The Ramsey Show - App - What Should We Do With Our $6000 Tax Return? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 8, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, 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. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today, author of the number one best-selling book, Debt-Free Degree, and host of the ever-popular YouTube and podcast show called The Table, which a new episode dropped today. So what did y'all talk about? I hadn't listened to today's yet. I hadn't had a chance.

What's whose own? Man, our good friends, Dave, Mignon and Big Shakes. Oh, wow, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Those two world-class entrepreneurs. Absolutely. And they came on and just really dove deep into how they started in the entrepreneurship world, how they got over some obstacles.

Big Shake has a barbecue operation both online and in multiple restaurants. And Mignon has a cupcake operation, tens of millions of dollars, both of them doing revenue. Absolutely. They're both world-class entrepreneurs, and they both started from nothing. Nothing. I mean, Mignon started with $5 and a dream. Big Shake started in New York with absolutely nothing and now has three or four shops, multimillionaires, both of them. And it was just a great show, Dave.

Yeah. It was a great show. Well, they're great friends. Yes. Both of ours. Yes, yes. And just love them both. I met Big Shake through you. You met. Both of ours. Yes, yes. And just love them both. I met Big Shake through you.

You met Mignon through me. Yeah, yep. But they're both just, they're just inspiring. Listen to him. I mean, people that want to start something and hustle and grind, turn over a rock and step on it, man, they get it done. They're getting it done. And they're both kind of cool.

Real cool. I mean, now Big Shake, he has that old man swag. You know, he's just real cool. Yeah, but he's got more swagger. Mignon, she just hurt. She is. He's got the strut down still. She really is.

I like it. It's good, man. I can't wait to listen to it. You'll love it, Dave. It's called The Table with Anthony O'Neill. And it's his weekly podcast coming out. And it's been on YouTube for quite a while and has quite a few YouTube listeners and viewers, rather. And so you can tune in and learn from two world-class entrepreneurs this week.

Anthony, he gets a little bit of everybody on there. Matthew McConaughey was on there the other day. And you had a panel of folks for Black History Month on there. And so there's always something happening at the table. There's always a conversation. And be sure you jump in and join it and check it out. And next week, Dave, we have some of our influencers. You brought in, as a team we did, we brought in some young influencers a couple of months ago.

And so I interviewed about half of them. Oh, yeah. And brought them in on the show. So that's going to be a phenomenal, phenomenal show. Good. I'm excited. Lots of good conversations. Yes.

Phone number here if you want to talk about your life and your money is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Michelle is with us in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Hi, Michelle. How are you? Hello. I have a question for you guys and I wondered what you would think.

My husband and I have signed papers through a real estate agent to buy a double apartment house that has two apartments in it from his brother and in between the time of signing here and we have not made settlement yet uh but the

gutter has fallen on an electric line we were wondering whose duty that is to take care of it say that i didn't hear understand whose duty to take care of what to take care of the gutter that has fallen on the electric line a gutter fell on the electric line. Well, typically the seller would present a home that is operable to the buyer. Unless you have specific language in the, if it's a fixer-upper of some kind, you might have as is, where in the contract in case in that case you just bought whatever it is and you you got the gutter okay but most of the time when you're buying a peak did it does it say as is where is in the contract i'm not exactly sure okay it is

a fixer-upper although we haven't't made settlement. So that's what I was wondering. It doesn't matter. Settlement would be based on you closing on the deal that you made. If the deal you made on a fixer-upper is we're going to fix all the repairs, well, a gutter hanging off ain't that big a deal to start with. But I kind of have the feeling that you're getting cold feet. Half and half. Where's the cold feet coming from, Michelle? What was that?

Where's the cold feet coming from, the other half of it that you say is half and half? There's some family that thinks that we need to pay more, even though it's not worth that much. Who's the family? Are they the seller? The father-in-law. Well, it's none of his business unless it's his property. Is it his property? No.

Okay. Well, then that's called NUNYA. Yeah. NUNYA business. And it's also very important, Michelle, for you to, you need to know what's in your contract. I'm a little disappointed that you don't know exactly what's inside the contract. So the very first thing is you need to go back and read through or have an attorney read through everything so you know exactly what you're signing for.

