan is always a smart move. I get questions all the time about where to start and what to do first. One of the most crucial and affordable first steps to take is to protect your family and get term life insurance. I know it's not glamorous, but all the other steps mean a lot less if something happens to you and your family has no financial protection. Getting term life insurance needs to be a top priority. I recommend 10 to 12 times your income and lock in rates for 15 to 20 years.

This gives you plenty of time to get out of debt and build wealth. I've been recommending Zander Insurance for over 20 years and they understand and live this strategy and will take the time to help you find the most affordable term life rates. Go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282. It's not that expensive, it's not complicated, and you need to do it now. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and your money. Matt is with us in Atlanta. Hi, Matt. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, David and Dr. John. So basically, my wife and I are about to finish Baby Step 3, and also she's pregnant. And I know that when people are in Baby Step2, you say to pause, pile up money,

but I'm not sure about when, once you're in, like, four, is that still the advice? No. You have an emergency fund. Yeah. So, basically, I have a $20,000 check I'm waiting on. Seven of that will be used to finish up fully funding the emergency fund, and then I'm trying to figure out what to do with the rest. Good for you.

Cool. Is this your first baby? Yes. Awesome. Congrats, man. Congrats. Do you know what you're having? No.

No, we don't. Oh, that's cool. If it's a boy, John or Dave are great places to start for names. Well, her dad's name is John. Her dad's name is John, so I feel like that's where you should probably leave it john yeah but anyway so uncle david so oh there you go there you go you never know so tell me there's a chance so uh yeah you just your emergency fund if it is beefy enough that you have a comfort level and your wife has a comfort level if you're at the six months if you need to be at the six months i had to feel comfortable go ahead and take some If you need to be at the six-month side to feel comfortable,

go ahead and take some of the money and get to the six-month side if the $7,000 is only getting you to the three-month side. I don't care what you do with it as far as that. But fill that emergency fund to where, okay, I'm a brand-new dad, brand-new mom. First time I've done this, it's kind of exciting and scary all at the same time, and so I really want to have enough in my um you know a big enough umbrella you know in case it rains i need i need a good emergency fund and so whatever makes you happy there whatever makes you feel comfortable there is fine but the um then beyond that we're just going to work the rest of the baby steps you need to be setting up your budget to begin to put 15% of your household income into retirement.

And if you want to use some of this cash, then after the baby comes, you can set it over in a savings account and use it to open a 529 after the baby comes and you get the Social Security number. Right. And then more specifically, what I'm wondering is if I should use $12,000 of that to fully fund a Roth for tax year last year before that deadline, just because I don't have a match, so Roth is sort of my best bet as far as... It won't hurt. It won't hurt anything. If you want to do that, that's fine.

Or you could do maybe three things. You could use some of it to start the 529 and some of it to fund a Roth. Hey, Matt, are you expecting any loss of income here? Yes, a little bit. Okay. You may want to cover that, too. Yeah, so one of the things I'd recommend, if you haven't already, and we've talked about on the show a million times, I'd sit down with your cash position and see what it would

look like to go sit down with your with the people who are going to deliver your baby with the hospital and come up with a prearranged price. A lot of ambiguity. The reason you would stack up cash is because you don't know what's coming. And the more you can put a pen to paper and say, this is the amount of money

we're going to lose every month while my wife takes time off or i take time off this is the amount of money the birth is going to cost it gives you a lot more peace as you're heading into this new season of your life yeah if you got it all detailed out but it's beautiful that you have this check coming and you're hitting this hitting the stride all at this time so here's the thing if it takes you three months to uh implement all this after the baby comes, that's all fine. And that gives you some, you're going to have a lot more knowledge about all the variables by then than you have today. Yeah, there's nothing like a sticker shock of diapers cost. I think they're laced with gold. Are they?

They're so expensive, right? They're a million dollars. So I had an idea. I was way off. So it took me a couple of months to settle into this is the new rhythm. This is how much it's going to cost to have this little human in our house now. Yeah, it's that and the formula stuff. It's real. Paul's with us. Paul's in San Antonio, Texas. Hey, Paul.

Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than we deserve. What's up? Well, to start, I found you guys by accident scrolling about a month ago, and now I've turned into a daily listener. That's our best promotion.

