The Ramsey Show - App - We Bought a Money Pit! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 30, 2021

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Thank you. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out. Talk about life. Talk about your money. Talk about your work, purpose, relationships, mental, emotional health. Hey, we're just talking about you because you matter deeply.

I'm Kent Coleman. I'm joined by my colleague, George Kimmel. We are together to take your calls this hour, 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. George, I don't know if you can tell my voice is a little raspy today. Yeah, I was wondering about that. Ken, do you want to fill us in? Yeah, I think I'm going to. No allergies.

I'm feeling fine. But I went to see Harry Connick Jr. last night at a local amphitheater. He's one of your all-time favorites. He's my favorite all-time artist. I just love the guy. And it was a big band, and we were whooping a little bit. So the voice is a little strained today. So you were hooting and hollering to every song?

Not every song. It's not that kind of a concert. Sure. You know what I mean? But, you know, I love the instruments. So you had the trombone, the clarinet, the flute, the sax, and the drumming solo. So, you know, it's a point. Those big bands, they all do the solos.

Yeah. So I feel like when a musician is doing a solo, an instrumental solo, you know, they need somebody to yell for them because everybody yells for the artist. That's true. So I got a little excited last time.

So you're hooting and hollering for the trombonist out there. Well, you know, they did a lot of, you know, New Orleans style jazz. Oh, yeah. And that's got some soul and some spirit to it.

And it's probably been a while since we've heard some good live music like that with everything going on. It's great. It was outdoor, the amphitheater locally, just the rock quarry. Oh, yeah. Greystone Quarry. Great local venue here. Yeah, very good.

So anyway. You're feeling it. I think so. You're not as young as you used to be. Well, I shouldn't. Staying out late. Yeah, I don't know that I need to be whooping anymore. Yeah.

You know what I mean? But hey. I'll do it for you. Thank you, George. 888-825-5225. I don't know that I need to be whooping anymore. Yeah. You know what I mean? But hey. I'll do it for you. Thank you, George. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Let's go to St. George, Utah, where Scott joins us.

Scott, how can we help? Hey, you guys. Thanks for taking my call today. You bet. What's up? So, my wife and I got a copy of Total Money Makeover several years ago now, got all excited, chopped up our credit cards,

and it didn't really do anything with it from that point until now. We took a road trip and listened to the podcast the whole way. We're just really recommitted now to paying off our debts. So we're in baby step two. My question is... And he's gone. We lost him. Yeah, gone. We totally lost him.

Nope, hold on. Oh, he's back. There we go. There we go. Hold on. We're going to get him so I can pick him up. Scott, are you there? Scott, are you there?

There we go. All right, so we had a cliffhanger. So you said we're paying off debt, but, or something like that. So pick up there. Sure. So we're in babysit two. We're fired up about it. Our question is, so I became a realtor in March 2020.

So right when COVID hit, we've been really learning how to handle our money being self-employed. That's been a challenge in its own right. So, you know, we have this possibility of down months. I mean, this year I've had months where I've made $0 and I've had months where I've made tens of thousands of dollars. So the question is, you know, Dave's philosophy is put every spare penny on debt and aggressively tackle this debt. But we don't want to leave ourselves high and dry in the event that deals fall through or get pushed back. And I end up with a barren month, a $0 month. So I guess the question is, to put it short, what should aggressively tackling our debt look like in our situation? So tell me this. How much debt do you have?

So consumer debt, we have about $63,000, and that's not including the house, which we owe about another $236,000 on. Okay. What kind of debt is the 63? It's predominantly student loans and loans on two cars, two vehicles. Okay. Yeah. I wanted to see if there was cars there. I'm wondering, are any of those cars worth selling? Could you get something cheaper? I mean, how much are these cars worth, do you think, in today's market with it being so hot? So I've evaluated that. I've taken one of them to a couple of dealerships and posted it online just trying to get what I owe out of it to try to then go back and pay cash for a smaller or older car.

So I haven't been able to get a bite for what I owe yet. A car is probably worth a couple thousand dollars less than what I owe on it is kind of what I seem to be finding. Okay. Yeah. Well, let's talk about the irregular income side because you're saying sometimes I have $0 coming in, sometimes I have $15,000.