Where'd you get this contract, this form? The real estate agent we are with. Oh, there's an agent involved. Yes. Did you ask your agent about the gutter? No. Okay. That would be a good idea.

Now, is it your agent or is it the seller's agent, Michelle? Both. Oh. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. They can tell you what you've agreed to. Right. You probably are using a standard form Realtor contract that's a boiler boilerplate meaning it's a standard form uh and it may even have in it uh as is where is if you're buying a fixer-upper they may have added that as far

as repairs go so that they didn't so that the seller didn't get obligated uh to do this if i were selling that property i would have had that specific language in there so that whatever condition the property is in as of the closing date it's on you if i'm supposed to present you with a retail deal meaning everything's spick and span and perfect then it would say that and you would have gotten a home inspector ahead of time if you did this properly and you would have known exactly what you were getting into but i think there's family drama here and a gutter is exposing that because let me tell you what it takes to fix a gutter 200 bucks so it's a non-issue okay you don't not do a real estate deal or do a real estate deal over a gutter that's just not you know there's a lot of other crap going on here and um it may be that you don't need to do the

deal because of the family drama yeah and just look at brother and go you know what everybody's pissed off so let's just not do this you sell it to somebody else and y'all go get something else and but the gutter doesn't need to be the reason no and so yeah once you get to settlement you own the house it's over then so so folks here's the deal everybody, don't do business with family. Don't hire family. You know what? That's wrong.

You can do business with family, and you can hire family. I got family that works here. What's the secret? The secret is you have to be as clear or more clear in all of the dealings and expectations and paperwork than you would with someone that you never met before. Okay. Because it takes extra layers of communication to cut through family BS. Gotcha. You have to be uber, super, crazy, blunt, two before, in the face, clear with family.

Where with normal humans, you could just look at them and say something and they could hear it. But with family, they get all caught up in assumptions. They do. Right? And so don't assume nothing. Write it down like it's a freaking business transaction because it is. And then you know exactly what you're getting into. And you would never care about the father-in-law of the seller

were you buying someone else's property. There you go. That's how business works. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. In an uncertain world, being a good steward of your money is more important than ever. While some circumstances can't be controlled, there are items within your budget you can take charge of, such as your health care costs. For nearly 40 years, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, has provided a budget-friendly means of sharing for medical bills when our members need it. Learn more by visiting chministries.org slash budget.

That's chministries.org. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225 i'm dave ramsey your host 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 you get free samples free shipping and with the new promos they run every month you save a lot always use the magic word Ramsey as your promo code. Today's question comes from Zach in Iowa. My wife and I had a baby in August, and now that we are debt free, we want to start investing in her future. Since we don't know her future plans and given the talk around the financial changes in academia,

would it be better to invest in a standard mutual fund instead of a 529? Well, first, Zach, I want to say congrats to uh your newborn uh that's an amazing amazing thing uh but for me i'm going to say stick to a 529 because i would say more than likely your child is going to want to go to college you all going to push for further education uh and so i will stick to a 529 and just make some adjustments there uh once she graduates from high school if she decides not to go to college. Completely agree. The landscape may shift. Yeah.

It will shift. It will. It's shifting already, and it's going to shift in the next number of years. But starting a 529, you know, and when you get up to $10,000, you might pause a second and look around and say, now do I want to keep going? Right. If you get up to $50,000, you may want to pause and look around long before you get to $100,000.

Right. But you're not making a $100,000 decision today. Right. You can just start one, and then as it gets bigger, you keep looking around and going, well, this is different now, and this is different. And what has happened is the argument, and you talk about this in a debt-free degree, in the best-selling book of yours, the argument against the cost, the extreme exorbitant cost of a four-year degree is even stronger, and it was accelerated by COVID because you can't even freaking go on

campus right right and so it's basically you're getting an online degree and everybody's going well i sure as crud ain't paying that for an online degree right and uh i was questioning whether i was going to do it with a college experience right but now when there's no college experience and now it's all online i'm sure i could just go on Google and get that, you know. And so people are that is forcing COVID accelerated a cultural shift in us observing what's happening with our education. So higher eds, they're in a mess. Yes, they are. And if the Biden administration goes through on some of its promises and forgives student loans and yet has the hypocrisy to not stop the student loans. Yes.