Welcome to the gang, man. Yeah, well, thank you. So, with everything since 2019, I've done everything backwards. I went from being in a very good position and making plenty of money. My income has been cut by more than half after my company folded. I moved my family to Texas so I could move here around because I do construction. Unfortunately, my wife cannot work right now, so we're a single-income family, and I'm getting ready to start a small business on the side

with things that I already own so I can minimize the costs and have to get my licenses and my insurance and everything. I make dirt for money right now at the company I'm at, and I'm wondering if maybe I should just do the other job 100%, just jump head in, or if i should just try to do it on weekends for the time uh what's dirt what do you make i make 19 an hour that's not dirt and how many are you getting are you getting 40 hours uh some weeks 40 some weeks i'll get like 73 okay all right so you're getting yeah you're not that's not dirt i mean you're not maybe making what you used to make but that's not a yeah there's no shame in that situation and that's a whole lot more than zero which is what you'll make if you don't get jobs lined up in your new gig

yeah so yeah you work the you work the side gig as a weekend thing until you get some real money coming in on a bunch of jobs lined up and when you can get more jobs lined up than you have time to do on the weekend then we can talk about backing down your hours or quitting the day job but um you don't you don't jump from um hero to zero in any time anybody has backed themselves into either this answer or that answer i always want to step back one more step. You could need to get another job for a while, and there may be another construction company there in Texas that's going to pay you $24 an hour or $28 an hour

and guarantee you time. It may be that there's an intermediate step, and I know you don't want to take a new job because you're starting this new one and you hope this new one's going to take off, but you may have to do that for a season, right? Yeah, if it takes you six months to a year to get your weekend thing moving, then if you 24 somewhere else instead of 19 at this place which

you're not thrilled with this place six times you mentioned that in the early days of this conversation so uh why isn't your wife working you said um we're actually working with an immigration lawyer she overstayed her visa many years before i met her and part of the part of that is uh she's not allowed to work, or it will automatically fail her for overstaying or something crazy like that. Okay. So how long does this take to get the immigration thing cleaned up? Well, I paid my deposit to my lawyer in March, and I have to come up with the remainder.

It's another $4,800 to file the paperwork and then wait for the courts marches yesterday a march a year ago last year yeah so how long does this take oh well they won't move forward with it until i have my full payment and oh so they're waiting for a year on you to finish paying them yeah well this is a priority that you haven't made a priority um yeah it's it's definitely a major one um i've defaulted on a few things trying to put some money away for it and yeah how much is your truck payment uh my truck payment is 4.99 yeah sell your truck no so you're gonna lose you're gonna lose your wife yeah sell your truck. No. You're going to lose your wife. Yeah, sell your truck, brother. And I do have my motorcycle up for sale. I own it free and clear.

Good. Trying to sell it. What will it sell for? I'm trying to get $9,500 for it. Good. That'll pay the lawyer. Do it. Motorcycle for spouse.

That's a good trade every day of the week, brother. Yes. Most spouses. yes most spouses i can imagine her walking outside and seeing that thing in the driveway for the last year and this hasn't been paid sell it oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you got a bunch of other stuff around your neck right now you need to get off from around your neck called debt uh in order to get her immigration straightened out so she can make money. And guess what? You can make more money, and you don't need to be starting a business with no income

while you've got all these other things you're having to go into default on to try to put stuff together. So you need to clean up a bunch of debt, and you need the extra income of the extra side hustle plus your new job, plus your new job that John was talking about where you make money so and yeah you're probably selling the truck selling the motorcycle getting yourself out of debt moving in the right direction hold on i'm going to send you a copy of the total money makeover we'll show you next time. We'll be right back. Well, the new book, John, is selling very well in pre-sale.

Own your past, change your future. It'll make you laugh, cry. I did both. And it'll challenge you for sure. When you take the steps outlined, you'll take advantage of the free therapy that is part of the pre-purchase deal. You're set up to win and right now is a really good time because people are kind of uh something about coming out the back side of this pandemic stuff that has um people are kind of had an existential wake up that maybe shiny toys

aren't everything well you know the ramsey millionaire study we did um we didn't do a full study there but we've done a small study just checking in with people how are you doing and it's overwhelming how how rough people are doing out there mental health is tough relationships are busted up people are scared hurting it's it's I knew it was rough I did not know it was this rough yeah it's a tough season for people out there and you know the thing is the and these aren't people that necessarily were in a line around the block for therapists before. No. But they were just going, okay, there were some weaknesses in my processes, in my mental health.