So with that, what we say with irregular incomes, first of all, you don't get a pass on doing the budget. In fact, you need the budget more than anyone because of this irregular income. So what you want to do is take your lowest monthly estimate. So on the down month, obviously you said some days it's zero, but what is reasonable? Maybe you take a look back and you average it out and say, okay, average month, probably looking at maybe $3,000. You, you use that as the baseline for your budget. And so from then, you're going to start making the priorities, right? You need your four walls covered. You need to start making your payments on your mortgage, your rent, your utility bills,

food, make sure you've got your transportation taken care of. And from then on, you're going to make a list of everything else in priority of importance. And so here's what happens. If the money doesn't come in, we want to make sure we at least have your bills paid, the important ones. Then if you do have money coming in, we can attack the next things on the list. And so when it comes to the debt, you still need to be doing the debt snowball, listing them out, smallest to largest, paying minimum payments on everything but that smallest debt and attacking those. And if you have a great month, well, you just got a great month to attack that debt. And if you have a down month, that's okay. Your debt snowball is just going to look a little bit different and it may take a little more patience. But it also means

not spending everything you made if you brought $15,000 in that month. So you got to focus in this budget and start really making a plan for here's the priorities. We're going to make sure our bills are paid and then we're going to go down and pay the debts. All right. Good stuff there, George. I appreciate that. And a lot of people, they feel like it's almost impossible to process the advice we give on irregular income because of the very nature of we as humans, we're afraid of the unknown. So I can have a ballpark idea, but I don't know exactly what it's going to look like. What is the key to pressing through and actually keeping the emotions out, keeping the mental kind of obsession out of this and going, hey, we can figure this out, even with the irregular income? Yeah, well, a lot of people go, well, because there's unknowns, I'm just not going to make a plan because you can't plan for the unknown.

But instead, what we teach, and this is part of Financial Peace University, you can find this inside of Ramsey Plus, we have the regular income planning worksheet, where it actually helps you write all these down, write your priorities out to go, okay, if we get extra money this month, here's what it's going towards. If we don't, we've got to hunker down and make sure that our four walls are taken care of. And so it can be done. A lot of people have commission type jobs, but you got to go, what is our baseline for what we think is our lowest monthly estimate or average out what was the lowest month I had this past year? Yeah. Yeah. Really good stuff. Oh, I love it. I love it. I love it. All right, folks. We're just getting warmed up. Okay. We're just into this hour one second. Here we go.

It's a free phone call. I don't know what you're waiting on. 888-825-5225. He's George Campbell. I'm Kevin Coleman. And this is the Ramsey Show. Hey, y'all. I'm Christi Wright. Listen, when you're tired and not getting enough sleep, your health and happiness suffers. That's why I'm a huge fan of glorify the number one daily worship and well being app. This app has calming meditations and peaceful sleep music. So you can finally push pause and get some rest. Download the glorify app and get 50% off their full library when you use the code Ramsey by September 31. That's the code Ramsey by September 31st. That's the code Ramsey. The Ramsey Show continues. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, George Camel. And hey,

folks, we really value the input from you, the listeners of The Ramsey Show. It helps us know what's important to you so we can deliver the right content that will help you with the questions and the challenges you have right now. One way that you can share your thoughts with us is by answering a few questions in a new survey we just launched. You can check out the RamseySolutions.com slash survey. It's RamseySolutions.com slash

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And, you know, I was just talking to Tim, who's our director of research here at Ramsey Solutions. Great guy. And this survey really is about them. It's about the listeners, the people listening right now, to make the show better for them. And so this is not a self-serving thing where it's like, hey, say nice things about Ken, although you should. But what it's going to do is make a better show for you guys. So make sure you do that. RamseySolutions.com slash survey. It's a huge help to our team and we really appreciate your feedback. We actually make changes based on what people

have to say. Sometimes. Occasionally. Don't get too carried away. Well, I won't be making the changes. Dave doesn't like that, but we do. Depends on the change. As long as we're still here and employed, I think we're safe. Yeah, I think it's good. No, I'm saying Dave's not going to make a change just because somebody asked us to. No. You feel what I'm saying?

