The Ramsey Show - App - We Owe Almost $100,000 in Car Loans! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: June 27, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman discuss: Buying cars when you don't have the cash, Finding a new career path, Leaving a creative job for a trade, Owing almost $100K in car loans.   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. This is the show where we help people build wealth, do work that they really love, and create amazing actual relationships. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Joining me today, my co-host Ken Coleman of The Ken Coleman Show, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, talks to folks about their careers and their jobs every day. We'll be answering your questions, as I said, about your job, doing work you love, about building wealth, and anything else.

Jump in and we'll talk. So, Ken, a lot of stuff moving around in the economy. Yes. A lot of inflation and recession worries. Gas prices are enough to give you a freaking heart attack. God, I filled up my Raptor, and I just about just laid down in the middle of the gas station parking lot And recession worries, gas prices are enough to give you a freaking heart attack. God, I filled up my Raptor, and I just about just laid down in the middle of the gas station parking lot and held my heart for a minute. Oh, man.

I mean, because you fill up a Prius, it's one thing. But when you fill up a Raptor, it's another, man. I'm just saying. I can only imagine. Wow. I bought houses cheaper than that back in the day. But, oh, my gosh. It's a thing.

And you go to the grocery store, and you put your buggies half full of what it was, and it's just as much money. It's almost like shopping at Whole Foods every day. You know what I mean? It's like, really, it's crazy. And I used to call it Whole Paycheck, right? But, you know, it's wild out there. The interest rates have gone way up on housing.

House prices, of course, have gone way up on housing um house prices of course have gone way up in 20 and in 21 they're up a little this year um and everybody's you know worrying about a real estate crash now and and and labor cost to hire someone to get a job you know i'm seeing a lot of comments and stuff flowing through in our place right now it's like how do i how do i i can't even make it i mean i can't inflation has just destroyed what was left of my little budget um but in my mind when i hear that there's always two sides to each budgeting equation the end goes income side and the outgo side i also know that they're no longer paying people ten dollars an hour to put the bread on the shelves they're now paying them paying people $10 an hour to put the bread on the shelves. They're now paying them $20 to $30 an hour to put the bread on, which is why the cost of bread went up, by the way.

It wasn't wheat, and it wasn't a shortage. It's the cost of labor. Oh, and the diesel fuel in the truck to deliver the bread. Oh, yeah, that's built into that. So that's why your loaf of bread went up. That's why Sharon bought some bologna the other day. And, man, that was a lot of money. What? It's real food.

Sharon bought bologna? Oh, for me, yes. Homegrown tomato, big red onion, big old piece of white bread. Really? That's better than filet mignon, man. Don't you know anything? I know you have a very... You fry it a little bit.

It's a redneck delicacy, man. Oh, frying the bologna. You fry it a little bit. You put a redneck delicacy, man. Oh, frying the bologna. You fry it a little bit, you put it on there. Oh, man, that's about as good as... You could take the boy out of Antioch. We're getting sidetracked here. But anyway, the point being that if your budget is stressed, Ken, and your salary is fixed, it might be time to look.

That's correct. Because you might be able to make a whole lot more money somewhere else. But be careful, because you could jump over into one of these companies that have lost their minds and are doing all kinds of crazy butt stuff, and then you get stuck in the middle of the crazy butt stuff. Oh, yeah. We're seeing a lot of that. Now, the facts are, just to give you two different stories, when you change jobs, we've seen over the last year and a half,

you're looking at about a 14% on average pay bump. Well, that would cover your inflation. That's pretty nice, especially if you adjust your budget. I also saw a story recently on the news about this couple that's extreme frugal savers and budgeters, probably our kind of people, and they're like, we're not even feeling the inflation. I know that when we do these debt-free screams over the last six months, inflation doesn't come up at all. So there is a way to do it the way that we teach it works.

But let's give you some good news about the economy just reported on my show today that uh olive garden they beat their projections uh and what have they done they've kept their prices low and turns out families like a lot of free breadsticks and um you know bottomless salad but the point is my weight and both of those right but here's a story that you're not hearing in the media. When a restaurant like that decides, you know what, we're going to keep our costs where they are. It's costing us a little bit more, but they got more people coming in because they're offering things. So you hear all this bad news about inflation and the economy. We also saw today, reported today, that for the first time in seven months home sales spiked in may so this doomsday stuff we need to get over it well it it's those are good indicators anxiety

and the fear around filling up your car and almost passing out is real absolutely right the anxiety and the fear over you know half the stuff in the grocery, and it's just as expensive as real. However, what's just as real is there's almost an across-the-board increase in wages. That's correct. And if you haven't received that, then you should talk to your employer because he's getting ready to have to replace you. That's right. And there's opportunity like we've never seen before. We still see 11 million jobs.