See, if you're going to forgive them because they're evil, you shouldn't keep making them. Absolutely agree, Dave. Because they're evil. Yep. You cannot in good – I mean, it's intellectually dishonest to forgive student loans and continue to make them. Right. That's straight-up pandering, straight-up politicians handing out money. Yeah.

That's all that is. That's not a philosophical admission that the student loan crisis is a screwjob on the American public. And if you're going to admit that, then you need to stop making them, which they're not going to do, by the way. They're not going to admit that then you need to stop making them which they're not going to do by the way they're not going to do that dave and i know we're totally against debt but at least maybe put a cap on it you know don't make it unlimited for these these it's just out of control so but that's what's driven the cost up it's just unlimited supply of stupid money yes there's always somebody who will take the money yep and so you know government money which by the way you don't even have to pay back if it's forgiven so i mean that's whole thing is getting super absurd so the guy's question is really good

it's really because that pressure was all there and then add covid to it and you go we're not even on campus i'm sure not paying 50 grand a year for this right and people are starting to wake up and go hey i want to return on investment i want. I want to pay, get something I'm real proud of for what I paid for. So online learning or reasonable state schools or community colleges or some of the stuff we've been suggesting to avoid student loan debt for years are suddenly much more popular. But that's going to change what the offerings are at higher ed. Yeah, it really will. Over time.

So the answer to your question is, Zach, if you said, I'm going to put in $200,000 in my kid's college fund this morning, I would say, yeah, I agree with you. Don't do that. Right. Because the landscape's changing. I might not do that all at once. But if you're going to start gradually, you're not going to screw up having $10,000 and a $529,000.

So let's get started, but then continue to monitor the shift in the education culture and what's expected. So now, Dave, let me ask you this question. You have several mutual funds. I have not several. I have a couple of mutual funds outside of my Roth IRA. Now, let's say if he maxes out his 529, he's already investing in all this other type of stuff.

Would you suggest he opened up another mutual fund if he just wants to save more to give more to his kids and he could just have that in his name though okay and then that could be used for anything yes yeah i mean you could just go i'm gonna buy a piece of real estate with it i'm not giving it to the kid i got you so you can just build wealth and that always gives you options for doing anything you want to do got you a pile of money in your name i would not necessarily pile a bunch of money in the kid's name. Okay. You can if you want to.

It saves some taxes, but you lose a lot of control. Yep. Because, see, that mutual fund, if you put it in the kid's name, it's called a uniform. Well, I can't call it out. Yeah. My brain went blank. But anyway, Uniform Transfer to Minors Act.

The booth helped me out. Thanks, guys. My brain's locked up. But Uniform Transfer to Minors Act. And all that means is if you open a bank account with your bank for your child to put their milk money in or their birthday money in, because little junior has a little savings account at the bank. Right. That's under the Uniform Transfer to Minors Act.

Okay. Because you can't technically open an account unless you're 21, anywhere. Because you can't do business. You're not an adult. Right. So the parent opens the account in the child's name, typically, and the parent is named the custodian. Right.

And so, but then that mutual fund, if we do that, is taxed at that kid's rate. So as it makes money, it has lower taxes than if it was in my name got you i got you because i'm gonna get my butt taxed off you know that right and so it saves you some but again it's it's their money right when they turn 21 if they're doing cocaine they can go get the money yeah so then so you you lose a lot of control over it until they're 21. Gotcha. And so, you know, for what little tax savings there is, I would just open it in your name and just book on. But this higher ed discussion, and we've had it with Dr. John Deloney, who's got a Ph.D. in higher ed,

and he comes out of the university world, has served in leadership in multiple different universities but we're all observing that this is a um when when the dust settles on this after covid on what colleges charge and how many people attend them physically it's going to have changed it's going to have accelerated the change yes that the student loan crisis started yes and i don't know to what extent but we're going to see something shift absolutely to where you know my my university university of tennessee at knoxville with 30 000 students or got a guy sitting out here with a michigan hat on the university of michigan or the university of uh whatever kentucky or auburn or alabama or california or whatever it's going to look different. Yeah. And those are state schools.