I had not dealt with some things. And I was getting away with that because everything was going good. Yeah. And then when everything wasn't going good, it kind of brought everything boiling to the surface and so we're getting people the bad news is people are having to deal with stuff that they should have dealt with the good news is they're having to deal with stuff they should have done it's very similar to people living their financial lives with no margin we lived our lives with no mental relational margin right we just tolerated each other we were co-managers of a house we

weren't together well we decided that facebook friends were real friends and now you discovered they're not and we ran from thing to thing to thing to thing to thing we didn't have deep discussions with each other so i just assumed you believed everything i believed and vice versa and then all of a sudden man you ripped that scab off when you realize that maybe a tweet is really not a discussion that's exactly right maybe it's not a healthy back and forth between someone you love. Or I didn't know you. I didn't know you thought that or believed that, right? It's just been a great reveal.

And kind of like when you owe a bunch of money, you have a lot of payments covered, and then all of a sudden you lose your job, it's been very much like that. Yeah, this has been revealing. Yeah. So if you can do one thing that would make the time that you have even more worthwhile when you do it and you would of course you would

we get that so here's the thing we're partnering with better help we're going to give you a month of free one-on-one weekly therapy when you pre-order a copy of the new book, Own Your Past, Change Your Future. And this is going to be a number one bestseller. We're selling them. They're going out the door like crazy. John's podcast is unbelievably popular, The Dr. John Deloney Show. If you haven't listened to it, tune in. And so get this book on pre-order because it's only 20 right now and you get a free

month of one-on-one weekly therapy and you get the ebook and you get the audiobook so it's quite a few hundred dollars worth of stuff here for 20 bucks and uh because we're really trying to step into this area where folks are struggling and give you some solutions and they're all in this package so get all of it at ramseysolutions.com and let's get started our question of the day comes from blinds.com they have a 100 satisfaction guarantee that means even if you mismeasure you pick the wrong color they'll remake your blinds for free you'll get free samples free shipping and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSY to get the best possible deal. Today's question comes from Gia in New York. Gia writes, I paid off my home, got a raise,

and became everyday millionaire last year. My wife and I lost our son in 2016, and to get our mind off of him, I started working on investing and saving. My house is worth $650,000 and was paid off in nine years. We have $400,000 in investments, $30,000 in college savings, and $30,000 cash savings. Now I have zero drive and zero motivation to show up at my $150,000 a year job. Every passion I've had no longer interests me. My plan for 2022 is to leave my job and get a minimum wage job close to home that I enjoy. My wife thinks I'm nuts. What should I do? Man, GF, we were sitting here. The first thing I would do is get up out of my chair and give you a hug for about 30 seconds.

Long enough that it became uncomfortable for both of us and then long enough that we got through that. And you had a chance to breathe for the first time since 2016. Anytime you try to skip grieving, and especially when you try to plug up holes of grief with stuff or speed or accomplishment, there's always a price to pay. And it sounds to me, my brother, like you are completely and utterly burnt out because you've been running from your son. You've been running from dealing with that pain. And, Dave, that's a common thing.

I don't know anybody that's never lost somebody that tried to run and jump into something else to stay busy and come up with a new goal but the problem is when you leave your 150 000 job and go to your minimum wage job you're going to take you with you you will go with you and that pain and hurt will go with you and it and you're just going to add some more pain and hurt that's right because you're gonna uh you're you if you go jimmy buffett on a sailboat for a year you're you're gonna go with you you'll be on that boat that's right you're gonna go with you and so you you can't get away from this so everybody in this situation whether it happened a month ago whether it happened you know how long ago eight years ago six ago. I want everybody in this situation to

get by yourself all alone and write your son a letter about how much you miss him, what the last few years have been like. Um, and sometimes that's a short letter. Often the folks who have read them to me in a counseling session, or they've read them to me, um, privately or talk to me, they're long long, and a lot of stuff comes up here, and then I want you to make a call to a counselor and go because, man, there's a lot of pain here. And I'll tell you this, on the other side of this, there is a peace and healing that you have not known for years and years and years.

But usually it starts with that first, I haven't said this stuff out loud. It's been locked up in me for so long. I just want to talk to my son one more time and we're going to start there that one's hard yeah so um yeah that's a step you need to get in a situation in a group of people um that you're not pretending with. Yeah. You heard me. Grief demands a witness.

Yeah. You've got to have people around you. Yeah. And, yeah, you've got to sit down with somebody, and you don't need to quit your job. No. Because your job is not the problem. Right.

And you're not going to get away from this. This feeling of I have zero drive and zero motivation. The other problem is this. There's a high incidence of a marriage loss with the other problem is this the there's a high incidence of a marriage loss with the loss of a child that's right and it's because people don't deal with it right or they grieve differently one says let's suck it up and get over it the other well you know goes underwater over here and becomes a millionaire right uh and his wife and the wife standing by going you're running so hard away from everything into something positive.

