The Ramsey Show - App - We’re Struggling With the Baby Steps (Hour 1)

Episode Date: December 4, 2023

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help you win in your life, specifically with your money, in your work, and in your relationships. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by George Campbell. We're Ramsey Personalities, and we are your guides this hour. George will help you out on the money questions. I'll weigh in. I'll take any work-related questions. You're feeling stuck, but you're in the baby steps. Can I move? Do I start a side hustle? What do I do to bring in more income? Think of me as just the bigger shovel guy. Shall we say that, George? And what does that make me? Well, chop liver. No, you're the financial

guru. You're the guy. I don't know that anyone, I don't want to be anyone's guru, but I see where you're going with this. All right. The point is people are going, okay, they're new to the show. Okay. Where's Dave? Money and work. Money and work. And that's what we're going with this. All right. The point is people are going, okay, they're new to the show. Okay, where's Dave? Money and work. Money and work. And that's what we're going to do today. We're going to help you out there. So let's get started.

Heather is waiting for us in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma, Heather, how can we help? Hi. Okay, so my question is my husband and I are currently on Baby Step 2, and so a little over $700 a month is going towards our debt payment. So once we get done with baby step two, and then also have our fully funded emergency fund, then the next step is doing 15% towards retirement.

But 15% towards retirement is like over $800 a month. So part of how I got my husband on board with this is telling him like, oh, look, this is an extra $700 we're going to have per month once all of this is paid off. But actually, now that's just going to be going towards retirement. So if we can barely afford our debt payment, how are we going to be able to afford to put even more than that towards retirement? Well, I would take a good hard look at this budget and go, where are these money leaks happening? Because sometimes it's an income problem. And that's where our friend Ken Coleman comes in handy to go, let's increase the income. Because truthfully, 15%, even without debt for

some people, it's too tight. Now, if you've got a dollar for every name and you're still accomplishing all your financial goals, it's okay. It's good to have a zero-based budget where every dollar has an assignment and there's not a thousand extra dollars of fund money sitting around. But if you're telling me that just paying your normal bills and investing 15% creates zero extra margin for, let's say, saving for college or paying off the house early, that tells me we might have an income problem. Which one is it for you? Do you think you have some expenses that are also hanging out or is it both? Um, it's probably, I mean, it's, I don't think it's much expenses. I mean, I, I don't use your guys' budgeting program, but I do use, um, the YNAB, you need a budget program. And so, um, I'm very aware of our expenses and all of that and everything gets a job and is

accounted for. Um, it could be an income problem. Um, but I'm not really sure how we can make more money. Like my husband works 50 to 60 hours a week. What's he make doing that? About $60,000 a year. What is he doing? He works for a dairy processing plant. Doing what? Just like running the line and loading the trucks and things like that.

Okay. So what would you call that? Is that like a manufacturing, I guess, manufacturing milk? Yeah. Okay. And how long has he been doing that? Almost 12 years. Okay.

And then tell us about what's your salary and what are you doing? I'm working part-time from home doing data entry. And one of the reasons why, and so the reason I need something flexible like that is because we have five children, five young children, and two of them are special needs. And so I need to be able to take them to their appointments and things like that. Okay. So, and your husband's working, did you say 50 to 60 hours a week? Yes. Wow. And so he makes like, I think $22 an hour and then anything above 40 hours is

overtime. And then he's even like Ubering some nights after he gets off work. There's days that like, I don't even see him. Oh, okay. Is there room for growth in this field where he can be making $25, $30, $35 an hour in your area? Working in maybe management? The management is salary, and he has said he doesn't want to do salary because then they can just have you there all the time. More than 60 hours? He's already there all the time. So if he can be there 60 hours and make 80 or 100, I would rather that.

