The Ramsey Show - App - Using F.I.R.E. To Retire Can Lead To Regrets (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 28, 2023

Ken Coleman & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss:  The importance of combining finances with your spouse when you get married, from the blog: And Two Become One: How to Combine Bank Accounts Why the FIRE movement can lead to concerns about having enough money, from the blog: Can I Retire Early? What to do when your values don't match your career, How to decide if you should take a severance and find a new job or risk staying and being laid off, from the blog: What to Do if You're Laid Off? "How can I be more generous outside of tithing?", from the blog: The Generosity Effect Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Here's an EveryDollar deal just for our listeners: get a 14-day free trial PLUS $15 off your first year of premium. Click the link below and start budgeting today! www.everydollar.com/george Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Movie and Storage Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. We help you win in your life, specifically your money, your work, and your relationships. 888-825-5225 is the toll-free number for you to jump in. It is your show, America. We're here to help you.

I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me. And we will walk through your money questions, your work-related questions. Maybe you want to pivot. Maybe you want a promotion. You're wanting a raise. You're trying to figure out, should I launch the side hustle? Do I go all in on it?

Those work-related questions, I'm here to help on those and george will lead us on the money questions triple eight eight two five five two two five let's go to saratoga new york uh the site of i believe a very famous revolutionary war battle the battle of saratoga george i always learn so much when i'm hanging out with you yeah i've decided I'm going to start doing it until they make me stop. A little bit of historical connection to the city where people call in from. Am I getting the thumbs up in there? They don't like that. They love it.

I'm going to keep doing it. I'm getting more thumbs up than thumbs down, so Zach, go pound sand. Thank you very much. Mark is there. Mark, how can we help? Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call. You bet. I'm 24? Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call. You bet. I'm 24 years old, married.

My wife and I have a two-year-old, soon-to-be two-year-old. My wife and I handle our finances separately. She kind of has her own thing. She's got quite a bit of student loan debt. She's got a really good job. She does that. I have no debt. I have a four-year degree or no student loan debt,

but I have $25,000 in credit card debt. I have a pickup truck that's fully paid off. I paid cash for it brand new about six years ago. And I'm wondering if I should sell the truck, pay off the debt, or if there's a, and take on a new car loan and just have the one payment versus having multiple credit cards different things and kind of maxed out on a credit card which is the better way to help improve the credit score so then we can hopefully get in and combine our finances and go get a house there's a lot going on here my friend but i think you're well you're well aware of I mean, it started with my wife's got her own thing going on, and then it's we're going to move this to another kind of debt,

and we want the credit score. So let's walk through this step by step. The $25,000 is what kind of debt? It's credit card. All credit cards. And what is your income? So it was about $60,000 to $80,000. And now I play professional sports in the minor leagues,

and now I'm transitioning to kind of getting out of the career of that. So right now I'm about $35,000 to $50,000. So are you doing that part-time? No, it's full-time, but it's kind of the writing on the wall, so you're trying to get out of it. Are you in baseball? Yes. Okay.

So what is the next thing for you? Have you looked into a different career path? Yeah, and that's kind of the hard decision because there's jobs out there that I know I've been offered and they're pretty good money and I could take that next chapter, but it's also the possibility of a high-end income and continuing to chase the dream is still in play. So it's kind of that.

The dream being so. Yeah, baseball. So Major League Baseball. We're talking about big time here. So are you AA, AAA? What's your situation? Yeah, for the last year I've played since I was in high school. So, yeah, we're close, but we had a hinder this past year.

I got injured, and we're coming back and playing not affiliated anymore. So we're trying to get back into it. But, yeah, that's the unknown of all unknowns. Well, the reason I ask is because I've got some buddies. I'm much older than you now, but I had some buddies who went after it. They made it up to double A ball and they had some injuries. And at some point you said earlier in this call, the handwriting is on the wall. And then you said about a minute later, but I don't necessarily want to give up on the dream. And I think that, you know, this is your shot. You got one shot at this. And once you walk away from it, your chances go way, way, way down.