Yeah. Now, if you fast forward and you go over into a super expensive private school, they're going to feel it even more because people are going to go, look, the student loan thing is so bad that the Democrats forgave it, so I'm not signing up. Right. Right. Because not many people are so dishonest as to sign up knowing they're going to get it forgiven.

Right. Like, I'm going to go get all I can get so the government pays for it. I'm going to get on welfare because I don't really want to work. You know, most people aren't that lacking in honor. They're not. So it's going to affect it. If they do this forgiveness, even if they don't stop making them, it's still going to affect the perception in the culture. It has changed.

It's changed permanently. And you guys check out Anthony's book, Debt-Free Degree, and check out the Borrowed Future podcast on the Ramsey Network because it lays out in detail how crooked and how, I mean, filthy the student loan industry is. Especially the government. And the government intent behind it. Yes. I mean, it is a colossal mess. wealthy yes the student loan industry is especially and the government intent behind it yes i mean it is a colossal mess it is an epic failure man and uh you need to check it out and so and if you want to go to school and you should go to school by the way education is important i'm not we're not a group that says you don't need to go to college. It's not worth anything. Oh, it's worth it. It's better to be smart than dumb. It really is.

So you should go, but you need to be smart about your education. It's oxymoronic to not be. So, you know, a debt-free degree will help you learn how to do that. Like I said, it's a number one bestseller. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. You are listening to The Ramsey personality is my co-host today I am Dave Ramsey thank you for joining us America Patrick is with us in Grand Junction, Colorado. Hey, Patrick, how are you? Hey, Dave.

Hey, Anthony. Thank you so very much for taking my call. Our pleasure. How can we help? Well, my wife and I read the Total Money Makeover just two weeks ago. Wow. And, yeah, I am 41 years old, and we paid off our debt on Friday, just three days ago. Wow.

Congrats. Well, now, Dave, I got to tell you, someone gave me one of your books when I was like 22 years old. I'm not even kidding you. And from that time till this time, I've been on the Dave Ramsey envelope system. I have been real serious about not being in debt. I bought my wife's wedding ring for cash. I paid for the wedding in cash. My wife and I have really been blessed because of a book we read of yours, I mean, forever ago. So the total money makeover the other day was just a tune-up then? It was, because I haven't been listening to the podcast. I haven't read any more of your books and my wife and I just looked at where we were and we're like, you know what? We need to get on

track. So we only had $12,000 in debt. We had one automobile, we paid it off. Um, I bought the total money makeover. Uh, it was the last purchase I made with my credit card. The book came in the mail, and there you are on the cover cutting up credit cards. So I felt like a dum-dum for that purchase. It's blasphemy. Yeah. But here's where we're at. We're on baby step three.

But we have been investing a lot of money because we haven't been on the plan up until a couple weeks ago. Got it. So my question is, do I pull some of that out for my six months of fully funded emergency fund? How much do you have in non-retirement investing? We have $435,000. Yes. Take enough out today and call it your emergency fund and put it in a money market. Right.

Now, let me explain that to you because it doesn't make sense. Yeah, because you're going to hear me cry in a minute. I know, but it's not that much money. It's not that much money. What is your three to six months of emergencies? How much should this fund be? So we were thinking six months should be $36,000. Okay.

So move $30,000. That's enough. Yeah. You'll be fine. Because you got $400,000 other than that laying over there. Right. Okay. So it's not that much money.

Now, here's the point. Okay. That $30,000 has a new mission now. Its old mission was to grow as an investment. Your emergency fund is not an investment. If you can swallow

that, it'll make this easier. It's not an investment. It's insurance. Now, if you think about insurance versus investments, insurance costs you money to protect the things that make you money. Your house going up, right? You don't want it to burn.