Is he not in some – Yeah, I don't know how much more the managers make. Well, here's my question. If I were sitting with him today, I would say, okay, based on your skill and your experience, what is transferable out of that industry that he's in or or specifically that type of company, where he could, I mean, he's got, my guess is he's got a lot of skill and a lot of experience that would be transferable to where he could be making $75,000, $80,000. What does the path look like to that? Now, that may take some time, but it may not. And I think many times it's very intimidating for somebody in his shoes. He's been doing this for 10 years, and he wonders, am I limited?

Is it scary to look out? But it doesn't require him to take a risk to look, to talk. I would at least start looking and start talking to see what's out there, because it is possible, I believe, on the surface, Heather, for your husband to be getting a nice boost right now, and that would be a game changer based on what you and George have figured out. We got to get some more income, but not the kind of income that's backbreaking like Uber. He's already working crazy hours, and there's just not a great return on time with a role like Uber in your situation,

in your area. That's my guess. Is that correct? Yeah. I mean, he may be $10 to $20 an hour, maybe like $20 is at best. hour, maybe like 20 at best. Yeah. That's not worth it. What are you bringing in with your part-time work? Um, $25 an hour, 15 hours a week. So you're making more money than he is. That's right. On an hourly basis. Yeah. I think that's our room for growth. I think he treats us like a full-time job. I really do. I think I would do less Uber over the next two or three, four weeks. And I would spend that time connecting with people, coffees, talking to people going, hey, I'm looking to kind of to level up. And I

just think he needs to be making well more than $60,000. And I think he can. I think there's a path to that. What's your mortgage payment? $1,200. Okay. So it's fairly reasonable considering the income, but I still think with five kids, you're just going to have more expenses and there's going to be less to put away for college. And so that's why the only way here, if you've already cut down all the expenses you can, it doesn't sound like you guys are living super luxurious, frivolous lifestyles here. And so the only other option is we got to make more if we can't spend any less. Yeah. But you guys should be able to do that. With you making 25 an hour, 15 hours a week, plus his 60, there's got to be some room here. So I'm going to take a second look at the budget,

do a little budget audit and see, can we do any better? Can we reshop our insurance through Zander? Because we might save 200 bucks a month, just like that. So you can do all kinds of things. Are you getting a tax refund every year? Maybe we should increase our tax withholding. because we might save 200 bucks a month, just like that. So you can do all kinds of things. Are you getting a tax refund every year? Maybe we should increase our tax withholding or decrease it depending on the situation in order to have more cashflow every month. But I will tell you, Heather, I mean, I wish I could take your husband on full time. I believe we could get him into a $80,000 with a path to six figures. That's what we've got to be thinking about. Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to give you the Get Clear Career Assessment. Hang on the line. This is a wonderful tool. It's my gift, taking about 15 to 20 minutes max. It's going to spit

out a purpose statement, which is essentially a job description, showing him what he does best, what he loves to do most, and what results motivate him. I think it's going to show him some things he's not seen before. I'll also give you the book, From Paycheck to Purpose, which is like the guide up the top of the mountain, but the assessment points out both of those products coming your way, early Christmas present. I want to see him dream and then put some steps towards doing what it takes to get a sizable pay raise, which changes your life. You guys are good people.

You're going to win. Hang in there. Don't move. More Ramsey Show and your calls coming up. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me. We're your guides this hour.

We're here to help you win. We're going to give you some hope-filled, practical advice to help you win with your money, your work, and your relationships. George is our money guru, and I'm going to help you out in the area of work so that you're making more money. George is going to help you keep more money. So we're happy to take any of those calls. We've got a new year coming up, George, so people are thinking about, do I stay, do I go, you know, as it relates to making a career move. So, hey, we'll talk to you about any of that stuff.

We're going to start it off with Nathan in Sacramento, California. Nathan, how can we help? Hi. Well, my wife and I, we have had some money discussions recently because I was living check to check. We were living check to check, and I recently lost my job. Oh, no. What happened? Well, it's a company that was going through some changes, and within the technology industry where I've had a lot of experience, there have been a lot of changes lately. So I was one of those changes. Well, you know, listen, you're not alone.