What we are paying for a position at Ramsey has changed dramatically in 12 months based on the marketplace that's correct in order to get someone to do x or y or z it is different than it was 12 months ago and that difference is at least 14 that's correct that's the average yeah so folks that's the average of people that change jobs so we'll take those calls today because dave's. We don't want to chase just a paycheck because that'll wear off. If you're in a crappy culture with gossipy people. You leave a good company and you go into a bunch of crap and they're doing the woke agenda and you hate that stuff. And all of a sudden you're going to be spending all your money and your time on that instead of actually helping people and doing work. That's correct.

So we're quite the opposite around here at Ramsey. We're kind of boring old dinosaurs. And kind of proud of that, by the way. But the, anyway, the, yeah, so, I mean, you make sure you're going to a company that aligns with your values. Maybe you want to do all the woke stuff. Then you need to make sure they're doing all that stuff. But a lot of them are doing, you know, they're going overboard with it because they're just virtue signaling that's correct so if you

leave a good company like i mean i we had a young man that left here a while back and he texted this weekend and he's like oh god this place is a disaster that i went to and he got he got more money than we were paying him so he got a raise but he went into a mess you know and so be careful that you're not doing that or be careful you're not taking a job that you hate. Or be careful that you're not thinking something, you know, what it was. I had another guy, a friend of mine, left his position because he was going to work 20 hours a week from home for more money. Yeah. Now he's working 80 hours a week.

Yeah. From home. Well, there's a lot more money. Yeah. It's a mirage. A lot of people lying. Well, here's what's unique about Ramsey Solutions, and we're always hiring. So, you know, you need to be checking out RamseySolutions.com.

But we know from research, I spoke about this at our Entree Leadership Summit, here are three human needs that we all want fulfilled at work. Number one, we want to see meaning and purpose in our work. We have a crusade mentality because we're giving people hope and real practical steps for life transformation at this company. Number two, we want to be recognized for our unique contribution. I can't tell you the stories of people that are executives here in this company who started out as administrative assistants, and because we recognize people's hard work, we recognize their talent, we give them an opportunity to get promoted. They do here. Two of them sitting on my operating board. Two of them. And then the third thing that we need is we want a relationship with our leader.

I cannot tell you how much this company cares for its people. It's a real relationship with the people that you report to. If you don't have that, find it somewhere. Yeah, find it somewhere. And make sure if you're going for more money that you get that too. Or else it's not going to happen. You'll be hating your life all for a few bucks. That's right.

But you can help with inflation by either an upward raise at your current place or a move to somewhere else. Well, I work for the state. Well, maybe it's time to move somewhere else. They're probably not going to give you a 12% inflationary raise this year, and you probably can get it somewhere else. This is the Ramsey Show. You've got a lot on your plate. A job, your home, your marriage, and your growing family.

While you're enjoying the present, you can't help but, your marriage, and your growing family. While you're enjoying the present, you can't help but think about your future and your finances. As you explore your options, consider Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, for your healthcare. Their generous maternity program and budget-friendly monthly programs have been a blessing to members welcoming children into their families. Visit chministries.org slash budget to see if it's right for you. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey personality, is my co-host. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jackson, Kansas City. Hey, Jack, how are you?

I'm doing very well. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? I had a question about purchasing a vehicle in today's climate for my wife. It would amount to purchasing two vehicles at the same time, basically. Okay. Riddle me this.

What are you talking about? Well, I've been driving a vehicle for about 20 years as my everyday vehicle. I inherited it from my father, brand new basically. He bought it brand new and then got diagnosed with a terminal illness and ended up passing away soon after. And so that was about 19 and a half years ago. I've been driving the car. It's a Subaru race car. Long story short, I've been taking it only to dealers,

and my local dealer kind of wrecked it the last time they serviced it, trying to install a clutch and destroyed the transmission and did a bunch of damage and basically ruined the car for me so they're gonna pay you for the car uh they we made a deal we came to a deal oh that avoided anyone going to court and so they're gonna sell me a new car and give me a bunch of money off on it basically to me the equivalent of the value of the other car yeah plus, plus a little bit over, I think. And you're, well, yeah, I'm sure there's margin in that thing. I'm a good customer.

