The Ramsey Show - App - What the U.S. Hitting the Debt Ceiling Means for You (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

Ken Coleman & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss: Withdrawing from a 401(k), Preparing for a layoff, Choosing a higher-paying job vs. a more stable one, What the Debt Ceiling news means for the average American, Paying off debt when you don't have any margin, When a dream job suddenly isn't. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET 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 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

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🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moogin and Storage studio, this is The Ramsey Show.

It's where America is hanging out to have a conversation specifically about your money life, your work life, and your relationship life. The phone number to join in is 888-825-5225. I'm Kim Coleman. George Campbell joins me this hour. Again, the number to jump in is 888-825-5225. We're going to start this hour off with Kara in Houston, Texas. Kara, how can we help? Hi. I have a 401k and I wanted to roll it over to a Roth IRA, but I needed to take some money out. So I'm wondering, is it best to do a withdrawal now and then roll it over or roll it over and then try to take a withdrawal? I just wouldn't take a withdrawal at all. How old are you? I'm 65, and it's not a lot of money. It's only $14,000.

And I didn't even know it was there. I got a letter from an old employer 10 years ago. I completely forgot about this. So this old 401k you've had sitting around, and you're at retirement age now, and you can withdraw from this with no penalties. Is it a traditional 401k? Yes. I would go through with the withdrawal, the rollover, direct rollover to a traditional IRA and then use that money. And then use it. Okay. That's short and sweet. That's all I needed to know. Absolutely. All right. How about that? That was the easiest call of the day, Ken.

There you go. Thanks for the win, Kara. Way to go, Kara. Jennifer is now up in St. Petersburg, Florida. Jennifer, how can we help? Hi. Hi. So I'm just kind of, I need assistance to figure stuff out because my husband may possibly be laid off of work. And we have a home that we need to pay for that we just recently purchased and we don't really have major bills but I have a job, a side job, and I'm going into like a third job. So it's just kind of like, you know, how can we prepare in case that was to happen?

Okay, so what do we know? What do we know, not what we think and what we feel. Right now we want to focus on what we know about the possibility of him being laid off. What is he hearing? What is he telling you? So there's new management on board now in the company, and there's like this one major project that they've had him working on. And once that project is done, previously they had talked about, you know, converting that particular office space into something that has nothing to do

with what he does now. Okay. So when does he anticipate that the project that he's working on will be finished? In about a month and a half. All right. So we start there. All right. So worst case scenario is in a month and a half, they lay him off. All right. So in that month and a half time, starting today, tonight, if it's me, this is what I would do if I were your husband, I'd be reaching out to people that I know in his industry, people that may know somebody in other companies that hire people to do what he does. So we're just looking. St. Petersburg, Florida, big area, pretty good job market is my guess.

And so I'd be shaking the tree. He's looking. He's applying. I mean, he can start that process now. He doesn't have to take he, he can start that process now. He doesn't have to take it. He can start interviewing, you know? The thing is that he's already like out of, at his max, like he's actually getting over, overpaid for what he actually does, you know, in anywhere else. What does that have to do with what I told you though? What does that have to do

with the fact that it's, that, that he's still got to be looking for something? We need a plan. We need a backup plan. So you're saying worst case, there's a slight reduction in income if he goes to a different company. So that'll adjust our budget. So let's look at the numbers here. Are you guys okay financially? For the most part, yes.

Do you have debt? Just like the house. And we don't have car we we don't have car debt um credit cards we do have um i have a like two credit cards um not to not nothing too crazy maximum maybe like three thousand are you carrying a balance? You have credit card debt that you're carrying? Yes. How much? Well, like $2,000 change. I just recently got the credit card, so of course, during the holiday. Well, the best thing you can do when this is just kind of the warning sign is to cut them up, because if you have a reduction in income, the last thing you need is payments to lenders. And so I would get rid of these cards, pay them off. Do you have money in the bank right now? Not really. I tried starting like a savings account. I've always been very bad about financials. Like very, I've always like counted pennies because I've always

been for the most part, a single mom. So obviously now it's different. He actually, on the other hand, he's very good with finances and savings and, you know, numbers. He's like a numbers man. Okay, so hold on a second. Let's slow down for a minute. And I appreciate we're asking about your money, but you called to say, what are we going to do if he gets laid off? The point is, number one, George will help you. You need to get disciplined with money.