And so I think you're going to have to decide here on that point. I want to give it back to George on the money thing because there's a lot going on. But I think at some point you're going to have to decide, what can I do while still trying to stay with the dream? What does that look like? How can I make the most money in the offseason? How much longer am I going to give it? And I think that's got to play into all of this.

Yeah, and I'm even, like, in season now. I'm, like, working, you know, part-time whenever I can just to honestly pay my debt. Good. So I'm making minimums, which is frustrating because I see that I'm paying minimums, and then I'm paying minimums. You see the balance go up.

And what's the interest on this credit card? So it's two cards and a personal loan. The personal loan was during the birth of my son. And then the two credit cards, they're not fixed, so they're anywhere between 15 and 22. Okay. So the way I see it right now, as of what you described, I'm looking at basically a single guy making $35,000, trying to pay off $25,000 in credit card debt with high interest. Which is why my wife and I are separate finances,

because my wife's job is fairly good. She has her student loan. She covers that. We work together for rent in doing that. But in terms of this, like you said, I'm looking at it the same way, $35,000. Well, at that point, get a roommate. When we got married, this is a team effort, man. It's both of our incomes.

That's the wealth-building strategy. It's my debt, her debt, her income, my income. So what does she make? She's anywhere between $70,000 and $90,000 with commissions. Okay. And then she has just student loan debt? Yep. And then she makes her car payment and everything like that. So she has a car loan too? Yep.

And you're talking about selling your truck, but then you're saying, I'm going to have to go get another car loan because you don't have any money. Well, I was more wondering if there's, because with a car loan, fixed interest, fixed percent I'm paying, it's going to be much less than the 15% to 20% I'm paying with the credit card. And I could start at scratch with the vehicle, but I would be making probably half the monthly payment. Yeah, but I don't like just trading one version of stupidity for another. What I would want to see you do is sell the truck. What can you get for that? About $20,000.

So I could almost cover my debt. So if you sell it for $20,000 and you take, let's say, $10,000 of that and buy a cash car and use the other $10,000 to knock down the debt, that gets you further without going further into debt. Yes. So that's what I would do.

I'd go buy a beater car if you're going to sell that truck. Yeah. So that's what I would do. I'd go buy a beater car if you're going to sell that truck. It doesn't free up a payment, but it does give you 10 grand to throw at this and start making some headway. The other problem is your income. We've got to double that income ASAP, and that might mean three jobs. And really better yet, it means having a hard conversation with your wife and going, hey, I'm sorry I have not been a great team player. We've got to do this thing together, and I'm willing to show you and prove to you that I can be trustworthy with money, and I want to tack this debt together because I know we'll go further faster. Would she be willing to have that conversation, or she shut this thing down?

No, we've had that conversation, and the frustrating part is, you know, you're sitting here relatively young, starting a family, and I have 40 to do that was paid for. I have the available funds, no car payment, all this. I just have this dumb credit card debt that I spent because I thought I was going to be making more money years ago. Well, we're going to be right back here if we don't hit the root issue. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to put both of you through Financial Peace University on us.

You've got to convince her this is worth going through. And it's not about Mark and his decisions. It's about where are we going as a couple, as a family? Because right now we're just roommates trying to get by. And that's a plan that will not work. Good financial advice from George there. And Mark, I've watched enough baseball to tell you, if you can't hit the curve and you can't get on base, you probably should go ahead and hang up the cleats. Go get a good paying job. I'm telling you, you got to be able to hit the curve. You can't get on base. You're not going to get today's major leagues. I watch Moneyball. Hey, you guys, health insurance costs are only moving one way and that way isn't down.