Yeah, we care about you, but not that much. Yeah, got to be careful. Let's go to Dawn in Williamsburg, Virginia. Dawn, how can we help? Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. You bet. My question is a two-part question. My husband and I purchased a home in 2007, and it's been a money pit. We keep thinking after each new repair that it's going to end, and it just is continuing. We do have a great interest rate and so forth, but I really feel

like we're putting too much money into it. Should we sell our house? But more importantly, we want to stay in our community, and if there's nothing on the market at the time for us to buy, because it's a good time for us to sell, is it okay to rent for a year? Is that a financially mistake? Should we buy maybe a cheaper house and then use it as a rental property?

We're just not quite sure how to handle that. Well, there are no laws in Virginia that say you can't rent. So we're off to a good start here. But I love your question because a lot of people listening are going, man, I got to get into a house. And like you're saying, homeownership can be an absolute money pit. And so what I'm hearing from you is you don't want to stay in this house. You want to get out, but there's not really a lot of great options for you right now, correct? Yes. There's a lot of rental options out there, but I heard that's a big financial mistake.

No, no. And I don't know. That is a total myth. Renting is not a sin. Renting, in this case, is going to set you up for amazing success, especially as you guys take the time to do things the right way and get in a home you actually love. Because here's what happens. The biggest financial mistake is getting to a house that you don't like and can't afford. And so I like you guys selling while this market's hot. I mean, how much could you get for the house? $875,000. Wow.

And how much will you actually net after the sale? We owe $630,000 on it. Dawn, here's one thing to be thinking about. Think about how much money you've spent on this money pit house. That's why I'm calling. I know, but think about running those numbers and you can amortize that over

a 12-month thing and look at the rent versus all the money you've spent. I just wanted to throw that in there. You're not wasting money by getting out of this house. It's going to feel like heaven to have someone else fix all the problems for you, won't it? Absolutely. So you're okay with renting for a year until maybe we see something. That would be completely fine. That's why George said that.

He said that really clearly. It's not a sin. We're totally okay with it when it's a financial strategy. But if you're just renting forever when you have the ability to buy a house and do it the right way, the way that we teach, then yes. But in this situation, this is you getting out of a money pit situation. And I'll bet you if you run the numbers, you're going to come out positively financially by renting.

Yeah. And even if it's two years. And I've got to add, I did the Dave Ramsey solution several years ago, and I can't recommend it to enough people. It was dead on. It worked perfectly for us. We are completely out of debt. Our only debt is this house.

Yeah. And it's just fantastic. So I had to put a little plug into that. Good. Well, thank you very much. But here's the deal. You need to take a deep breath after you sell this house and relax a little bit. Reset. You have no debt. It's not going to be a problem for you guys to this house and relax a little bit. Reset.

You have no debt. It's not going to be a problem for you guys to rent. Take your time. Watch the market. Look for something that feels right, then move. Oh, thank you so much. I already feel like a weight's lifted off my shoulders. Yeah, I can tell.

Thank you very much for taking the time. Yeah, you bet. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Yeah. Wow. That's good stuff. And you know what?

She's going to net, just based on the math, of course, there's going to be fees. But, you know, $240,000 sitting in a good, you know, high-yield savings account, that's not going to hurt while you're renting. Yeah. And maybe even adding to that because clearly they have a great income. Yeah, they have a great income and all those expenses are going to go away. And so they just keep adding to that nest egg. And oh, by the way, they can easily afford their rent. And they're going to find a great house that isn't a money pit. Yeah. No

good all around. No brainer. All right. Let's go to Jackson, Mississippi now, George, where Shay joins us. Shay, how can we help? Hi. I'm happy you took my call. I just have a question about what I should do as far as my career. I've been in the same job for about 22 years. I'm 46 years old. There's really no, in this position, no room for advancement at this point. So I'm trying to just see, should I try to get a second job? Should I change careers? I don't know what to do at this stage.

Yeah. Well, what have you been doing? As far as when Well, what have you been doing? As far as when you say what have I been doing. What industry are you in? Hospital. Okay. So are you a nurse, support? No, no.

Just office. Yeah, office. Okay. And so you've hit a lid. So the first question I have when you say I have no advancement opportunities, if you were in a different hospital, different system, whatever, whatever, whatever, and you had opportunities to advance, would you be calling me? Or would you be advancing?

I would be advancing. Interesting. So see, that to me is a great equalizer. That's what we need to be focusing. So is it really a new career career or is it a different place? To the point that when I say this, I want you to tell me how this feels. Are you doing the right thing in the wrong place? See, that is another thing where I really don't know.