We're going to give you some resources so that you two get on the same page. I'm glad he's good with money. You need to let him lead in that way. Let him model for it. Say, hey, I'm in. Okay, I want to do the things the way that you do things. All right. That's a start. But the reality is, is that he makes X amount of dollars. How much does he make? Close to 30. $30,000. And what does he do? No, no. Close to $30 the hour. Oh, $30 an hour.

So we'll call that about $60,000 a year. Yeah. So what does he do? Do I really have to share that? No, but you don't have to. I was just simply trying to say, I said to you, my first thing was he needs to start looking for jobs, looking for work that he does now, that he's got some actual experience in and some skill, your first response was, well, he already makes more than he would anywhere else. And that's not the mindset. I mean, he needs to be looking right now. He doesn't want to not have

an exit strategy. You know, we go on airplanes, they tell us in case of a water landing or a crash or whatever, we got to exit here, exit here, exit here. That's what I'm trying to explain to you. He's got a month and a half lead time in a worst case scenario. He may not get laid off at all, but he's got a month and a half. And so I'll give it back to George to help you on the money stuff. But I want to make sure you're going back to him going, hey, you start looking out. I can start looking for you, with you. We're looking for opportunities that may be available now.

Start the interviewing process. And then if he gets a couple of job offers, if they're good, he can go back to these guys and go, hey guys, I got a couple offers, new management. Do you want me here? I mean, he's got some leverage. So let's go find some opportunities and exit strategy. Okay. So that's the career side, Jennifer. The financial side, the best thing you can do in case this happens and in case any emergency happens is having no debt and a bunch of cash in the bank. And so that is your A1 over the next 45 days is to get rid of all consumer debt and start saving up money in savings, which means we're not going to go out to eat. We're not going to go on our shopping sprees to Target or wherever your favorite place is. We are getting really serious right now.

We're in a storm. And so how much debt do you have outside of those two credits? You said you have $2,000 in credit card debt. Anything else? Yeah. Well, that's my credit card. The other credit card that we mostly pay some of the bills with is about anywhere between $10,000 to $15,000. You said he's good with money. If he's racking up credit card debt, he ain't good with money. And so let's cut up these cards. And by the way, it's our money. It's our with money. If he's racking up credit card debt, he ain't good with money. And so let's cut up these cards. And by the way, it's our money.

It's our credit cards. Let's get on a plan together. It's not he's good and I'm bad and we're just doing our own thing. We're going to send you one year of Financial Peace University so that you guys can get on the same page, create shared values, goals, common language, and you will get through this layoff if you do what Ken said and jump to a different career. Thank you so much for the call. It's time to get serious. Prepare always for a storm. The best way to do that is to be safe and have peace with your money. This is The Ramsey Show. welcome back americans join the conversation here on The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by George Camel.

888-825-5225 is the number. It's time for our question of the day, brought to you by Laminators. Keeping your sensitive documents protected since 1958. Gotta love a Laminator. Yeah, I love a good Laminator. You ever use the one here in the break room? As a matter of fact, yeah. Nothing gives me more joy than Laminators. The documents that I go to often on The Ken Coleman Show are in fact laminated.

Love it. Our question comes from Brandy in Colorado. She says, I'm 42 and a single mom of a 16-year-old. I had to withdraw all of my retirement to help cover unexpected medical expenses. I'm a renter, no retirement savings now, and live paycheck to paycheck. I just received two job offers and I don't know what to paycheck. I just received two job offers, and I don't know what to pick. Option one, full-time working for the federal government with awesome retirement and benefits with an annual salary of $57,000. Option two, full-time corporate job with an annual salary of $100,000 and a 401k with a match of 3%. Should I accept the higher paying job to help me pay off the 10K in credit card,

20K car, and 2,000 monthly rent in Colorado, or should I choose the federal government job with stability and good retirement? I would like to be debt-free in three years so I can move to another state where cost of living is more reasonable and I can purchase a condo or town home for myself. Well, Brandy, thank you for the easiest question of the day that I've ever had to answer. It's absolutely number two, and it's not even close. I think the word here in your two questions has got you hung up on this, because this is so obvious to George and I to take the corporate job where you're making almost double, and that doesn't even include potential raises over the next couple of years,

and the match of the 401k. But the word, George, in this question that's got her and other people, they kind of get stuck on this. Can I guess it? Yeah, go for it. Stability. You nailed it. They think, well, it's a government job, so the government's always going to be here, and there's no way they're going to lay me off. And that, first of all, that's just not true. So it's absolutely number two, take the full-time corporate job with the higher salary, opportunity to get raises beyond that, and the 401k with a match of 3%. You're going to pay off that debt in no time. Absolutely no time. Yeah, what I'm looking at here, you've got 30k in consumer debt. If you take this job for 100k,43,000 more than the other job would have paid. And you said it's going to take you three years? Mm-mm. Making $100K, you can pay off $30K in one year.