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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. That's chministries.org slash budgets. That's chministries.org slash budgets. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by George Camel, and we are here for you this hour. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Now, I don't know how many of you have heard of the FIRE movement. Some of you are going, whoa, where is this going? What does this have to do with money? Well, that's an acronym, George. It stands for Financially Independent Retired Early. And you know about all these things. You're Mr. Financial Trend. Nothing gets over on you. I've read the blogs.

I've seen the tweets. I've seen the tweets. You've seen it all. And so this is a movement where people essentially work themselves to almost exhaustion and beyond. And the idea is in their 20s and 30s, they're working like crazy, socking everything away, saving, living on way less than they make, something that we obviously love, but they have no life. And the idea is that they never work again, which is counterintuitive to what I believe to be true, what we at Ramsey Solutions believe, that you were created to work,

to contribute, if you will. And so this is a headline here I've got in my hands. This is a finance uh yahoo article there the team hates when i do that guys it's just an old paper tactic it's gonna be okay it's all right they get so alarmed nobody wants to hear the paper i think they do i do it on my show all the time the people love it do you guys like the paper crinkle out there it's it's overwhelming in the lobby lobby guests are lying zach likes that one okay very good all right so here's a story in my hands here uh of a couple uh that is now well shall we

say regretting this decision they retired early george with 4.3 million dollars but now this is their quote we don't want to just keep throwing money on the pile and being cheap. So they want to live, but they're afraid to spend. And so this is a scarcity mentality that the man says in the couple. This is Carl and Mindy. And they retired six years ago with $4.3 million saved. And so they focused on doing several things, flipping real estate. They socked away a bunch of money. They still have a bunch of assets and

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But they're not living in a way that they would like to. And so your thoughts on this, George, because I mean, there's another story. We'll get to this in a second. But I mean, this doesn't always work out for people. It sounds great, but then you work and you skip out on so much life, then you're living life on your terms, except maybe you aren't. Well, like you mentioned,

there is some crossover with our principles and the fire movement principles, which is live on less than you make, increase your income, invest and save the difference, be on a budget, spend wisely. Well, these people have taken that to an extreme that is very unhealthy. And so the idea here is, hey, Ken, what if in our 30s, we could have $3 million and just live off of that and never have to work a day again? Here's the problem with

that. You could live another 60 years. So now you're trying to penny pinch to make this millions of dollars last 60 years while going, what do we fill in our time with other than worrying about money? Yeah. So the idea is to stop worrying about money. And yet here they are worrying about money because of a scarcity mentality. So we believe there's a balance there. And Ken, of course, is always preaching that we were created to contribute. That working is actually

good for us. And I'm in the boat of, you know, enjoy your life. So if you have to live this scarcity mindset life to make it work so that you can retire from working for the man, it was a bad plan to begin with. That's right. And I think retirement, and this may be an unpopular opinion, but I'll put it out there. I don't think retirement is what it's cracked up to be if your whole goal is just to not work, as opposed to, how do you want to live? It's not about not working, but that's for a lot of people what retirement is. I just don't want to work. Well, it should be about so much more than that. And I think that, well, I don't think, I know the data plays out that when people stop working for enjoyment and they're not doing something productive, and I'm not talking just

hobbies, that your overall health suffers. So this idea that I'm just going to save and live no enjoyment just so I never have to work again, it's never going to play out well for people. In fact, and then financially, it doesn't either. Sam Dogen, who was one of the forefathers of this movement, retired 11 years ago with $3 million. And big news, it's in this article that came out probably a couple months ago, I covered on my show, that now he's so worried about being able to pay for the cost of his kids who are little, they're toddlers. And he's projecting that tuition, which has steadily gone up over the last decade, that's going to be so much that he's not going to have any money to live off of. And so now he's coming back for one reason only, to cover college education. And again, there's no joy. There's no, as Thomas Jefferson wrote,