There's margin in their appeals. So you're getting a brand new Subaru. Yes. Okay, so that deal's done. Base model, basically. That deal is done. And what are you spending there? Here's the thing.

What are you spending on that car? It's going to cost about $25,000. Okay, what's you spending there? Here's the thing. What are you spending on that car? It's going to cost about $25,000. Okay. What's your household income? Our household income is about $200,000. Okay. And you're wanting to spend what on your wife's car? $220,000.

So here's the thing. The dealer felt bad, and he told me, I told him my wife needed some work on her vehicle as well then, and he said he would give her the same deal he's given me if I wanted to buy her one. So I wasn't thinking about getting her one before he said that. He's going to give you the price of your old car off of your wife's and your car, or just a good price on the next one? No, he's basically going to give me all the money he's giving me off my deal and he said he'll do the same thing for her he'll give her the same

money off as if he wrecked her car and just because he feels bad he says how much was that how much value how much did they give you for your old car for the old car uh it's leaking out of the head how much money did they give you for your old car oh for my old car yeah uh they basically gave me about four four thousand for my car okay and then they knocked off how much more the car then they knocked off how much more they knocked off another three okay so they're gonna knock seven thousand off off of another Subaru if you buy two in a row. Basically, yeah. And your wife is driving what now? She's driving a Subaru that's... What's it worth?

It's got $100,000. It would be worth about $7,000 or $8,000, except that it's got to have the leaky head gasket fixed, which will cost $3,000. All right. So you're going to be able to sell it for $5,000, right? Yeah, if I fix it. No, if you cost three to four. All right. So you're going to be able to sell it for five, right? Yeah, if I fix it. No, if you don't fix it. If you fix it, it'll sell for seven. Maybe.

Or eight. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. It's drivable. It's just got a leaky head gasket. And it's an old freaking Subaru. Now, what is your net worth? What is your net worth?

Net worth? I just did a calculation. I think if I go by just net worth, we're at about $230,000, I guess. Okay. Between equity and money. Do you have the cash to pay for all these cars? No. Well, only if I take money out of a Roth account or something. No, we're not buying these cars.

We're not buying cars with Roth money. I only have the cash to pay for one car. Okay. Okay. But my mother's been telling me, you know, maybe I should be buying some reliable cars for the next year. Yeah, maybe you should, but maybe you shouldn't be going and taking your retirement money out to do that.

I'm going to pass on the second one because I don't recommend people buy new cars that go down in value like a rock, except for in the last 12 months, unless they have a net worth in excess of a million dollars because that way you can accept the blow on that. So I would save up some money, and I would buy your wife a better car that is used, and I would forego this sweet dealer's offer, which is really not that great an offer anyway. It's an okay offer. But it wasn't like he gave you like half off the stinking thing or something. So he basically gave up his margins is what he did,

and he's got you back on the hook for more work and everything else in the shop. But, no, I'll pass on the second one. I would save up and buy her a better car and i would pay cash for it and i would not cash out my retirement but we don't borrow money to buy cars we don't buy cars where the total of all your vehicles is more than half your annual income and i don't buy brand new cars unless they're a million dollars unless you have a million dollar net worth or greater and here's why because they go down in value and you need to be concentrating on things that go up in value yeah and in this situation i'd go and fix the subaru for the wife and then save up save up

you're going to get a decent amount i think dave you're right you're going to get seven or eight for it if it's fixed up and then you put that into the savings and all of a sudden we've upgraded pretty substantially without any kind of debt it is doable and people get the itch and i don't i don't fix six thousand dollar cars at the dealership either. No. I fix $6,000 cars at independent mechanics where the cost is about half of what it is to fix a car at a dealership. And so if you have a brand new vehicle and, you know, whatever, and you spend a ton of money on it, and you make a lot of money, and you want to take it in for the dealer to service it, that's one thing. But you don't take a $6,000 car into a head gasket job into the dealership you're gonna pay double what you'd pay with an independent

good mechanic shopping around so do some shopping around i i'm not doing it no no so a super with a hundred thousand miles is just getting warmed up yeah well that's okay i mean i don't mind him moving up and no but you can fix it by the way i forgot to tell you the federal law too wife gets the good car that's exactly federal law so that means she gets the new one you get the one with the busted head gasket y'all about to trade cars out so this is how that works that's a marriage thing they're just helping you oh open phones at 888-825-5225 dylan's with us in scranton pennsylvania hi dylan how are you hey good afternoon i'm doing very well. How are you today? Better than we deserve, sir. How can we help?