So we buy an insurance policy to protect it. So insurance is defense. Investments is offense so we're moving 30 000 over into defense to protect so we don't have to cash out some of that 400 at exactly the wrong time because let me tell you what will happen if you think i'm going to use the 400 if something happens right that's what most people think yeah what happens is you'll go i still can't cash out the $400, even though I need $7,000 to do dot, dot, dot emergency. I just can't do it. And you'll pop it onto a credit card.

Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so the emergency fund is the completed proper step in a good financial plan. But, Anthony, it's very important that we change it emotionally from offense to defense. Absolutely, Dave. Defense is very, very important.

I love how you called it out there. So you know what? He's going to see that $400,000 over there. He's going to say, I don't want to touch that. I'm going to go take out a loan. I'm going to go put it on the credit card. And the next thing you know, he's right back into what took him about 20 years to pay off everything.

Yeah. And so defense sets you up for effective offense. Okay? And so I love how Bidet broke that down. But $30,000 out of $400,000, it's not a lot of money. Yeah. Just ask Tampa Bay. Wow.

Defense sets you up for an effective offense. That was a good one, Dave. No question. I was going for the young man, but, man, you just hit us hard with that. Well, I mean, it's just I'm not a fan of either team. I'm not a hater on either team. It's just an observation of the game. But, yeah.

True. You know, it does. It sets you up to win. And defense wins games. And defense shut it down. We've heard that. And that's not only true in football. It's true in finance.

And so because here's what can happen. You can be smart smart smart smart smart smart yeah and then have a moment and this is not the case with patrick okay yeah but just as another example like i've seen people who build up and they got 400 grand laying there right and they've been smart all those years because patrick's been very smart right and then suddenly something comes along that's shiny this looks like a cool investment that their friend wants to get them into. And you could put $200,000 over here and all of this in one stroke of the pen, you get stupid. Yeah. Yeah.

And I've seen people just suddenly, boom, they just lose it. Yeah. And so that's the, you know, you've been really good at offense, but you didn't have a good defense to keep you from stepping into stupid tax yeah and i've done and i've never done it on the stage oh at the time i went broke i did it yeah but i mean since then i've even done stupid things that cost me money but i have been smart enough after i went broke to do them small enough to where they weren't game ending and there's one's one other thing, too, I would suggest, Dave, and tell me from Roanke here, that other $360,000 that he's going to have there sitting there, give that a purpose. Why is it sitting there?

It needs to go ahead and do baby steps four, five, and six. Yes. So if you've got a home mortgage, I'm going to start moving towards that with that other balance. That's going to even be harder in another discussion, but we'll get through baby step three first. Zachary is with us. Zachary's in Lexington, Kentucky. Hi, Zachary.

How are you? I'm doing well, Dave. Can you guys hear me? We can. How can we help? Good, Neil. I wanted to get your guys' opinion on whether my wife and I are financially healthy enough to try and start a business.

Okay. We are 23 and 25. Our only debt is we just built a house for $350,000. We currently owe $270,000 on it. Okay. No student debt, no car debt. And we got about $25,000 in liquid cash built up. You guys are on fire.

Yeah. What's your household income? We're trying to be. Our household income last year was $170,000. What kind of business are you wanting to start, and what's it going to cost? Wanting to start a business that is a solution for treating household hot tubs and pools. I developed the product based on my own personal sufferings in that. And we've got to develop prototypes.

And the next step would be... Is this a chemical product or a robotic cleaner? A chemical product. Okay. So you can do it all by yourself to start off, right? Yeah, me and one of my friends, he's a stay-at-home dad currently. He's also debt-free outside of a mortgage.

Okay. So it's kind of something that we'd be taking on together. No. My biggest drawback is I've got a very good job, and I've got about a guaranteed – I work in sales. I do logistics for a living.

Yeah, so what do you want to spend to start the business? Very minimal, only $1,000. Well, why wouldn't you? Yeah. And you don't need him, and you don't need to leave your job. You don't need him, and you don't need to leave your job. You don't need him, and you don't need to leave the job. Just start it. Yeah.