the pursuit of happiness here. it's just that scarcity mindset. Well, and he says, I started doing some research and learned that happiness is mostly something that comes from you. It comes from the inside, not an external factor. So he figured this out after some research, Ken, what Thomas Jefferson knew all along. So here's what people long for in retirement is freedom. I think you should continue to work. You've asked me this before. I'm not going to retire. I have asked, freedom. I think you should continue to work. You've asked me this before. I'm not going to retire. I'm not going to. I have asked, Ken. I'm not. I said, what's your

long-term game plan? I mean, you're nowhere close. You look great. You look like a spry 41. I appreciate that. But am I going to work less? Sure. Will I keep the hours and the intensity? Probably not, but not far off because there'll be something as I get older where I can work and contribute and see purpose and experience meaning, and that's good for my overall health. And people have a negative view of work, Ken. That's the problem. They're doing something they hate. Well, that's right. They're not doing the right kind of work. They're not doing it at the right place. They're working for the wrong leaders. That's right.

They're not treated right. That's a very good point there. There's a lot of factors that play into this where you're going, hey, what if we could find you a place that you actually enjoy being at with people you respect, with good leadership, and work that you're passionate about? Yeah. I remember meeting, when we lived in Atlanta, I got to tell you this story about Martha. So Martha was 76, and she worked in the local Chick-fil-A that we went to with our kids, right off of Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, right there in Suwannee, Georgia. All right. And I asked her one time, she was so kind and so sweet.

It was like, she was like everybody's grandma. And I asked her, I was like, why do you do this? She goes, because I just love being here with people and serving and working in a way that just makes people feel comfortable. And I know that I'm making a difference. She was always walking around every table. Can I get you a refill? Can I turn in your children's book for the ice cream? You know, these are very important things that you're going to be dealing with, not to just the future. Oh, I know all about that. I don't have kids yet and I still do that. You always go get the ice cream. That's my hack. And she just said, I just love showing up and being a part of this team. That's the idea. And she did it part-time.

Not because she had to, because she wanted to. Well, you've asked this question, Ken, what would you do if money was not a factor? That gets you dreaming. And usually whatever that thing is, it involves making money. You can make good money doing that. It does. And here's the other thing. In retirement, if you've lived like no one else, so later you can live and give like no one else as we teach, you won't need the money, but you'll need the engagement. You go do that, and then you've got extra money.

You've got that extra spending money. It's just what do you do with it? You can give it away. You do a lot of fun things, and I think that that's really important. So. There's a lot of themes here. Generosity being one of them. Generosity is a huge piece. That's the key to joy, not consuming and trying to achieve some level of wealth. The other one is contentment. And the other one is moderation. Going, hey, maybe it's not good for us to spend

everything we make and be broke. Maybe it's not good for us to live on so little that we live in a scarcity mentality on the fritz all the time. Maybe we should just be on a budget and assign some line items for things like vacations and things like eating out. You can do that once you're out of debt. And let's have a plan to retire with some dignity to where we can do some really cool things and take the kids on amazing vacations. And so I think our plan has a really nice balanced approach. It really does. But for a lot of these folks, they're going to look back and go, I don't have enough money and I don't remember doing anything in my 30s other than working. Which by the way, are some of your best years, health-wise, physically, 30s, 40s, career-wise.

And so to squander that by trying to get to this goal so quickly, I think hurts people mentally, financially, financially, emotionally, all of it. You make a good point. You know, your 30s is still a wonderful decade of testing. I'm in it. And discovery. I'm living it. And seeing who you are and really preparing for that second half of your life if you're blessed to have that. So really interesting stuff. We're going to walk you through how to do it in a way that you truly enjoy your life, have some peace, and look back with no regret, but you're actually reminiscing. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show, America. This is where we help you win in your life, your money, your work, and your relationships.