Good. So I have a general question. I took a job with a church in Philadelphia last year in September. They offered me a $60,000 salary, but it's basically a package deal. I'm currently 23 years old. I'm married. I do own a house with my wife. We purchased in December of last year. And basically, part of the deal is that right now I'm on my parents insurance, but the church does offer full health insurance, full medical, but I'm going to lose $18,000 of my salary. So the church is paying me that $18,000

currently. So I'm bringing home like $58,000 a year. Why would your insurance be fifteen hundred dollars a month? I have no clue and I had worked for Walmart prior to this and I know the family insurance was a lot cheaper and I'm just trying to navigate how to approach this because I don't want to get two years. So basically from now, two years from now, I'm going to lose $18,000 of my salary due to health insurance. Small church? Not quite. It's a larger church. They employ 350 people. They do have a full school.

Their health insurance plan sucks. Yeah, it's bad. But you've got two years. Yeah. I have two years to prepare for this. So the reason I wanted to get your professional advice on this was that I'm trying to navigate what to do. So currently, I am a property caretaker and I'm an apprentice to literally every trade. So I'm a property caretaker, and I'm an apprentice to literally every trade. So I'm learning mechanics. I'm learning plumbing, electrical, everything with this job. Do you want to be full-time ministry,

or do you want to add one of these trades as a part-time gig to supplement? Which one? I think my desire is to be full-time ministry. Then do the trades on the side to make up for the increased cost of insurance. You've got two years to figure this deal out. Go shopping on the health insurance and see if you can't buy in the independent market cheaper, too. I would stay in the ministry seat. That's the seat you want to be in.

Don't let health insurance drive you out of your dream. Yep. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, on the famous debt-free stage, Anthony and Larisha are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? We're doing well. Great. Where do you all live? Morristown, New Jersey. All right, and that is near?

Right outside Philadelphia, 15 minutes. Okay, cool. Welcome to Nashville. Looks like you brought the teenagers with you. What are their names and ages? Aisha and Joshua. Aisha's 20, Joshua's 19. Okay. Not quite teenagers.

Sorry about that. That's all right. Very cool. Good to have you guys. All right. How much debt did you pay off? Well, we paid off $180,000 in 48 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time?

We started out at about $70,000, and this year we are looking to make about $200,000. Whoa. Whoa, nice jump. What do y'all do for a living? I'm an executive secretary. And I lead a shared services team. Oh, very good. Okay, cool. So nice income jump. the income jump early in that 48 month track or late in that track later on late in the track and also i've got a consulting business that i had but i decided to actually start working it god okay so is that what that did you sell something big too no okay you just cash flowed your way through this so you $45,000. Did I do that right? Yeah, $45,000 a year.

Roughly $50,000 a year, average through there. Good. What kind of debt was the $180,000? We paid off our mortgage. Whoa! Look at that, weird people! Way to go, weird people. Normal's broke, and you guys are officially weird.

How old are you two? I'm 50. I'm 50. All right. 50 years old with a paid-for house. What's this house worth? It's worth about $500,000. Yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip.

I love it. And how much is in your retirement accounts? Well, we're not quite there yet. We're about 100,000 shorts from being millionaires. All right. So $900,000 net worth, and you're 50 years old. Yes. And you're making $200,000 a year.

Yes. You rock. We do. I love it. Way to go, man. Yes, we do. That is so stinking cool. So you're going to a year you rock i love it way to go man that is so stinking cool so you're gonna be a millionaire in 20 minutes stock market goes back up you'll be a millionaire right then that one thing oh my gosh man way to go guys so proud of you so what starts this journey four years ago i mean you're like 45 years old you're sitting around and go uh we got to change. What happened? We did. Dave, we were Dave-ish for like 10 years, and we had never heard of you.

Well, then you couldn't be Dave-ish. You were just ish. We were ish. Yeah, we were following Larry Burkett and never heard of him. You were Larry-ish. We were Larry-ish. And then we heard of this guy. Larry is harder core than I am.