Yeah. And start selling it. And after you sell $100,000 worth, then you can quit your job, and he can work for you. There you go. But you don't need a partner. The only ship on sale is a partnership. I got you. I mean, it's a best friend kind of deal.

It won't be. Bringing other people up with me. Yeah, mean, it's a best friend kind of deal. It won't be. Bringing other people up with me. Yeah, well, that's okay. He can work for you, and you can pay him out of the profits. That'll bring him up. That definitely will. Yeah. And, Zach, hear me clearly, man.

You're a young man, and I get it. We want to be entrepreneurs. Do not leave your job. Keep working it until this can take care of your actual salary you have coming in. Or close. Yes. But don't quit, bro. Don't quit. Start it care of your actual salary you have coming in. Or close. Yes. But don't quit, bro. Don't quit.

Start it out of your garage. I talked to a young man the other day, started a thing in his garage seven years ago, did $25 million this year. Good gracious. Yeah. Not bad. Start it out of your garage, and when it gets up close to your current salary, then you can quit and walk away, and you need to have your friend work for you.

He doesn't need to be your partner. No, you don't need a partner. You have the stuff. You've got the money. You've got everything here. If you feel like you're going to always be stuck paying off your debt, well, you don't have to be. You think you're never going to have any extra money to save? Think you're always going to be like a rat in a wheel? Well, you don't have to be.

It doesn't have to be this way. It's time for a new way of thinking. It's time to reset. Time to take control of your money instead of it controlling you. You can. Millions of people have, and we show people how every day. And it won't take as long as you think it will. With Ramsey Plus, we'll kick you off with 90 days of guided help so you can put more of your money back in your bank account.

You'll learn practical ways to get small, consistent wins that add up to big results and better habits, and that means you'll get where you want to be faster, debt-free, and spending your money without worry. This year, you can make more progress on your debt and your saving than you ever have. Get Ramsey Plus and start living the life you want faster ramsey plus you can do a free trial by texting free no no i'm sorry you text trial to 33 789 you can get a free trial to ramsey plus that includes financial peace university

includes every dollar plus it includes includes the premium version, everything. Text the word trial to 33789. Brian is with us in Greenville, South Carolina. Hey, Brian, how can we help? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up?

So my question today actually is advice on what to do with our tax return. We've got about 6,000 planning on coming in from that, and we're on baby step two, so we're choosing debt to pay off. But at the same time, we just bought a house at the beginning of this year, and it's an older house, 1957. And the inspector said that the AC unit actually is on its last life and that it would probably be going out soon. And we've made it thus far in the winter. But from the outside, it looks pretty bad. And so I'm worried that it'll go out if we spend this tax return.

We'll end up having to come up with money to replace that. So let's see, you're in Greenville, South Carolina, and it is February. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So you don't need an AC. Not until July. Well, it's... I know, I'm poking fun at you.

Right. So if it goes out in July, you go to Walmart and buy a $10 box fan. Okay. How much debt have you got left? Well, not including the house, it's about $30,000. What's your household income, sir? Only about $26,000 to $30,000. What's your household income, sir? Only about $26,000 to $30,000. For you and your wife, combined income?

My wife is a stay-at-home mom that's kind of getting paid under the table to babysit. Okay, and so you're working 40 hours? Yes. How old are you? 26. What do you do? Forklift driver for a local warehouse. Okay.

Okay. All right. So what are you going to be doing when you're 30 that makes twice what you make now? That's a good question. I had surgery a couple years ago, and it's really limiting my options as to what I can do. So I'm still actually in the process of trying to figure out what I can do. So it affected you physically but not mentally? Yes.

So you're going to do something that's called white collar? Okay. Right? Using your brain? Yes. Any education, Brian? Three years of IT, but no graduate. Okay.

All right. So why are you not working in IT? Because in college I took the same math class about three times and wasn't able to pass it with a high enough degree to continue in the degree classes. Yeah, but what did you learn? Did you learn programming? A little bit of programming and networking. Okay. So even if you couldn't pass the

math class, can you work on a computer? Yes, sir. Well, it pays more than driving a forklift. Most likely. Yeah, like definitely. Brian, let me answer this question man i don't i don't i'm listening to you and i don't i don't hear motivation i don't hear aspiration i don't hear like yo i really want to do more like what why why are you living today like where where do you see yourself what do you want in the next 10 15 years well to be honest i all the things I wanted to do, I can't. I wanted to join the military.