And by the way, you're still going to be making $43,000 more every single year, that corporate job, probably with more upward mobility to make even more. Yes, yes. And let me just say this. Listen, government work, there are good people that listen to this program, watch this program, and you're in government work. But this idea that it's so much more stable is a complete myth. And you just don't have the opportunity for growth. That I know. So anyway, good stuff there.

All right, George, speaking of the government. Oh, yeah. Big news, Ken. In the news the last 24, 48 hours. All the rage among the youth in Congress. Well, no, I don't know that you can refer to Joe Biden as youth. God bless his soul. But Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy, the president and the speaker of the House,

are just locked in a battle. I haven't been able to see what's going on the last couple hours. But the potential government shutdown, Janet Yellen, Treasury Secretary by the way, I'm doing this all from yesterday's news, no talking points here so I hope this is accurate to the moment, but emergency measures by Janet Yellen to avoid a government shutdown. And this is all over raising the debt ceiling. Biden and the Democrats want to raise the debt ceiling and McCarthy and Republicans don't want to do it. We're not going to talk about the politics of it.

We're going to talk about how you could be affected. If that happens, is that something that we just kind of don't feel, George? How will raising the debt limit, which is at all-time highs, how will that affect those that are listening and watching? Well, this is the idea. If the U.S. defaulted on its debts, meaning it can't pay the carried interest, that could cause chaos. Now, it's never happened, and so the idea here— It doesn't mean it won't. It doesn't mean it won't. The chances of them raising the debt ceiling, probably pretty high, because they keep doing it every year.

They just keep raising the credit limit, even though we're broke. Yeah, this is a showdown. This is a negotiation. Absolutely. So if you're confused as to what this all amounts to, the debt ceiling is the amount the U.S. government can borrow to honor its spending obligations. And here's how it affects you. So by the way, the debt ceiling limit was $31.4 trillion, and we reached it.

So reach for the stars, Ken. At least we hit a goal there. That's sad. And so here's the few ways you could be impacted, America, by the debt ceiling crisis. Number one is the stock market. The stock market does not like uncertainty, and defaulting on our debts would cause the stock market to plunge. Estimates, Chief Economist Mark Zandi said, could plunge by one-third and erase $15 trillion in household wealth. Yeah, that hurts. That's scary.

That could affect a lot of people, affect a lot of your retirement savings. We do not like that. The other thing it could affect is the cost to borrow. And so a default would push interest rates even higher. So the cost to borrow homes, to get that car loan, your credit card interest rates, it would explode. It would cause mayhem. The silver lining there is I

hope it stops people from borrowing more money. So there you go. The last thing it could affect is Social Security and Medicare. So the debt limit fight poses several risks to the seniors who are on Social Security, Medicare. And so without a breakthrough in Congress, the government might not be able to send out those monthly benefit checks or pay for Medicare. And let's not forget the overall value of the dollar. That's true. The dollar has been strong over the last year. It could hurt the value.

It's already dropped pretty precipitously over the last couple of days, and that, again, affects overall inflation. And it'll hurt GDP. It'll hurt our standing globally. It's a complete mess. And I'm just going to put this out there. We're going to get back to the phones. Because you, the people, have the power to get these bums' attention in D.C. Because your governor, in most states, they have to balance the budget. Many states. It's a constitutional requirement for the state to balance its its spreadsheet i get so angry talking about it i can't talk well you know we don't have a balanced budget amendment to the u.s constitution you know ken we're around here we're very fiscally conservative and uh congress historically

wouldn't you love to see dave ramsey go to washington for about 30 days lock all of them in a room they only get bathroom breaks and food breaks. I would pay to watch that on C-SPAN. I would do pay-per-view. And Dave takes just his good old-fashioned budget, the old kitchen table, sits in the middle of the room. Yellow pad. And he just starts going through it,

and he would absolutely balance the budget. I believe it. I know he would. I'm not kidding you. I mean, he really could. Would Dave darken the doors of that building? That's the question. No, no. I don't think he has. Would Dave darken the doors of that building? No. That's the question.