What I do, I do it with it may be because I've done it for so long that I do it with D. So what would be up the ladder for you? What would advancement be? Give me a position or a title that you're aware of that you can't get to where you are currently. Probably director of a director of a department. Yeah. Do you love leading people? The concept, at least the idea of like leading and serving people? Yes. Yeah. See, love leading people? The concept, at least, the idea of leading and serving people? Yes. See, that's a leadership position. If you want to lead people, that's not just exclusive to the health industry. Okay.

You know what I mean? Let's have some fun really quick because I think you have some ideas, but you're afraid to say it because it's like, how do I get there? Do I need education? So let's have some fun just for a moment. And I want you to answer this question with your heart, not your head. You got it? Okay. All right. First thing that comes to the top of your mind, and we're going to let our heart just say it. We don't cancel anything out. If you could try anything tomorrow, you knew you could not fail, but you didn't have to commit to it for the rest of your working life, what would you do?

Oh. but you didn't have to commit to it for the rest of your working life, what would you do? Say it. Because while I said that, your brain was running. What came to your mind? Say it. Wellness coaching. Wellness coaching. Interesting. So here's what I think.

I think you need to go do your homework on what it takes to get qualified to be a wellness coach. How much can a wellness coach make? Where would a wellness coach work? Could they work for somebody else? Or is it a cell phone business? That's the homework that I want you to do. Now, when you get the homework on that, you see what it's going to take. Then ask yourself, if I changed positions in a different hospital system and moved up and made more money in that day job leading people, well, could I then get qualified faster and start

my wellness coaching on the side? Shay, that's what you need to be looking into. And you need to figure out how to get there because that's what she wants to be looking into. And you need to figure out how to get there. Because that's what she wants to do, George. Absolutely. It's amazing how just digging in with a few questions can change everything. Well, you've got to take away all the limits. Then the answer pops right to the top of her heart. She didn't want to say it, but then she said it.

Good stuff. Shay, thank you for the call. Don't move. More Ramsey Show coming up. People always say, when I get this promotion, I'll be able to make a real impact. Wrong. When you make a solid plan on how you need to grow, you can become the leader you want to be.

And that's why Ken Coleman, America's career coach and national best-selling author, wrote his new book, From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love. And it's available for pre-order right now. If you want to grow or create a legacy in your career, you need this book. It's not just a concept. It's a proven, clear path that will walk anyone in any industry through a step-by-step plan to take their career to the next level. Plus, if you pre-order From Paycheck to Purpose today, you'll receive our Get Promoted bonus

pack for free, which includes the audio book, e-book, disc assessment, an exclusive talk from Ken, and access to our live event and more. Pre-order from paycheck to purpose at RamseySolutions.com. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show America. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my Ramsey personality, Colleen. George Campbell, we're having a blast today. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Let's go to Hartford, Connecticut, where Michael joins us on the line. Michael, how can we help?

Good afternoon. I am running into a wonderful situation, but it's difficult. Two years ago, or right before 2020, me and my wife bought a new house. And, um, that was a great thing because it gave us more room to run around for our three little boys. And, um, now we're discovering that windows are leaking and the car is breaking down and bodies are breaking down. And I don't want to go back into debt to take care of these huge ticket items because that's what we did before. We're on baby step two.

We've already paid off all of our debts, but I just don't want to go. I mean, the only thing left is our house, and I don't want to go, oh, let's get a new car and finance that. I think, no, we need to stop that. Hold on a second. Are you getting pressure from somebody else, or are you feeling the temptation yourself to go buy a car? We would like to have a good car.

We don't want the one that we have to break down, and then we're stuck getting a new car then we want to we want to be proactive at getting something that will continue not needing need as much maintenance yeah i understand you didn't answer my question i i heard you say we on that second one but the way i'm just saying what's really going on right now you're going i'm worried that i'm going to go backwards or we're going to go backwards when we pay this off and i don't feel like that's coming from you am i right or am i wrong if i'm wrong tell me uh it's partially me and partially my wife as well all right so i'm hearing uh you're

trying to do a lot of things at once i feel like and we just took a call about how home ownership is a money pit and so you're just helping my point here, Michael. And obviously, you know, the baby steps, home ownership, if you don't own a home already, would come in baby step 3B when you don't have any debt and you have a fully funded emergency fund. And this situation is exactly why. Because when you have the mortgage and you've got home repairs and you have the debt and you don't have a fully funded emergency fund, life gets stressful. And I can hear that in your voice. So let's talk about the numbers here. What's your income? We're looking at $85,000 a year.