I wanted to be in the police force or something like that that's more physical. And so I didn't really have a backup plan when I heard that I needed to be off my feet. And IT, I was never excited about because that's one of my biggest weaknesses is being a gamer. And so I didn't feel like it would be a good idea to be in front of a computer all day, you know, with the chances of getting into different gaming stuff or whatever. Plus, I like to be more hands-on, so I didn't want to really be in an office if I could help it. Got you. You're going to be in an office.

Yeah. Because you're not going to be in the military, and you're going to get off this forklift. Yeah. And you're going to be a software engineer, dude. Yeah. I mean, if you love gaming, why don't we take all those skills and that love, and let's use it for something. The reason we're going into this is it solves your air conditioner problem. Yes.

Because you don't have an air conditioner problem. You have an income problem. Right. That's why we went there. Okay. So we're going to get the cattle prod and zap you off that forklift. Ready? Zip!

You feel it? So I want you by this time, let's see, by the 1st of March, I want you to have talked to three people in the technical world about you doing some side help for them while you keep your day job. Yes. I want you to stick your toe in the water and reset your dream. You're too young to have your only dream destroyed, and you do nothing the rest of your life.

You have too much potential. There's too much for you to do in this world. Yeah. God was not surprised that you got hurt, and he has a plan for you. Right. And I don't think, there's no shame in driving a forklift, but I don't think you're there because it's your passion to drive a forklift. I think you're there because you're hiding.

Yeah. Yeah, and it was the easiest answer. Yeah. It was a default. I loved operating equipment. It was default. It was whatever program came up when you turned it on. Yeah.

And here's the thing, Brian. Dave told you something that's key, and I do not want you to miss it. And before you hang up, I want you to stay on the line because Kelly is going to give you one of our friends, Ken Coleman's book, The Proximity Principle. He told you to talk to three people in the tech world and work for them on the side. What's key is there is that not only will you get income on the side, but you're going to build relationships. What if you could make $200,000 a year working for a company that creates games? That's it. And that starts with the relationships. As a gamer. Well. I think that would be better than any plan you had.

Absolutely. Probably. Even the other plan that was your glory plan. Yeah. I mean, because you love gaming, and your brain works that way. I know that because you gravitated towards tech. Yeah. None of this was an accident. Yeah.

So, hey, man, I want good things for you, okay? So what I'm going to tell you to do is I'm going to tell you to take that $6,000 and pay it on your debt, and I want you to get an extra job in the tech world and pay off your debt even faster. And while you're working that extra job, if your air conditioner goes out this summer, you can stop your debt snowball for a little bit, work 100 hours a week at the extra tech job, and then buy you an air conditioner. But right now, I want you to work on the debt snowball. But, dude, this is not about your debt snowball.

I think we got a hold of it. It's about your career track. And hold on. Kelly's going to pick up. We're going to give you a copy of Ken Coleman's book. Go to KenColeman.com, his website. Download all of his stuff. It's all free.

And we gave you the only thing he charges for, which is the book. And he will walk you through how to get this going man yeah and uh but it's exactly what you need to do you need to start poking around the career the tech world and get off that forklift uh because that's not going to take you where you want to go it's not because it wasn't your goal i mean i got a friend that owns a forklift company if you want to own a forklift company, you can do it. That's what you want to do. But I don't think

that was your plan. Nah, you can hear it all in his voice, Dave. And that's one thing. Well, time is up. But you called him out. I did. You called him out.

I did call him out, Dave. You just heard the bus, bus, boom, boom, right over, threw him under the bus for his own good. That was a bus, a love bus.

Yes, sir. All right. You loved it. Threw him under the bus. For his own good, though. That was a bus. A love bus. Yes, sir. All right. You loved it. Yeah. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts. We'll see you next time.