Thank God he wasn't doing cocaine with his level of enthusiasm. That's right. That's right. You know, but, you know, it's a method of running. And so now you hit the wall. That's right. You ran smack into the wall, you bounced off, and now you're laying there going, what just happened? I think I'll just go work a minimum wage job.

That won't work. Zero drive and zero interest, zero motivation. That's depression, right? That's what that is. You ran out of gas. That's right. That's grief. Go deal with it.

Get in the middle of it. You took all the anger from the loss and you burned it all up doing stuff. Yeah. And you put a finish line for yourself and you thought, when I cross that line, I'm going to be free. But when the anger ran out, the fuel was gone. That's right. And now we're just sitting here. You crossed that line and there you were free and boy and when but when the anger ran out the fuel was gone that's right and now we're just sitting here you crossed that line and there you were and i'm just like what do i do now yeah that's a man i'm sorry it breaks my heart it's a

hard place to be it's a horrible thing to go through i can't imagine doing that um but yeah congratulations on winning on the money thing um but I'm really sorry for how you got there and the way it's worked out. So, yeah, I would, yeah, what John said, let's get in with a therapist. Let's get a group of guys in your corner. Start reading something every day that makes you cry. Talk to people every day. You haven't cried enough yet. You've probably cried a lot, but you still haven't cried enough.

And, man, it's hard. It's hard. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us, America. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about relationships, mental health, careers, jobs, money. It's all right here on the Ramsey Show. Jackson's with us in Athens, Georgia. Hi, Jackson. How are you?

Hey, Dave. How are y'all doing? Better than. Hi, Jackson. How are you? Hey, Dave. How are y'all doing? Better than we deserve, bro. What's up? Hey, I just had a question about a possible career change. I have a good job right now with PepsiCo running a delivery route, and I have no debt. It's a $70K job, and I'm hesitant to do it,

but I've been really looking into a program that South Georgia Tech offers where you can become a dealer, like a heavy equipment dealer technician for Caterpillar or John Deere. And that's, that's the kind of work I really like. And I'm kind of hesitant to drop this job because it pays really well. And I probably you know easily buy a house in the near future if i just stick with it and do it but i guess the work isn't i got confused you said dealer and then you said technician are you going to become a diesel mechanic that's what i was looking at okay all right so what's dealer mean uh like a caterpillar dealer oh work for like a caterpillar dealer yes sir as a diesel mechanic okay okay yes yep okay sorry what kind of money will you make when you're all

licensed up and you've got a full-time job well i'm sure, there's an internship program, so I'm sure I would be very low, maybe like 15 to 20 an hour starting out. But I've listened to some other guys who have, you know, stuck with their companies, you know, 10 years or so, and they're making what I make, if not better, especially the field technicians, and that's probably what I would want to do. The guys who actually, you know, go out and deliver stuff on the farm, or not deliver stuff, but work, go out and deliver stuff on the farm, or not deliver stuff, but work on stuff out in the field.

I don't know. I'm not sure about heavy equipment and about tractors, but diesel mechanics in general, it's not unusual to hear somebody making six figures. Right, right. So, and I don't know where you're getting your information about your low paid intern uh because if you go through a certificate program you shouldn't be in an internship for very long or it'll be part of your academic program right well the internship would be during school okay so like it's a two-year program total but you will go to school for like i believe it's three months and then work for the dealer between semesters. And the dealer's sponsoring you, so they're paying for your school.

That's fantastic, man. And so look at that not as a... Can you do that while you'd work? Well, you would... The campus is not near me, so I would work for the dealer of choice, or I say of choice, the one that would sponsor me. So I'd have to find one to sponsor me first.

But you have to quit your Pepsi job to do this, right? Yeah. Yeah, the Pepsi job is a lot of work. Okay, so single, you're single, and you make 70, and you're going to go down to 35 or 40 for two years and get your degree and then go up to 100, but it's what you want to do right that's that's the path and that's the question then yeah i would do that all i twice in my career i've taken pay cuts to get to a place that i wanted to go that ended up working out

and you want to make more at the end of the story that's exactly right yeah but you're you're making more at the end of the story right yeah so i guess guess I just don't want to get into the field, and then for some reason I didn't look at all the, I guess, factors. You can always go back and be a delivery driver at Pepsi. Always. Yeah, yeah, I guess that's true. True. Okay.