Okay. And how much debt? Zero debt except for the house. Oh. See, that's the other thing, George. He said he's got the baby steps. You need to give him a refresher on the baby steps. I just got real confused because he told me you're in Baby Step 2 and things keep going wrong.

But Baby Step 2 is where we pay off all of our consumer debt except the house. You have not a payment in the world except your mortgage. Correct. No car payments, no credit cards, nothing. Nothing. Okay. And do you have a fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses? Yes. Yes, but it doesn't have any designation.

I remember hearing from Dave Ramsey that every dollar has a job to do. Well, that's in your budget. I'm talking about your emergency fund, which is separate. That should be in a separate savings account. Do you have that? Okay. I think it's all in one big savings account. Okay. So here's what I want you to do. What comes out first? Go open today, if you don't already have one, open a savings account where you park three to six months of expenses. So I want you to add up what are the bare bones things we need to cover, the four walls, the utility bills, the rent to put food on the table for your wife and the boys. What are those expenses? Multiply that by three to six months depending on your situation and how volatile it is. If your wife's

not working and you're the only source of income, well, then we want to increase that to six months. If you have a regular income, let's increase that to six months. And how much liquid cash do you have right now in the bank account? Probably about $10,000. Okay. So it sounds like we have a start here to the emergency fund. We just need to pile on top of that. And here's what's going to happen.

Here's why I'm honing in on this emergency fund. Once you have that, you're going to have a lot less emergencies, number one. It's amazing how that happens, Ken. Once you get this foundation, you know, Dave talks about this all the time. You start having less emergencies once you have a solid financial foundation because you start going, oh, we could cash flow that out of our budget. We can move some things around and not even touch the emergency fund. But right now what you're saying is all these home repairs are causing stress because we're worried about having to pay all of it. But you just told me you don't have any payments except for the mortgage.

Is this mortgage taking up a large chunk of your world? How much is the mortgage every month? The mortgage is only like $600. $600. $800 a month, yeah. Okay, so bottom line is, George, listen, you're not going to have a problem fixing the car if the car breaks down. You're just not.

So you've got, it's like the monster's under the bed, but there's no monster under the bed. Am I right? Are we missing something? Because your whole thing is, I'm tempted, we're tempted to go into debt and buy a car because the car we have we're afraid is going to break down. But if the car breaks down, you've got the money in the emergency fund and probably in your monthly budget to be able to absorb that. True or false?

I think we do. Alright then. So there's no monster under the bed. Yeah. I think what you need to do here is get that fully funded emergency fund, three to six months, put it in a separate savings account that you do not touch unless it's a legitimate emergency. Try to cash flow it otherwise. And once you do that, you it's a legitimate emergency. Try to cash

flow it otherwise. And once you do that, you've got to start investing. Are you guys investing right now? Yes. Okay. Well, I want you to pause that if it's going to take you more than a month or two to get this emergency fund in place. But you need to be investing 15% of your household income into good retirement accounts. And once you do that, then we can start looking at paying off the mortgage and saving up for the kids' college and all that kind of stuff. But we've got to get the solid foundation in place. You've got to do the baby steps in order. And what that's going to do is give you this thing called financial peace that we talk a lot about on this show, where you're not worried if the car breaks down because you can fix it. You're not worried if

you've got a leaky roof because you can fix it with the emergency fund. It takes the drama out of life. So you've got this, Michael. You've just got to start doing this stuff in order. And if you need more info, you can just Google Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, and we'll get you taken care of. Thanks for the call, Michael. Let's go to Baltimore, Maryland now where Ricardo joins us. Ricardo, how can we help?

Hey, y'all. How are y'all doing today? We're living the dream, man. What's up? Amazing. So, yeah, I just wanted some advice from you guys because I'm just sort of unsure where to go with myself. So I'm about 25 right now. I am 25.

I'm sorry. I'm 25. I have a job. I make about $70,000. I have a bachelor's. I have a bachelor's, I have a master's degree. And so I started, I just, you know, I just finished my degree and then I started my job and the money is okay. It's pretty good.