I'm Ken Coleman, joined by George Campbell. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. George, you talk about this all the time, protecting yourself from emergencies in the form of insurance. I mean, you're a real insurance guru. Can I call you that? I mean, it's kind of a lame title, but I'll take it because I think it's an underrated wealth building tool because it protects all the wealth you're trying to build. That's right. And you've taught me this. There are 10 kinds of insurance coverage you might need

based on what your life looks like today. And we've built a tool called the Coverage Checkup to show you which types you need to add, drop, or adjust. George, give us a couple of examples of some of the ridiculous not needed insurance coverages. My favorite as of late is alien abduction insurance. Right, but that's looking like that may be more and more needed in all those reports on UFOs. I might be on the wrong side of history. I don't know what to believe.

Here's an unpopular opinion. It has nothing to do with this conversation. There are no aliens. Whoa. There it is, folks. Have a blast in the chat room. I'll never read your comments, but those of you who think there are,

I got news for you. They're not. We are alone. You are being duped. That includes you, Zach. He is not liking today's show in the control room. I just love that Ken still thinks there's like some kind of AOL chat room. That's kind of the water cooler of the web that's happening.

There's a chat room on YouTube. There's a live chat, but calling it a chat room, that's very old school. Oh, this is good. I needed to be, so what do you call it? Just a live chat. A live chat versus chat room. Me thinks you're splitting hairs, young friend. There are no hairs being split.

When I think chat room, I think AOL chat rooms from back in the day. So there you go. Oh, I see. Okay, well, aren't I feeling silly? But there are no aliens. Anyway, so moving on, you don't want alien abduction insurance. Or falling coconut insurance. There's a falling coconut insurance.

That's another one. Well. The list goes on. Wow. But you don't have to worry about those, Ken. Just worry about the ones you actually need. Things like home, auto, term life, identity theft protection. So we'll walk you through that in the tool. It's five minutes. This is a five minute tool that makes sure that you have the right coverage. Meaning if I need to add some for protection or I need to get rid of some that are just costing me money, now I've found some money for my budget. I just got a few messages in the last week of people messaging me saying, hey, I took that checkup tool, I reshopped home and auto alone,

and I'm saving $600 a year now. I'm saving $1,300 a year. That's good money. So talking about making more income, you might be overpaying for insurance, and that's a great way to get some more back in your budget. RamseySolutions.com slash checkup could be a way to get a raise. RamseySolutions.com slash checkup. All right, let's go to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma area.

You know, that's where George, the National Cowboy Museum is. Did not know that. Adam is there. Adam, how can we help? Hey, thanks for taking my call. You bet. What's going on? Yeah, so my question is, how do I navigate being like a Ramsey listener, trusting your advice on money, and being a mortgage loan officer? I ask this because I put people into mortgages that do not align with what I would do.

I offer HELOCs, all of it that you don't recommend. While I don't do any of these things, how do I give them to people who ask without feeling guilty? It's a good question. And I've received this question on the show many times. First of all, you're not doing anything morally or ethically wrong. Let's start there. Can you acknowledge that? Yeah. Okay. So you're in an industry where, again, if you don't feel like long-term, your values are aligning, then I think at some point you begin to make the exit.

You don't need to jump right away because, again, you're not doing anything morally, legally, ethically wrong. There's just a disconnect when you see people take out things that you go, this is not good for them, but you can't say that because then you lose your job. And so I think my first reaction to this is don't jump. Let's line something else up and let's do work that we enjoy, but also that produces a result that aligns with our values. And that's what's happening right now. So I don't want you to beat yourself up is what I'm saying. But eventually this is going to wear on you and could create some resentment,

certainly a toxic attitude in yourself. And so I would begin to be looking at what can I do that I align with. And the other piece of this is we need some good guys out there too, Adam, and you're one of the good guys. That's right. And so there's nothing wrong with saying, hey, you know what? I'm going to pass those loans off to someone else, or I'm going to educate the customer on my feelings about this. And if they still want to go through with it, at least I can sleep easy at night. But if they are dead set on taking out the HELOC, I'm going to try to serve them well as they go through this and educate them and go, hey, here's what you need to know about the HELOC. Here's why I don't think it may be the right choice for you. And at least