He is. He is. He was, yeah. He's a house man. Yeah, we thought we were doing all right. And then we were living in Michigan. We kept hearing people talk about this Dave Ramsey. We're like, who's Dave Ramsey?

And it pivoted something in our heads. And then we moved. And next to our neighbors to our left, they were always going away. It seemed like they had like a summer house and just the peace about them made us stop and think wow we'd like to do that and then we had some other neighbors both of them all very nice but uh just working hard always seemed tired working on the boat always problems with the boat we said we have to make a change. We were looking at our kids, and we had another friend a little bit older, and he was doing a lot of good stuff in his life, and we said, all right.

We're mentoring people. We've got Aisha and Joshua, and we're seeing how listening to you and the tools that you give, what it's doing to their lives. We said we need to do something different. And we hit it hard. Every little bit of money, money from the consulting work Anthony was doing and our job, we put it towards the mortgage. So you're making like $70,000. You sit down and you look, you've got $180,000.

We crank the shovel up. We can get out of this hole quick. That's right. Yeah. Makes it believable. Makes you want to go do it. It really does. It gives you hope.

Based on our income, I thought, I said, well, I can do a little bit more consulting. I think I could do it in about seven years. But then I said, you know what? Something happens when we do the Dave Ramsey plan, when people do it. I said, I'm going to do it. I'm going to put four years down as my marker. And we hit it exactly four years. I said, oh, I probably should have put three years down.

Yes. That's interesting. I said, oh, I probably should have put three years down. Yes. That's interesting. I want you to stay on that thought. I know where you were going because we've been here and we've watched a lot of these stories. So you put that out. You said something happens today, Ramsey people. Right. I want you to unpack that a little bit more. What do you see?

Because that's coming from your view. You say, okay, I've seen this. So I shorten my goal. What do you think happens when people get focused? Well, I think you just start concentrating on what you want to do, right? If you need money to pay off a mortgage, then you're going to find money. That's right. Our income went up because I was working in a non-profit job. I've heard Dave say a lot of times, you don't have to only do good work in non-profits so i got a for-profit i worked with a for-profit company doing very similar work but i did at the non-profit yet my salary

went up quite a bit and then when i started consulting more something interesting happened too as i started paying things off more i didn't need the money consulting like i used to so then people would people kept calling me saying hey hey, can you work? And I said, no, I'm busy. Oh, please come work with me. I give them some number that I thought was appropriate and they just pay it. I said, well, isn't that interesting? What happens when you change your perspective, when you're not desperate anymore, people respond to that and the income goes up. There's something about boldness, right? When you're bold and you income goes up there's something about boldness right when you're bold and you put yourself out there uh then providence moves it's a wonderful quote by a german philosopher

gerda used to say that when we step out we're bold providence moves in ways that we never could have seen possible and that's your story it's really amazing wow that's fun way to go you guys well we also wanted to say that so aisha she's going to be a senior in college, and Joshua is a sophomore in college, and both of them are going through college debt-free. Wow. Yes, they are. They've got scholarships. They're working, you know.

Yes, hitting it hard. I love it. They're doing a fantastic job, so we wanted to be sure that we were. Absolutely. So, what are they studying, and where are they in school? Well, Aisha's going to graduate from Rutgers. She's to be a speech pathologist way to go scarlet knight that's right that's right all right and josh was in uh in community college he's a business major great great two good roles two good decisions yes well. Oh, man, you guys are so smart. Yes.

You have completely changed your family tree. You're amazing. You're amazing. Heroes. Look at you. I love it. Way to go, you guys. That is amazing.

So well done. So very well done. All right. We got a copy of the Baby Steps Millionaire's book for you, because that's the next chapter in your story. As we said, you're about 20 minutes away from that. So maybe by the time you get home, it'll already be across the line. But right there.

And also a copy of Total Money Makeover for you to give away. And the Financial Peace University membership for a year, the brand new videos in that that just came out, best Financial Peace University we've ever had. If you've already been through it and you want to give that away, give that away with that Total Money Makeover book you can. It's all yours just to say thank you for making the trip to Nashville and to say we're proud of you. We are very proud of you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. You're incredible people. Very, very well done. Anthony and Larisha, Aisha and Joshua from the Philly area paid off $180,000, house and everything. They're weirdos. They did it in 48 months making 70 to 200 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one we're debt-free i love it man so powerful ken the thing that i didn't understand when i first started teaching this

stuff the borrower is slave to the lender when you're out from under slavery more things come loose than just the math yes and that's what happened with this consulting work. I generally find that people make different, better, wiser, more lucrative career decisions when they don't have a knife hanging over the top of their head anymore. Yeah, it's true. Because they don't have this sense of desperation. They walk different than a slave does. You talk different than a slave does.