But I have about $40,000 in my savings account. I just saved, you know, because I had like sort of a lower paying job, but I live at home. So I was just saving all the money that I was making from it. And so now I just have about $40,000 just sitting in a bank account, and I just don't know what to do with it. Okay, so let me recap. You make $70,000 a year, you're 25 years old, and you have $40,000 in liquid cash in a savings

account. Correct. Okay. And are you following the baby steps? No, sir. Okay. Do you have any debt currently? I have $8,000 of a student loan debt subsidized, no interest.

It's just there. Well, as of today, you do not have a student loan because you're going to pay that off as soon as you get off the phone out of that $40,000 in savings, which puts you at $32,000 left. And so what you're going to do there, you obviously already have the starter emergency fund. That's baby step one. And once you pay off the student loan, you don't have a payment in the world? You said you're living with family, right? Yeah, I was planning to just move out in five, six months.

Great. Well, that savings account is going to be a huge help, a great buffer as you move out and start life on your own. You've got a great income at 25, making 70K. You don't have any payments at this point, once we pay off that student loan, as soon as you get off the phone. And you're going to have a fully funded emergency fund with that money left over. Is that right? That's correct. Yeah, that's correct. Wonderful. So it sounds like that's going to put you at baby step four, where you're investing 15% of your income into retirement.

If you've got a 401k with your job, that's a great place to start. You can open up a Roth IRA, get in touch with one of our smart investor pros at RamseySolutions.com. They can walk you through all of that. But you're doing great, man. I want to encourage you. That's fantastic. Ricardo. Crush the game.

You're going to be debt-free in about, oh, I don't know, 12 to 15 minutes or less. I'm so pumped. Wow. Come back. Do a debt-free scream. That'll be fun. Oh, there we go. So good.

Do what he said, Ricardo. It's going to change your life. You're on a great path. All right, folks. Don't move. More Ramsey Show continues. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, George Campbell. 888-825-5225 is the number to jump in.

Our scripture of the day, Hebrews 11.6. It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. Our quote today from Dale Carnegie. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. And that is absolutely true. Good stuff there.

888-825-5225 is the number. Let's go to Fairbanks, Alaska. Jasmine joins us there. Jasmine, how can we help? Hi. Thank you for taking my call. You bet. So I am a mom of two.

Hey, right on cue. That was perfect. How did you time that? Did you practice that? No, he's just, I found out that I was going to have her when I was like 21. So I spent most of my adult life being mom, and I've realized that I've kind of lost myself and I want to be in a position where we can get that free and provide the life that we want for our kids. But I don't know what I should be doing. I don't know where, you know, what kind of job I should be looking for or what I would even be good at. Well, let's start there, because when you say that, I don't know that you believe that. Now, I know you've been at home since 21, basically. But before that, you were somebody who was involved in high school, maybe even did a

little bit of college or something, and you are talented. What would everybody say, Jasmine, if I interviewed them and said, tell me what Jasmine always did very well? What came easy for Jasmine? She didn't have to struggle. It was easy for her. Jasmine, tell us what you're actually really good at. I don't know. I like interacting with people.

Okay. I know you like it, but I'm guessing you're good at it too, right? You're a good connector of people. Like you connect and you can make conversation easy. Is that what you mean? Yeah. Yeah. Do you understand people well?

Do you find that you have high compassion and high empathy? I think so, yeah. Are you an advice giver? Tell me more. What would people say? You're having a hard time talking about yourself, so I want you to go to a place where you go, well, Ken, here's what everybody else would tell you, because you know that's what they would tell me, because you've heard them say it to you. Where are you really gifted when it comes to people? Say it. Now, Jasmine, listen to me. I've done've done this many many times and you're not the first person

to struggle to say something nice about themselves but while you were pausing you were actually deleting or trying to edit answers i know this is true am i right jasmine yes then i want you to say what was on your mind jasmine what would people tell me that you're really good at when it comes to people or anything else? Now say it. Empathy, compassion, maybe advice giving. Really? All right, real quick. When was the last time you gave somebody advice that wasn't your little one?

You remember? You don't have to tell me the whole story, just do you remember, yes or no? Yes. Do you remember how they reacted when you were done giving them advice?