No, no. I don't think he has any interest. He wouldn't last 30 minutes up there, much less 30 days that it would take. But there you go. All right, to the phones we go. Devin joins us in Independence. Well, that's appropriate. Independence, Kansas.

Devin, how can we help? Hi, I'm doing great. How are you guys doing today? We're having a blast. What's going on? I was calling because I have a possible job opportunity, and I have a little bit of debt left over from my divorce I went through. How much?

I have collectively about $16,000 left out of $42,000. Okay. And what is the $16 16K in debt made up of? A car repossession that she let go back and a credit card that she had. All right. All right. So what's your question? So I currently work at a ranch right now as a welder fabricator and a ranch hand managing livestock. I make about 45 a, and I just got a job opportunity to go into the oil industry as a floor hand for a rig. What would that be? It's going to be pretty much going from about $40 to $45 a year here,

whereas if I take that job, I'll be making about 96 to 110. All right. So what are you wondering? You dialed the number because you're wondering something. What's stopping you from taking it? I'm a single father. I have full sole custody of my daughter, and the job would be more of on the road. I'd be gone for two weeks, home for two weeks.

Do you have any support to help out with her? Yes, I do. I have my fiancé and my family. I'm doing it for a season. It may only be for a year, but it'll put you in a totally different financial position to make an extra $50,000. George is absolutely right. Because you get the fiance and parents to help with her, your heart's going to be sad, but you're going to be debt-free before you know it, and then you get rid of that job the minute you get where you want to be. I'd go baby step two and three before I move on.

Fill up that emergency fund and then come back home. Thanks for the call. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined by my colleague, George Campbell. That's with a K, by the way. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. And we are here for you.

The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. And George, I always love theme hours. Big fan of a theme hour. Here on The Big Show. And we've got a theme hour coming up. Tell us. That's right.

So Dave Ramsey and myself will be hosting an Entree Leadership Theme Hour. And if you don't know what Entree Leadership is, it's really Dave's teaching on business and leadership, how he built this place from a card table in his living room to the empire we see today. There's the bestselling book, Entree Leadership, that he wrote a decade ago. And there's also the podcast that I've been hosting for the last year and a half. And we love helping small business owners out there. So if you have a business or leadership question, please email ask at ramseysolutions.com and put Entrez Leadership in the subject line, and our team will get in touch with you to schedule a call so that you can chat with Dave Ramsey and myself very soon. That is ask at ramseysolutions.com,

put Entrez Leadership in the subject line, and we'll talk business and leadership. All right, there it is. Denver, Colorado is where Katie is hanging out. Katie, how can we help? Hi. So my question is, my husband and I are on step two, and I am confused as how to approach that step if our budget is already using every cent. Okay. So are you using every dollar or a different method? Yes. No, we use every dollar. We just signed up for the financial peace course through our church. Oh, awesome. And we already had a slight saving, so we bypassed step one. Okay. So when you say your income is allocated, it, every dollar's got a job, we love that.

Do you have your minimum payments for each debt listed in your budget? Yes. Okay. And so we're going to look at that smallest debt we have. What's that balance on that smallest debt? $1,600. And what is it? It's a credit card.

Okay. And so you're saying there is $0 extra to put onto that payment? As of right now. We did our first budget meeting this past weekend, and yeah. Okay. So there's nothing that you can cut? I mean, I don't know. It was a trick question. I wasn't trying to be tricky. So Katie, what you're really saying is there's no margin to attack this smallest debt. And so we're going to create that margin in your budget. You're not going to magically find it. And the way you do that

is two ways. You spend less or you make more, and I suggest you do both. So what is your take home pay that you're using in the budget? So I own my own business. I just started a couple years ago. I give myself a salary of $4,800 a month. Okay. And then my husband brings home 1,800 every two weeks. Okay. So 3,600. What does he do? He works on the, he's like a mechanic for the big massage chairs. The ones in the mall? Yeah.