Go do what you want to do, man. Enjoy your life. Yeah yeah but here's the thing um i'm gonna i think you kind of have looked at one possible way one possible path to accomplish the goal because the goal is 10 years from today you're a successful diesel mechanic making 100k that's the goal right well now how do we how we got there you found one possible way that's a company sponsored thing the reason it's company sponsored is they have a shortage on mechanics and this is a way for them to get mechanics it's a feeder for their recruiting system that's why this company is doing this right and part of the deal if you sign on to this is

that you'll work for that dealer that sponsors you for x amount of years yeah i don't want to do that i don't want to sign something where i'm doing that for too long look at that trade-off because that may be that may not be the best path to get to 10 years from now i'm a decent mechanic making 100k you might be finding at a local community college for much cheaper and then you got to go get your own work which clearly you're going to be able to find the work right it cheaper and then you got to go get your own work which clearly you're going to be able to find the work right it's possible that you got community colleges in georgia that are free right or near free and you go over there and you get your certificate

uh nights and weekends right and you keep the papers a job and then you're not beholden to anyone and you walk out and you're making 100k after two years not going through all this stuff and you're not handcuffed to somebody because they gave you two dollars worth of tuition right so you need to really look into that part of it but the end goal is worth looking at now what i want you to do is i want you to have four different ways you can get there right now you have one and i'm not positive it's the best because i don't know what the other three are yet, and neither do you. And when you can take all the variables, all the unknowns out of this by continuing to research, then you're ready to pull the trigger on which of the four options, I'm making this up, that you're going to choose.

But if you put four really strong, reasonable options in front of you, two of them are going to suck, and two of them are going to be decent, and it's going to be hard to choose between two of them and and then you're going to you're going to find the right way to do this there's a lot of ways to get at things there's a lot of ways to open a a subway a sub sandwich restaurant a lot of different ways to do it one is to buy a franchise it's not the only way you can do it so there's a lot of ways to get in that You've just got to figure out how you're going to get there, and you don't have enough options yet, and you don't have enough information yet. But conceptually, where you want to go, we're both on board. And the ultimate question is, is it okay to take a pretty significant pay cut

to get where I want to go, and I've got a training I've got? Absolutely. Temporarily. Absolutely. Yeah. If where I want to go is more money. That's right. And doing what I love. Thereporarily. Absolutely. Yeah. If where I want to go is more money. That's right. And doing what I love.

There you go. But this idea that I have to accept less money to be happy is absolute hogwash. Incorrect. And that's not his question, by the way. All right. Melissa is with us in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hi, Melissa. How are you?

I'm good. Thanks for taking my call, guys. Sure. What's up? Quick question. I married in, my husband is amazing, but his family is a little bit iffy when it comes to money. And so I was trying to talk with my brother-in-law just a little bit because they're in a rock and a hard spot.

He has borrowed money from another family member and that other family member keeps on, uh, changing the agreement, changing things up, jerking him and his wife around. And so I finally said, you know what?

The best plan might be to go take out an actual loan because the loan people won't jerk you as round as much as the family member is. Does that sound advice to give them? Yes. Okay. Melissa, high-five yourself. You've done good. Yay!

Because not only are they getting jerked around, and not only is it a moving target, and we can't hit a moving target in this case, but Thanksgiving dinner tastes different when you eat with your master, and the borrower is slave to the lender. And so when you sit down, if your mom and daddy are the sweetest people in the world, but they loan you some money, until you pay them back, that turkey tastes different at Thanksgiving.

And it messes up your Thanksgiving and your kid's Thanksgiving and your husband's Thanksgiving, right? It messes up everything. Yeah. And the thing is this. What I would do is add a little icing to this advice and uh go ahead and whisper in both of their ears like never do that again okay like the one that made the loan and the one that took the loan don't ever do that again

never do this for people that you supposedly love if you want to help a relative and you have the money, give them the money. No strings attached. Or don't. But don't loan them money. Ever. And, Melissa, the one other piece of advice I'd tell you to pass along to your brother-in-law, sister-in-law, is get this final payoff from your family member in writing. Because you don't want to go to the bank and take out a loan for seventeen hundred dollars or ten thousand dollars whatever this is and then a month later uh actually you owe me eleven or you owe me twelve thousand let's get it in writing let's go to the bank get that number and get it how much do i owe you if i wrote you a check today that's right send me an

email with that yep that's all it needs to be doesn't have to be a contract just send me an email tell me exactly how much it is so i've got a copy and I can remember what you said because I don't want to forget what you said. And I don't want you to forget what you said. Especially not when you... That's that part of it. There's that. Oh, that puts us out of the Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country.

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