then you have your morals intact and you're not swindling someone into something. But again, in the mortgage industry, there's a lot of mortgages we don't agree with. And I've got a lot of friends that are mortgage loan officers and we're fans of the 15-year fixed rate mortgage. Might they sell someone a 30-year mortgage because that's what the customer wants? That's part of the job. And so if that's something that is going to eat you inside, like Ken said, then I think it's time to switch to a different industry entirely or find a different role. Yeah, it's just because my parents are realtors. So ever since I got my license, the idea was that all of their clients would do their financing through me. So it's just, we have our own like, you know, place now where it's a one-stop shop for real estate.

And it works out really well like that. And I just, when I first was getting into it, I never thought that this would even be an issue because it's just so perfect and, you know, it's great money and everything, but I just wish I wasn't so like encumbered in the Ramsey way because it just, it is, you know, it doesn't- Like ignorance was bliss before this and now I just know how terrible of an idea this stuff is.

What do you think about what George said, though, Adam? I thought his good guy strategy was pretty good, certainly since your parents are sending these people your way. And so if you're going, look, I know you want this, but let me just walk you through every side of this deal. And you give them perspective. Yeah. See, I wish I could, you know, do that with, like, if I had a lot of clients. I mean, anyone that I get from them, if I were to turn them away, I would lose that, like, relationship. I don't think we said anything about turning them away.

The idea was just helping them see what the best vehicle is for them long term. Which loan is the best for them. Right? Okay. Yeah. Here's the deal. We've covered this from every side, and I can tell you're wrestling with this,

and my point is that if you can't get to a place where you feel good about this, you need to move on in the future. That's the takeaway. Because, George, it'll eat him up. It'll just weigh on him and it's just not necessary. Well, the financial industry is a tough one to be in if you say, hey, I have this very specific view of money, but I work at a bank and banks sell debt products, banks sell credit cards.

But guess what? We also need good, morally valued people working in those banks to serve customers. And so I don't think you're a bad person for being in this if you stay there. But again, if it's something that's going to affect you personally, at some point, it's not worth the money. And I'd rather you go make a little bit less for now as you go find a different career path, something that you can really go, I feel really good that I served that person well today. Yeah, because again, here's what will happen. You will just make yourself miserable. I don't care what it is. You could be in what I would call the sweet spot,

where you're using what you do best to do what you love to produce results that matter to you. And you're in an environment where you feel like the leadership is unethical. They've done something that you really disagree with and it just kind of, they smoothed it over. They've swept it under the carpet. I don't care what the situation is. When there is a sizable disconnect in your values, it's different than putting up with a problem employee or a teammate or even a boss who's just not great, but they're not abusive to you. This is a character ethical, excuse me, not ethical. This is a character or values-based conversation. And when it is so opposed to what you believe, you won't be able to grit your teeth

and bear it for very long. I mean, it's one reason I can't sell cars because I know the people walking in there are going to want to do it and they don't have the money and I'm going to have to walk them through the payments and the debt. I couldn't sleep at night. And so I wouldn't be in that industry because of my values. Yeah. Good stuff. Hey, thanks for the call, Adam. You're a good, good, good young man. Appreciate the call. It's a good call. I think you know what you need to do. Let's just do it wisely. Let's not make any big jumps. Don't move, folks. More of your calls coming up. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back, America. You are joining the conversation here on The Ramsey Show,

a conversation about your life, specifically your money, your work, your relationships. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me. The phone number to jump in on the conversation for your question is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Our question of the day is brought to you by Neighborly, your hub for home services. With 19 service brands nationwide, you can find reliable help from great locally owned businesses like AirServe, Mr. Appliance, and Mr. Handyman. Visit neighborly.com today for help with just about anything for your home. Today's question comes from Lauren in Georgia. I was recently given the option of resigning by the end of the month and receiving severance or potentially being laid off in a couple of months. The company has not been open about what's going on and I honestly don't know if my job is safe.