Wow. Fascinating. All right. First of all, let me just, I know, George, I'm jumping in. And George is going to walk you through this. You got Ken on a rant about massage chairs now. Well, first of all, good on you for paying yourself $4,800 a month on a business you just started. Let me just, first of all, let me say, way to go.

Thank you. Yeah. But he needs to be making more money. You can tell him I said that. So, well, once we start. If he can fix a big old massage chair, well, I understand. But if he can fix a big old massage chair in the mall, there's a lot of things he can fix, and he needs to get after it.

Do you understand what I'm saying? Yeah. Like right now. Yeah, I think he went from a high-pressure job and gone 17 days a month to now he's home. So we've kind of made compromises for that. And when I started my business two years ago, it's just taken off. I understand. I understand. I'm going to give it back to George to walk you through the budget,

but the big part of this is he needs to be making money. Okay. He needs to be making more money. I understand that he went from a stressful, I'm traveling, so I don't want to in any way minimize that, but there's a happy medium. He's only bringing home $1,800. Every two weeks. Every two weeks.

Okay, but still, as a mechanic, he's going to be making way more money than that fixing stuff. I'm just telling you. So one of the things that will help you guys is if he's doubling his income, at least attempting to, by what are all the things he can fix? What are the skills and experience he brings to the table? And I just want to make sure you catch that because this is going to make what George is about to tell you a whole lot easier.

Do you understand? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, he went from the Marine Corps to the oil field, so that's really all he's done in his own life. He's got plenty of skills. He's very smart. I know he is. That's why I'm believing in him.

Yeah. All right? All right. So, Katie, let's say you're taking home $8,400, and what's the income side of your budget look like? I'm sorry, the income or the expense? The income and your every dollar budget. What does it reflect total for both of you for the month?

$8,400. That's what I had. Okay. So you're telling me right now there's $8,400 in expenses going out. Yes. How is that possible? You've got a mortgage. Yes.

What's the mortgage? It's $1,974 a month. Okay. Now there's still $6, hundred dollars left where is all that going um so like the main ones are our mortgage our utilities are 680 then um we have three children so i allocate 150 per child for their activities school lunch lunches, everything they need. Then we have one car payment because one's paid off at $600 a month. What's the car worth?

I have no idea. I've never Kelly Blue booked. We've had it for three years. It's a 2017 Dodge Ram with a pickup. Do you need the pickup right now? My husband thinks he does. Oh, thinks he does. Well, I'm wondering if you can sell it for more than it's worth and clean up this debt, that would help this process and help you clear $600 worth of margin to start this debt snowball. What other debt do you have? Student loans and the car and that credit card. And that's it.

What does the consumer debt add up to? So that was one of my questions. It's $56,000 total. But then I have business debt. And I didn't know if that should be included or because I keep my business separate, is that a separate entity? Your name's on all of those documents, isn't it? Yes. So that's personal debt. So we're going to roll all of that into the debt snowball. Smallest to largest, ignore the interest rates, attack the little one with a vengeance. And right now you need to create that margin. And so that means he's working more, you're working more and go through the budget, do a budget audit, go through every single line item, even your insurance premiums and go, let's go shop around for the insurance premiums. And we're not

eating out right now while we're doing that. So we're grocery shopping. We might switch grocery stores, buy the generic brands, start to look at every single item and go, how can I get this down by 20%, 30%, 50% to create a few extra hundred bucks to throw at the debt. Okay. So then I guess my next question is, where is the balance? Because I only work four days a week because I want to and I make good money doing it. But then if I work an extra day, I could bring home another $1,800 a month. Heck yes. But then I don't have time with my children.

Oh, for heaven's sakes. Do they know? That's not true. That is not true. What do they do in the days you're working? Are they at school? Two of them are. So I have a 14-year-old, 12-year-old, and a 4-year-old.