Spotify just announced massive layoffs today, interestingly enough. So that happens in tech companies. They staff up, then they staff down. And I just want to acknowledge something, Nathan, that we know from psychology research that when someone loses a job, either laid off or fired, that it has the same emotional effect of losing a loved one. So, you know, that's a tough thing. And I want to acknowledge that. And I've been fired and I've been laid off. So welcome the club, head up. You're going to be okay. What kind of work was it specifically in technology? I was the head of a recruiting department. Really? Okay. So more on the HR side of things? Yep. Yeah. We would hire engineers and everyone

else you would need for software companies. Okay, so you know this. You know what's going on. You have a good idea of the landscape. Is that true? Absolutely. Yeah, I've been doing it for about 15 years. And what's great is your skills are very transferable to any company that does HR and recruiting, which is every company. So I believe you're going to bounce back quickly, but let's talk about where you're at right now. How are you guys keeping the lights on? Is there other income? Is there a severance? So I did receive a severance and that's also why I'm calling. We do have quite a lot of debt and we are trying to figure out what we should prioritize here over the next couple of months. When it comes to the industry, a lot of my colleagues have had changes over the last

several months. And my concern is how quickly I can actually get back up on my feet. And so my wife and I are having a discussion as to whether we would want to save the money or to use that to pay off debt. And we're trying to figure out if we should wait or pay things off now and then in what order we should do that. Well, you know, I'm a big fan of debt payoff, but this is one of those times where we would call this storm mode, where you want to just pause and stack up as much cash as possible to weather the storm before we go make any financial moves. And that includes paying off

debt. Okay. So the goal right now is let's maintain, let's keep the lights on food, utilities, shelter, transportation. That's your A1. If nothing else gets paid, those get paid. And then minimum payments on all of your debt until we can figure this out, figure out what the next step is. Is your wife working outside the home? No, she's not. I've made a commitment to provide for the family and she's taking care of our son. Okay. How old is the son? He is going to be 12 in a couple weeks here. 12? Yes. Hey, listen, I'm going to jump in real fast. Just as George said, there are times where we kind of deal with the snowball. I think

there's times where we have to maybe be flexible with some principles and commitments. And I love the fact that you said, I've made a commitment that my wife worked from home. But she's got a 12-year-old, not a 12-week-old, not a 12-month-old. And maybe for a season, she's working at least part-time. Maybe she's working full-time. I think this is a real discussion. And I think I would not be authentic to what I believe if I didn't jump in and tell you that. I'm just going to leave that there. Not trying to convince you, but I think for a season, maybe we need to consider her going back to work. Thank you. I appreciate that advice. So what's your plan currently? Let's say you don't land an HR job for the next three months. Are you going to just burn through the severance? That's not the plan for me right now. I am working every day looking for a new opportunity. And I'm also basically starting my own business. So I'm putting up a shingle and reaching out to contacts for either work and or offering my services. Like HR consulting or what? HR consulting, recruiting consulting.

I've also had to run some HR layoffs recently as well, and so I've been on both sides of the table. And unfortunately, there are a lot of reorganizations going, so I can help with that as well. So on top of hitting up your LinkedIn crew, unfortunately, that doesn't pay the bills. So we need to do something that is actually creating an income right now, even if that's work in retail. And that might mean swallowing our pride and going, I'm going to do whatever it takes to make that $20, 25 bucks an hour to keep the lights on this month. Okay. So what's the severance? How much do you guys have in the bank right now? Yep. So the severance is two months worth of pay. Um, and it's going to be gone in two months. So, um, and you have no savings. The savings is very minimal. Um, I have my 401k, but I don't want to really cash that out

right now. Okay. So yeah, give us a number. How much money are you going to have in the bank? We have $30,000 right now. And that will only get you by for two months? $15,000 are monthly expenses. How? We have a lot of debt and I was making a lot of money. You guys have a car you can sell? We do, actually. It's on our list. I think that needs to get sold today. I mean, how much money were you making? I was making $190,000 a year. And what's the total debt load? We have a mortgage that is at $480,000 with the second at $80,000. And then we have about $60,000 in credit cards and about $60,000 in loans. And the car loan, $60,000?