It changed me. I made different business decisions with cash than with debt. I make better business decisions when I don't feel threatened by the marketplace. I'm not threatened by inflation. I'm not threatened by real estate prices. I'm not threatened by the cost to fill up my Raptor, even though it does make me want to pass out. But I'm not threatened by it because I don't have any debt. Yeah.

And it puts me in a completely different position. And that's what happens. Your income generally will go up more rapidly and more. And both. Not only will it go up more, but it will go up more rapidly than if you were not working a plan. Because you're an independent thinker, you walk with a swagger. It a different world yeah it's a big deal well done i'm so proud of those guys what great family change their family tree debt-free college and everything this is the ramsey show Well, it's time for us to talk about the real estate market.

Everybody's asking a million questions. Should I wait to buy a house? Is it a good time to sell? Is the housing market going to crash? What's going to happen with interest rates? On July 14th, we're hosting a free special live stream event called Real Estate Reality Check. George Camel, Rachel Cruz, and i are going to answer all your questions unpack actual data not your brother-in-law's emotions not somebody that

watches too much fox news or cnn where they're in freak out mode they're at we're actually going to look at actual data and history and put this whole market in perspective and we'll go ahead and spoiler alert tell you the market's not going to crash and we're going to show you exactly why and what you're facing. This organization at Ramsey is always about telling you the truth as we can perceive it as we know from 30 years of experience in these markets and the truth usually revolves around hope we're not in the business of selling fear porn we're going to just tell you the truth and it's not necessarily even exciting actually what we teach people to do live on less than you make live on a budget these are not exciting things the results however exciting you deserve

to make decisions based on facts and not fear. If you're wondering whether you ought to buy or sell a house, whether the housing market's going to crash, what makes it crash, how this stuff works, this live stream is just for you. We're going to spend about an hour unpacking all of that. It's completely free. Real estate reality check. You need to sign up for it in advance.

It will be July the 14th, just a few weeks away. Go to ramseysolutions.com slash realitycheck. ramseysolutions.com slash realitycheck. Our question of the day comes from blinds.com. Find out for yourself why blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. With free samples, free shipping, and new promos they run all the time, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSEY to get the best possible deal. Today's question comes from Nathan in Indiana.

I'm 22 years old and currently work 32 hours a week at $19 an hour, building crates for artwork. It's a far better job than I've had before. My employer is great, but I'm concerned because it offers little advancement. I can't decide whether I should continue with this current job or take a risk and get a different job in a trade like electronics or construction where I'm guaranteed pay increases with each year of experience. Trade jobs are high in demand where I live, so apprenticeships are easy to get. My goal is to be financially independent as soon as possible. Should I stay where I am or pursue another career?

It's going to be both and. You're going to stay where you are until you've figured out the trade you want to be in, if in fact that's where you want to go, and you lock in that apprenticeship. So what we really want you to do is stay where you are until you find a new ladder to climb. Love that you want financial independence. I love that you've seen that, hey, I'm limited here. I have a lid on where I am, and that's okay. Don't accept the lid, but we don't just jump. There's nothing romantic or exciting about that at all. It can be financially devastating. So stay where you are until you find that new opportunity to

step into. And Dave, I'm very excited about this question because our American economy really was built on apprenticeships. And this idea of the paid apprenticeships in the trades is certainly still very much alive. It's a great way to get paid to learn. And I love this option, Nathan. Really good question. Yeah, absolutely. So I'm reading into your words, Nathan, as Ken was, into how you used your words, even the sentence structure and the way you're asking the question. I'm a little bit afraid, and I'm going to warn you against, you take a $23 an hour job and you leave a $19 an hour job because it's in a trade and it represents good advancement, but it ends up being something you hate.

And you did it for $4 an hour and for advancement in something you hate. If you advance in something you hate, it means you hate it more. Don't do that. Okay? So Ken is right. Slow down a little bit. The trades are valid. It's a great place to make a lot of money.