Yeah. How'd they react? He kind of hung his head down and said, yeah, you're probably right. Yeah. And so they walked away knowing, man, Jasmine hit me right between the eyes. That's what I needed to hear.

How did you feel when he left? That I was hopeful that things would get better for him. But it felt good, too, though, didn't it, to say what needed to be said? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so we would say confidently now jasmine that you're good at people skills you've got a lot of good people skills yes yes and we could also say that

you like working with people yes yes yeah so jasmine now you gotta say what's on your mind jasmine if you knew you couldn't fail, and I fast forward any qualifications, and I guarantee that you would not suck in the job, what would you try without having to commit the rest of your life to it? You're only 26. What would you try in the people business? What would you do? Who would you help?

I would really want to try working with some kind of crisis pregnancy center. And I want you to tell me why, because there's a part of your story on this. There's something deep here. This is your why you're getting ready to reveal. Why? Why there? because I, you know, found out I was going to have a baby a week before I turned 21. And I felt like my whole life was going to be over. And I wasn't married to her dad.

You know, it was a casual kind of relationship. And I didn't think that I could do it. Yeah. And somebody spoke into your life? Yeah. And as a result, you kept that beautiful little baby. So you want to do that for somebody else. Yeah.

Yeah. So, Jasmine, that's what you need to be doing. You need to figure out the path forward there. So we just look at, okay, I want to work at a crisis pregnancy center or a nonprofit that is going to meet these young moms right where they are. And I know that I can help because I've been there. I know exactly what they're thinking. I know exactly what they're feeling.

And that matters deeply to me. So we ask ourselves, what does it take to do that? What qualifications do you need? Well, you may not need a whole lot of qualifications at all just to get in and maybe work at the reception desk, right? Or in some position that doesn't require a counseling degree. But let's say we get you in there, right? And the babies are getting a little bit older and you're working your way back in and you're falling in love with this mission that is moving your heart to tears right now. And then all of a sudden you go, okay, in two or three years I can get a degree or I can finish a degree and then I can get my counseling.

I can cash flow my way through it. We get out of debt first. And I know that in my early 30s I could be counseling. I could be a full-time therapist or counselor helping women that have gone through all kinds of stuff. So it's just about getting yourself back out there and sticking your toe in the water but i think your homework assignment is to find any crisis pregnancy center you can in fairbanks or or a government agency that work with these young ladies you get where those women are that

you want to help do you understand yes and you just go help them and you get a paycheck helping them and then you get your feet wet and then you get kind of get your sea legs a little bit, right? You begin to see, oh, here's a path here. Here's a path over there. But Jasmine, that's what you're supposed to do. You know it, and I know it, don't we? Yeah. Jasmine, I'm going to tell you something.

I think you're an amazing young lady, and I think that the pain and the uncertainty and all the stuff that you went through and that you've overcome, see, that's not even about you anymore. It's about young women that you're going to come in contact with. And I'm really proud of you. Thank you for sharing that intimate story with us, Jasmine. You are an absolute rock star. Hang on the line. Kelly, I would like to give her a copy of my book, The Proximity Principle, which is all about connections.

Now that she knows what she wants to do, this is what she needs to do. Let's give her that, Jasmine. Read the book. Engage with it. It tells you exactly what to do chapter by chapter. The people you need to be around, the places you need to be in, and opportunities are going to knock on your door. Wow, George. That was powerful, Ken.

Is there anything more special than helping someone reveal their purpose? Well, not to me i mean i'm just that happens to be my thing i think a lot of people out there that get you know a great charge out of doing something else and that's that's the unique kind of nature of what what we get to do here um but that's really powerful stuff i would just say this to anybody else out there that connected to jasmine's story and you're going hmm i don't really know what I want to do. Well, what we did there was just take her to her heart. What moves her heart? Who are the people you want to help?

Why do you want to help them? And it's always got a deep personal connection. Wow, really powerful stuff. I'm inspired by her. Hey, man, she's amazing. Hey, I enjoyed it. This was great, George. First of many times together.

Thank you, pal. You were great. Ben Hill, our producer today. Thank you, Benny. And, of course, our associate producer, call screener, and really she keeps us all in line, Kelly Daniel. And America, we've got to thank you. You're why we do the show. This is The Ramsey Show.

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