The car loan is separate. That is at $30,000. What's the other $60,000 in loans you said after the credit cards? Those were debt consolidation loans, so credit card consolidation loans, and then we were dumb and ran out of cards again. Man, you guys make way too much money to be this broke. This is a sad wake-up call. I wish you didn't have to land this way with the layoff, but I hope this is your I've had it moment, where you guys start looking at these numbers and you're scared. And that's a good thing because it means you're never going to be in this position again. And that means doing hard things like

selling the car because we were living La Vida Loca, living this fake lifestyle that we couldn't keep up with and life happened. And we had a stay at home spouse and that adds, you know, the consequence of that is it adds risk. If you lose one income, you lose all the income. So I think we have to make some more sacrificial changes. And we're going to start with selling the cars and getting beaters to get by. And I'm now going to say, I think the wife needs to work full time. The 12 year old can let himself in after school. Is the 12 year old in school right now, full time? He is. He is. And he can let himself in. Yes. Hey, man, let me tell you something. I hope you're receiving this with the right spirit, but it's time for her to work. I mean, it doesn't have to be forever, but that is

a game changer. Maybe three months from now, you're back to making $200,000. But even then, you guys have a giant pile of debt to clean up, so maybe she works until we're totally debt-free. A hundred percent. Because living in that area, you know, the Bay Area is where you're at, Sacramento, where are you at? Pretty close, pretty close. I can drive to the Bay Area today. So life ain't getting any cheaper out there. And so this is a scary moment where you go, are we going to have to move? If we can't sustain this lifestyle out here, you know, that's a tough spot to be in. So I would just have some hard conversations with your wife and say,

honey, you know, I wanted you to be able to stay home full time forever. Right now, here's the sacrifices we're going to have to make. We have to sell the cars. You're going to go back to work for a little bit. And I'm going to work my hardest to land that job again to where we can get some stability in place. Okay. You got it, Nathan. There are your marching orders.

I mean, this is doable. doable i mean it's not impossible but i can't stress this enough i was on wharton uh business radio this morning the guy asked me the host said what would you say to people who've been laid off and the first thing i'd say is is that you gotta heal you gotta have a day or two of just kind of cry it out cry it out hang around friends and family get get all the support necessary. But you're getting back to some type of work immediately. Don't sit. The best thing to kind of recovering from this emotionally is getting busy, keeping some income coming in, because the worst thing that can happen after getting laid off or fired is to feel the financial pinch. That makes everything else worse, George.

Yeah. Well, you know what, Ken, this is going to be for our friend Nathan. It's going to be a comma, not a coma. And he has to remember that. Don't get stuck. You're going to move on, man. You'll get there. Get busy.

Keep bringing money in. Do whatever it takes. And then it's going to get better. All right, good stuff. Thanks for the call, Nathan. We're cheering for you here. He's George Campbell. I'm Ken Coleman.

You're listening to The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me. We're here for you this hour. The phone number is 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. George, I was with Rachel on Friday, and at one point uh coming back from the break i mentioned that it was a toll-free number she made fun of me and now i'm getting hit on instagram you might as

well mention hey go to your nearest payphone and give us a ring yeah some guy in instagram was like oh yeah yeah from the payphone the toll-free number from your home phone all of the things so i gotta work on the old man references i like that you remind us of what a different time we live in i think that's based on how you think that's what I'm unwittingly doing. That's the sad part. But we're still helping people no matter if it's toll free or not. To your credit, there is no toll. It's a free show, which is amazing. I know. I'm just trying to keep the young kids attached. Let's go to Hayden, who's in Lansing, Michigan. Hayden, how can we help? Hey, guys. First off, I wish you understood the impact you've had on my house in the last 12 months.