There's a lot of welders and diesel mechanics making $100K, making a lot more than somebody who got a degree in left-handed sociology, puppetry from medieval art or whatever, right? I mean, you get these ridiculous degrees now, and you pay $200,000 for them, and they're useless. It makes you a barista. And so you don't want to end up there. So I applaud you on your direction. You're being willingness to do hard work build crates to do trades with your hands and uh now but what you really have got to get into is not the near term

or even the next five years but think out 40 years okay are you do you still see yourself as an electrician when you're 53 or 63 and then if that's the case and you think that's a grand by the way being electrician is a great trade but if you don't see yourself doing that if you're only doing it for four dollars and because you can make more as an apprentice and that feels better than being in a quote dead end thing unquote um that's the wrong move yeah and and that's what i like about the apprenticeship i I'm getting paid to try it. But before we even get to the apprenticeship, how do you do this? Well, you've got to spend time with some guys that have been doing it for 25, 30 years. Yeah. And they're going to tell you the ins, the outs, the ups, the downs. Do you want to take that trade and

eventually become an entrepreneur where you start your own business in that trade? So it's absolutely the right advice, Dave. You've got to look at the long view, and it's got to be about heart. It can't just be about head. What I mean by that is it can't just be money-related. I've got to really find meaning in the work and have an opportunity to make a lot of money. Samantha's in Houston. Hi, Samantha. Welcome to The Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So my husband and I have about $150,000 worth of debt, $90,000 of which is car loans. Good. Yes, it's insane. We have talked about selling our vehicles.

I went to some places and got an appraisal. Both of us are quite upside down on the vehicle. You must have rolled some negative equity from the other deal into it. Yes. Well, I guess so. I mean, when I traded my car in, I thought that I was right on par, but I was not. And my husband knew he was negative. So I went to my credit union. I asked them to roll the negative into a personal loan. They denied me two different times. I am just at a loss of what to do right now. Our car notes are extremely high. Okay. So tell me about car number one. What is it?

Okay. So car number one, my husband's truck, the loan on that is $53,000. And it's a Ford F-150. The car payment is $1,034. Good God. All right, and what did they tell you that that was worth? They're telling us that it's about $20,000 negative, so $33,000 is the value of the truck. How many miles on it? How old is this truck? Yes.

How many miles? I believe it's about 40,000 miles. How old is it? what year is the truck? 2019. Go to kellybluebook.com. Yeah, that's garbage. That's bull crap. That's a dealer offer. Did you get more than one place to look at this?

Yes. He went to a Ford dealership, and he's also talked to CarMax. I talked to CarMax today, actually, and got an appraisal online. I'll tell you about that next. Okay. That sounds very low in this market, for sure. Used cars are still selling very high. I would check kellybluebook.com and start looking at a private sale. I am shocked to hear that a 2019 is $20,000 upside down.

Now, he rolled some negative into it to start with. You said that, but that's a lot. Okay. And your car then is what? It's a 2020 Ford Explorer. The loan that I owe is $36,000. Payment is $573,000 a month. And today I got it appraised at CarMax for $27,500.

Okay. Well, that means you can get $32,000 for it private sale probably. So that one's within striking range. Meaning you could go get that other $4,000 out of your income in the next few months. What's your income? Our income is $140,000. That's your income our income is 140,000 that's good news okay all right yeah i'm sorry yours is probably going first because it's easier to get rid of right because it's closer i'm also going to check the numbers because i want to make sure

he didn't just not want to sell his truck oh i i don't think that's what it is but but yes please check it's just it's like those numbers just don't feel i mean i haven't pulled it up and looked at it but that feels awfully wrong but yeah you're right a thousand dollar and a six hundred dollar car payment those are two good things to get rid of and get you get you a couple of hoopties because y'all been doing stupid car disease for a long time bless your heart i'm I'm sorry. You are stuck in a mess. But you have identified the problem, kiddo. And now the trick is to get out of it. You doing any good over there?

Yeah. Let me tell you right now. Private market is where they need to be looking. They're getting a dealer offer. Oh, yeah. It's a trade-in value. Yeah. But the truck, did you find anything on it?

Yeah, I found some stuff. You're looking at $45,000 to $55,000 for that. I didn't think 33 was right. Okay. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey, folks. Ken Coleman here. Did you know The Ramsey Show

is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Get your daily dose of advice on life and money. Check out all of our shows from The Ramsey Network wherever you listen to podcasts.