I have no debt and currently have $2,500 saved for my emergency fund. Severance would be a gross of $35,000. Would you recommend I take the money and find a new one or stay and see what happens? Lauren, I would take the money in this situation because when they come to you and say, all right, we're giving you two options.

Option one, you resign. By the end of the month, we give you the severance. Or you hang around and you might get laid off. Let me just tell you something. They would prefer for you to take the severance. That tells me something. And I can tell you this, you're probably not going to get a severance if you get laid off the way that this is worded worded yes it sounds like there's an ultimatum here

yeah and i just don't i don't want to sit around and just again be waiting for the shoe to drop you know this is about quality of life you know am i am i going to be coming in every day wondering is today the day i i just no thanks i'm out out. I'll bet on me. This is a nice severance here. Her financial situation is great. She has no debt. I'd like to see her have more savings, but you know what? Let me tell you this. Even if I didn't have anything lined up, I'd be working. Even if it was part-time and keeping cash flow coming in and just stocking that up or living off of that and not touching as much of that severance. I'd love to just keep working two jobs, three jobs, whatever, until I found

something just to not touch that severance. Yeah. And this really speeds up your financial plan. Oh my goodness. It's not the ideal circumstances, but having an extra 35 grand to throw with that 2,500 in savings, that'll get you by for a while while you figure out what's next. And like Ken said, in the meantime, I'm starting today and I'm going to be working part-time and hopefully you'll get back on your feet soon. But this company is not the long-term place anyways. And so if they're going to write you a check to leave, I'm taking it. It's you're paying me to leave? Yes. Thank you very much. And I'll take the blender as well. Let's go to Anna next in New Orleans, where some people say Nolans.

Anna, how can we help? Hi, thank you for taking my call. You bet. What's going on? Okay, so I'm 21 years old. I'm about to be a senior this coming fall. I'll be doing my teaching residency, so that's exciting. Great.

And my parents have paid for all of my college, they're big F2U people, they teach it at church and everything. So I was wondering, I just started paying for everything besides insurance on my own, so my rent, utilities, you know, the basic necessities and expenses. And I follow a budget, I do everything, you know, like I'm supposed to, but I'm wondering, and I do tithe, I tithe the second all of everything, you know, like I'm supposed to. But I'm wondering, and I do tithe. I tithe the second all of my income comes in. But I'm wondering, how do I go? Like, I don't make that much.

I kind of make, you know, I probably have an extra $400 every single month after expenses and tithes and everything. So I'm wondering how, and I just hit around $600, like, for an emergency fund. I just started building up savings. So I'm wondering how I can bless other people monetarily when I don't have that much to bless, if that makes sense. Yeah, that's a great question. Wow. How to go above my tithe for other people. Because I want to be, my parents are very big givers and I want to be that way. And I'm trying to, but I don't really know how to, if that makes sense.

How much do you have? Can we put a number on this? Because you sound like you've got your finances just really buttoned up. So what is that small amount that you're referring to that you could use to give? So it's pretty much I put in, like, every single month. I pay my expenses. I, like, set aside enough for gas, groceries, and, like, I have a little entertainment section. And then my savings after all of that is around $400 or $500 every month.

And I usually just put that right into my emergency fund. And whatever else is left, I've just started building on my actual savings because I've already hit the $500. But I'm trying to build that up to $1,000 as much as I can. But I have the initial $500. So everything that's left over, I've just been putting in savings. Right. But my question is, what's that number that you would like to give? Have you got a, because I feel like you've got a number in your head based on the way

you set the question up. Yeah, probably. I don't know. I mean, it doesn't have to be anything like crazy just because I don't, you know, make too much money anyway. But I want to find ways. And I do like try to bless other people, like helping them and things like that. But how can I like, you know, I'm trying to find ways of things, you know, within range, probably less than a hundred dollars. Okay. That's perfect. That's

all I was looking for. Well, I hope you'll be freed up by this motto. I believe our friend Rachel Cruz coined it. Maybe I have no idea. Maybe it's a famous philosopher, but it's give a little until you can give a lot. And that's exactly your plan right now. And I think what you're asking for is what are some ways I can do that tactically? And one way is I call it kind of a bless up fund. And in your budget, you can have a line item under giving that's just kind of bless up. And you've got $100 allocated as the spirit leads you that month. If there's just an amazing server at the restaurant, that person on the corner with the sign, whatever that is.