You have flipped the place upside down, and that's the reason for my call. My wife and I have been married for two years now, brought a little baby girl in in the spring, and before that, we have kept our money separate. She had her account. I had mine. She paid these bills. I had mine. She paid these bills. I paid these. Well, in the last 90 days, we've knocked our heads together enough that we're ready to merge everything together, and we're just looking for some guidance.

We're in baby step two. Over the last six months, we've cleared out probably $40,000. We've got another $30,000 or $40,000 to go before we start getting crazy with the house. We were your typical middle-class Americans. We had 0% this and 0% that and credit card here, and that's all stopped. We did some plastic surgery, and we're on a better path because of you guys. I walked away from a 10-year career thanks to you, John, and not entirely because of you.

You gave me the courage to do it, but it's been a whirlwind of 12 months, and we want to just keep doing the right thing and merge our finances the right way. Cool. Well, I'm glad you called. Sounds like you're ready for some more life change. You guys have already been at it, but you're saying we're ready to fully combine. What does that mean? So she has a checking the savings. I have a checking the savings. She pays some of the smaller bills. She's a stay at home mom with a side business that keeps her busy. I'm a full-time sales guy making anywhere from $100 to $150 a year. So I pay the mortgage, the big stuff. She kind of takes the little stuff, but I hate that. I don't want to do that anymore. Is it as simple as just open a savings and a checking, put both our names on it and push everything in one bucket? You know, should she have her account for play money? I have mine for play money. It's this simple. You can actually

make your account into a joint account. So you don't even have to go make a new account. You just go to the bank and say, hello, we'd like to make this a joint account instead of just mine. And then she can shut her accounts down and you guys just use one checking and one savings. And that's it. That's exactly what we did last week. The only hang-up there, we have her car that we're both paying on very quickly to make it go away. That's on her account, so we can't kill hers yet because we've got to pay that car off because we don't want to refi it.

We've got a great interest rate at what it is. But where does it get paid from? She takes her side business money, and that is her sole bill today. I have taken over pretty much everything. I'm confused. Can't you just pay that car loan from this other bank account starting tomorrow? We could, yes, but you can't close the account. I'm not asking you to close the loan account, but you're saying it's tied to that bank account? It is tied, yeah. I guess, like, well... I don't know. I don't, I think you can just pay that loan from this different checking account. It's not tied to the checking account. I think

you're correct. So I don't think there's any excuses left. I mean, you guys are done living like roommates, combine it all. And you asked about what about his money and her money? Just in your budget, there's a line item for Hayden's fund money and that gets spent from the same checking account. And when your money runs out, it's out. And so if anything, it's going to create more accountability as you guys get on that budget together. It sounds like you haven't been making one budget using every dollar, for example. We just downloaded every dollar. We just dug into it. We laid everything out. What comes out every month when it does. So we're probably halfway through a budget, I would say.

Okay. I'm going to hook you up with EveryDollar Premium that will actually connect to your bank account, which is going to make this whole process a whole lot easier. Would you use it if I gifted it to you? Without a doubt. Okay. Wonderful. Hang on the line. We're going to gift you one year of EveryDollar. You guys are going to get together on a weekly basis right now and just take a look at the budget. And before the month begins, you're going to make a new budget and go, what's coming up this month? And that level of communication and alignment is going to take out all the money fights. And it's going to take away all the stress of button heads on whose money is this. And it's not her car loan. You have a car

loan, my friend. And so the sooner you guys get aligned on that, the sooner you're going to make progress even more than you have recently. So I'm proud of you guys. That's a big step, Ken. It's a big paradigm shift to make for couples out there who are so used to, well, this is my money. And well, that's her money because she's got her little business. Let her have that money. I don't subscribe to that. I think anybody out there that's been married for any amount of time knows that money can cause a lot of stress issues. You've probably seen the data about how it's probably the number one issue of stress in a marriage. And one of the things that when we're separated on money, that being in the same account and then on the same page does is remove all that. There is unity. And that's a huge deal for your marriage, not just for your money. So really important step. Love taking a call like that where they say, we've just made massive amount of changes in 12 months, which is the best way to do something like this. You know, when you've got to take on massive change, whether it be in your physical life, your relationship life, your money life, your work life, just get after it. Go ahead and make the change and go.

So I love that. All right, let's go to Kansas City where Troy joins us. Troy, how can we help? Hey, guys. Appreciate you I love that. All right, let's go to Kansas City where Troy joins us. Troy, how can we help? Hey, guys. Appreciate you taking my call. Sure. Just wanted to ask you quickly. So I'm 33. My wife's 32. We are going to be able to pay off our house here in the next probably month and a half to two months, just depending on what our expenses are. But really what we're looking for is the next steps, right? Neither of us are very comfortable or experienced in investing, and we're looking for what would be a good strategy for us being the age we are, kind of what we should be looking into and what we should be

putting our money into. Fantastic. You guys are crushing it, man. You're going to be in your early 30s without a house payment, which means baby step seven, which means instead of investing 15%, you can increase that. And you're going, hey, what do we do now as far as investing? Sure. Yep, exactly. Cool. What's your current retirement options through your employers? Yeah, so me currently, I get a 4% match. So I've had that maxed out since I've been working, you know, just a 4%. But, you know, I haven't personally been doing the 15%.

My wife is closer to that. She also gets the 4% match, but I can't remember what. She also gets like an 8% match for some sort of stock ownership, I believe. Okay. So let's get some clarity on what all the options are, and then you're going to filter through this really simple strategy. Match beats Roth beats traditional. So if you both have a match, let's invest at least up to the match. If you guys have Roth options, like a Roth IRA, let's max those out for the year. Beyond that, you can go back to the traditional side. Now, if you max out all of that, including an HSA, if you guys have a health savings account, which you can invest through,

then you might want to look into a taxable brokerage account outside of retirement. Okay. Did any of that click? Are you like, what the heck did he just say yeah no no i do i do believe well my wife does have um roth currently through her work as an option so i know that is an option for her um we i don't so i've been kicking around the idea of getting one you know outside of of my employment what kind of account do you have through your employer? I just have the 401k. A traditional 401k. They don't have a Roth option for that? Correct. Okay. Okay. So for you,

you might go max out the Roth IRA and then go back to the traditional 401k and max that out. But that would be my goal for you guys is can we max out all of our retirement options that are tax advantage for the year? That's a really great goal to have. Because if you both do, what's your household income? Yeah, so I make, just depending on the bonus for the year, I make around $120,000 to $150,000 a year, and my wife is right around $100,000 a year. Oh my gosh, you guys are amazing. So you're making $250,000, about to have no house payment. You absolutely, both of you should be maxing out those 401ks, maxing out an IRA. If your income is above the threshold, you can look into something called a backdoor Roth IRA. And your next step, because I can tell

you need some homework here. You need someone to walk you through this, give you some perspective on the stock market, squelch some of the fears, contact a SmartVestor Pro. You can connect with one at ramsaysolutions.com. And through our SmartVestor Pro. You can connect with one at RamseySolutions.com and through our SmartVestor program, we've got investing pros out there. They're not connected to our team, but we trust them to help you take the right next step to build wealth and they're going to take good care of you. Yeah, I love it.

You guys have such a bright future. Love it. Good stuff, George. So fun when you kind of see the lightbulb for people. Yeah. It's really fun. Alright, don't move. More of your calls coming up. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman.