Maybe it's a friend who goes, hey, the car repair this month is killing me. And you leave an anonymous envelope of cash at their door. So what it allows you to do when you're not broke is be looking upward and outward to go, what are the opportunities in my community, in my friend group, in my family to be generous? And I would set that goal of $100 a month is where I'm going to start. Once I get up to over $1,000 emergency fund and I get this other goal set, I'm going to increase that even more. And so making it a habit is a great, great thing to do. And there's probably opportunities through your local church as well to give beyond the tithe. Maybe there's a mission opportunity. I know we've started different ministries at our church for foster care and buying cars for single moms and

gifting them to them. So find something that you're passionate about. Our friends at Charity Water, Scott Harrison, they're doing amazing work and you can give monthly to support their work across the world in getting people clean water. So I would make it from the heart and something you're passionate about. Yeah, I agree with George. The only thing I'd add to what he said is I'd have that $100 maybe on you and be intentional to go, okay, I've got 30 days to give it away, you know, if we're going to do this monthly and just be present. I think just, you know, and again, everything George said, I completely agree. So you could pick something or you could do this or you could do a combination, but I just like the

idea of you walking around antenna up and looking for opportunities to go, you know what? I see a little kid riding down the street and he's got a flat tire, you know, and he, oh, can I help? You know, well, he can't, yeah, I'm making this up. This is a horrible example, but Eddie is, you know, you, is a single mom and you go buy a bike tire for that kid and that single mom. I'm telling you like, and that just came to my head, but that's the idea of where I am. My antenna is up and I'm looking for an opportunity to just blow somebody away. You know, a single mom who slammed at a restaurant that you're eating. Maybe you're eating with your mom and dad and your mom and dad tip them, tip her. And you go, you know what? I'm going to go all 100. I'm going to put my $100 on there for this single mom. You know, it's just

being present. And I think that will make you so aware. And that's the real joy of giving is being aware and stepping into the moments that I believe God puts us on these people's paths. I love that. So love your spirit. That's amazing. Can we just like, I wish we could clone you and have you all over the world. We could change some things in this country. It's so true.

You are how old did you say? I'm 21. 21. Imagine how generous she's going to be when she's got a huge income and a pile of money. Because money makes you more of whoever you already are. Yeah. And so it's just a magnifying glass. And when you're a broke jerk, you become a rich jerk.

And when you're Anna and you're 21 and you have $100 to give and you're just so excited to give that, when you've got $1,000, when you've got $10,000, we're going to change some lives. So I'm so proud of you. And what we're talking about here is planned generosity versus spontaneous generosity. And I believe both have their place in the budget. They do. Wow. What a bright light. Don't tell me that the future can't be bright. There are some just great young people who get it and they're doing something about it. That is great. And mom and dad went through Financial Peace University. Did you hear that? That helps. Morris Coth and Tot and she something about it. That is great stuff. And mom and dad went through Financial Peace University. Did you hear that? That helps.

Morris Coth and Tot, and she's catching it. There's some trickle-down economics for you. Go look that up. Some of you people don't even know what that phrase means. George Campbell, great hour. Good stuff. I want to thank Austin and the crew behind the glass keeping us on the air in New America for listening.

This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, George Camel here. If you love the show and you want a deeper dive on your money journey, we've got a weekly newsletter that gives you helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Just go to RamseySolutions.com today to sign up for the newsletter. Again, that's RamseySolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.