George Campbell joins me. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Taking your money questions, of course. And I'm in today, so we'll be taking any work-related questions as well. And, hey, if you're enjoying the show, you can help us grow by subscribing, leaving a very nice review, if you don't mind, and sharing with a friend. That all helps us help more people get some real hope in their life. So thank you for that. 888-825-5225 is the number. Let's go to Simone, who joins us in Baltimore, Maryland. Simone, how can we help? Hi.

Well, I'm 25, and I don't have a college degree, and I'm unemployed. But I'm in a lawsuit right now that's about to reach settlement. And so I'm going to have about three, around three million after I pay my lawyer. And I don't know what to pay my lawyer, and I don't know what to do with it, and I don't want to mess it up. Wow. Now, how confident are you that this number is what you're getting? You said it's about to settle.

So is this just all about signing, dotting the I's, crossing the T's? Just curious, before we jump into the advice on the money, how confident are you that it is, in fact, three million that you'll be walking away with? Like 85%. Okay. Do you have any idea what the range would be? Definitely $3 million or more. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. I got you. $3 million or more. Okay. There you go, George. How about that? Wow. That's a lot of money. So my first question is, is this going to be taxable income, or are you confident that it will be tax-free? Yep, it's tax-free. Wow.

And how much money do you have currently? Zero. Well, not zero. I probably have like $100 going in right now. That's pretty close to zero. Yeah. Okay, so this is life-changing money and you're calling us to go, I don't want to screw this up. I want to be a good steward of this money

and use it wisely. Do you need any of this money? I want it to last as long as possible. Absolutely. And I think you can do that. I'm glad you're calling us and not, you know, going on a spending spree and then calling us later saying, I blew 3 million. What do I do now? So I'm glad we're on the other side of it. One question, George, before you break the numbers down in the investing side of this and saving, are you planning to work in the near future? Yeah. I mean, I was a college student and I left school because I had to take care of my family. And now I'm kind of just trying to figure out because i don't want to go back into that i already paid the college um loans off good um and i am in debt twelve thousand dollars but

not for uh student loans i just like if i go back to school that's that's another thing i'm like should i pay it out of pocket or should i or should i take the loans out and then i'm like no you're gonna have enough money. I don't got to go to college. That's the issue. That's why I'm asking that. Like, what is it that you want to do? I just want to, I mean, I, I don't really want to work for anybody. You don't work for yourself. I don't work for anybody, but I do. I mean, I don't mind having a,, like I don't mind, I don't mind like having my own business, but that's never really crossed my mind. Okay. Well, I'll tell you what, I don't

want to sidetrack you here. We've got some resources, George. I want to give her towards the end of this call to kind of help you kind of forge your path. But I was just curious, here's what I don't want. I'm just going to say this. Uh, I don't want you, even though you don't work for anybody else, long-term, short-term, I want you to start working, even if it's just a day job, to be able to bring in income so that we're not just living off this. Excuse me. Yeah, this is- I did have a job. I just quit it in October. I mean, my job is really inconsistent with communication and I just was over it.

Okay, good. All right. Yeah, there's two pieces here. We got to find you a career you love regardless of this money. And then the other side is we want to steward this wisely. So do you have any debt right now? Yes. I'm about, I have, let me see, like maybe like 15,000 in debt. Okay. What kind of debt is that? It's probably like $3,000 in credit cards, and then the rest is from like a car loan. Okay, so when will you get the settlement money? When will it actually show up in a bank account? In the next three months. And is this a lump sum?

You're getting $3 million just on a check or wired to your bank account? Yeah, it'll be wired to my bank account. Well, my lawyer said that it's going to be a check with both of our names on it. Who's our names? Like my name and my lawyer's name, like the law firm. Okay. Is he getting a cut of the $3 million? No, it's going to be, we're actually selling them for $6. Okay.

And then, but I was like, if I do divide it by 60%. Yeah. Okay. So there's a few things I want to tell you. Number one, the best thing to do with this money is just filter it through the baby steps. And so as soon as you get that money, let's pay off the debt and get you a fully funded emergency fund in place, which is going to be six months of expenses for you. So we pay off 15K and then let's stack up, let's say, what, 30K?

Would that be a full emergency fund for you? Yeah, that should be good. And what that does, that's a never get into debt again fund, isn't it? You never need a car loan again. In fact, I would cut up the credit cards today and be done with them forever because you just became your own bank. You don't need Capital One's help. And it's going to cause you to make different decisions when you use Simone's money versus Capital One's money. So I'm going to encourage you to cut up the cards as well. Now, beyond getting out of debt, getting the emergency fund in place, I want you to have a reliable,

reasonable car and maybe a home that's reasonable as well. And you could pay cash for those things now, couldn't you? Yeah. Are you renting right now? Actually, I live rent-free right now because I'm living with my sister. Cool. Yeah.

And do you plan on staying in Baltimore long-term? No. I want to move to Korea. Whoa. Well, that's a dream. Yeah. Okay. And this money could set you up for that if that's your goal.

Now, are you going to be working there? What's the goal of moving to Korea? I do want to work. Actually, I think I want to work for an American company and then work in Korea. Now, wait a second. What happened to the person who said they didn't want to work for anybody, wanted to work for themselves? Well, either whatever I got.

There's like this part of me that's like I have to work the rest of my life. But then I've been reading so many books in the last few months that I'm like, well, I don't want to work for anybody. But there's still this part of me that's like, I need to get a job. Yeah. Well, a couple of things. You don't have to work for the rest of your life. You do what George tells you right now with this and you invest this wisely, you're going to be fine. And there's a point where you'll get to decide how you work, when you work, whatever. But you read these books and I'm not going to make you name these books, but be very, very careful of how we let content sway us. And that clues, by the way,

anything I say, George says, like, you've got to be able to receive something and then process it and not let it completely change your direction unless you decide. So I think that you need to figure out what is it that I'm really, really good at doing? What is it that I really enjoy doing? And then what results do I want to put out into the world? Right? Does that make sense? Yeah. And I think if you play around with that, you can figure that out. In fact, I'm going to give you my get clear assessment. It takes about 15, 20 minutes. It's going to measure your skill set, what you do best, going to measure what you love to do, work that brings you enjoyment, and then what motivates you. And we'll give you the book From Paycheck to Purpose as well, which kind of gives you a very clear path of how I go from ideation to activation.

Make sense? Okay. Those are my gifts to you, okay? But you're going to be fine financially if you take George's advice. So, Simone, here's your next steps on the financial side. You need to assemble a dream team around you. And what that's going to look like for you is a really great insurance broker because you need an umbrella policy to cover you now on top of great auto insurance, homeowner's insurance, you name it. And on top of that, you're going to want to have a great lawyer. That may not be the lawyer you currently have. You may want to have a great accountant in your corner to handle all of the tax implications as you move forward, and maybe a real estate agent as well. And good news for you, you can connect with all of those trusted pros at ramseysolutions.com to help you. But let

me encourage you, even if you pay off debt, you put $30,000 in the emergency fund, you buy a $450,000 house, that still leaves you with $2.5 million, correct? Yeah. Now, if you invest that $2.5 million and you can get connected with an investing pro at ramseysolutions.com, they can help you with this. If you just invested that into the stock market and you saw returns of, let's say, 8% to 11%, you could have anywhere from $40 million to $100 million when you turn 60. Does that blow your mind? Yeah. million to $100 million when you turn 60. Does that blow your mind? Yes. And so that's the power of compound growth and letting this money grow for you so that you never have to worry about money again. And I have faith you'll get there. Don't go blow this money. Walk slowly. Use the

resources that Ken's going to send you. Yeah, you got this, Simone. We believe in you. Hang on. We got some goodies for you. Appreciate the call. Good hour, George Campbell. Thank you, sir. Thanks to James Childs, our fearless leader, and all the gang in the booth that keep us on the air. Thank you, America, for listening. This is The Ramsey Show.