Well, first of all, your 14-year-old and 12-year-old don't want to be around you as much as you think they do. Trust me, I've got three teenagers. Come on. Yeah. Yeah, that has nothing to do with you. That's just called they're just weird humans at that age. So that's one thing. Secondly, I appreciate what you're saying, but this is for a season, number one. Number two, you said if I work another day, I don't see them at all. That's not good math. You know that's not true. You will

see them. Yeah. I mean, most parents are working five days a week, 40 hours a week anyways with commutes. And so I don't see this as you being away from your kids much more than the average person. And it's worth it because if you do that, that cuts down your debt-free time. Now it's down by six months. So once you start doing the debt snowball calculator, you're going to get addicted. You're going to get excited. You need to get your husband on board with this to where he's going, let's sell the truck, honey. We can be debt-free six months faster if I sell the truck. Let's go. And then you're hanging out

with the kids way more because you've got time, you've got options, you've got freedom, you've got margin. That's the goal with this plan. Yeah. It's doable only if you two come together and go, let's get after it for a short season, super intense on the other side of it. Life is peaceful. It's better than it's ever been before. Thank you for the call. Don't move. More of your calls right around the corner.

This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me this hour. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. Our scripture of the day comes from Colossians 4.2. Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Our quote is from Tony Dungy. Even though we can't always choose our circumstances,

we can always choose our attitude in the circumstances. This weekend in the Ramsey newsletter, we've got an article about how marketing offers and one-time deals could be money traps. Well, that feels like George Campbell-inspired content there. While these big promotions may sound like a good way to save money in the moment, the word

free is very tempting. It's most likely a money trap. Say it's not so, George. Oh, it's so, Ken. Some money traps may be more obvious than others, like timeshares, but some traps may be a bit more sneaky, like no money down plans. Listen, we've all been stupid with money, which is why we've listed 10 money traps for you to avoid in this weekend's edition of the Ramsey Newsletter. Simply sign up at ramsesolutions.com slash newsletter to subscribe to our Sunday newsletter to get the full list. That is ramsesolutions.com slash newsletter.

It's like getting a Sunday paper, but it's free and in your inbox. George, did your dad ever get the Sunday paper? Oh, yeah. I'd sit there. I'd go through the catalogs. I'd print out coupons. It was a joy. Yeah. I will tell you that it was only about six or seven years ago that I finally got rid of my Sunday newspaper. I could see you in the bathrobe pulling out the old paper, you know, four feet wide. I really enjoyed all the sections. Really enjoyed it. And I used to get USA Today delivered to my driveway.

And I would slink out in the full body length robe. We don't want to offend any neighbors. And grab it. It had all four sections. Yeah, you can't show off those chicken legs too early, Ken. That's an HOA violation. It's a bit much for anybody to handle. But anyway, missed that.

When did it just become not a thing anymore? I don't know. Are there still paper boys doing their routes at 4 a.m.? I imagine. I don't even know if there's still a Sunday paper. It still exists. I got some research to do. Megan joins us in Tallahassee, Florida.

Megan, how can we help? Hey, y'all. Hey, what's up? So my question is, I am currently in what I thought was my dream job, and whenever I was going to school for it, I loved it. I was excelling, all that good stuff. I graduated 4.0 GPA. So anyway, I'm in the job right now. I've had it for about six, seven months, and I just feel like I'm kind of going through the motions now and making like mistakes in my job that I shouldn't be and just kind of feeling like is this the job that

I should have and then on top of that like the company I work for a hospital and it just feels like they're more about about the you know getting money than like patient care. Well, that's probably true, sadly. What is the job? What is the dream job? A certified medical coder. And so this is what you went to school for. You enjoyed learning and getting qualified for it. And for a season, you really enjoyed it. Yes. But you've only been doing it six or seven months. So I'm just, and I'm not trying to pick at you. I'm just truly curious, at what point did it become yuck and suck instead of yay? I feel like maybe two or three months ago, whenever I kept being like, oh, yes, I can take on more work. I'll take on more work.

I can do it. Aha. Yes. So now we figured it out megan you still enjoy the work but too much of any one thing is awful if i ate steak every day three times a day wouldn't take long for me to hate steak am i right yes all right so you have not created a boundary for yourself and your desire to please. You're also brand new right out of college. You've been in the job for just a few months and they keep

piling on and you keep saying, yes, I can do it. Yes, I can do it. And now you're at the point where you're going, Ken, I can't do it anymore. So, all right, great. So here's the point. I wanted to get clear and you get clear on what's really going on. You don't all of a sudden hate the dream job. You aren't all of a sudden missing details because you just don't have it anymore. You're overwhelmed, sweetheart. Okay. Am I right? Yes. I mean, listen, it's literally like trying to get a drink from a fire hydrant when a fireman opens that thing up and that water's just streaming out. You're not getting a sip of water. It's just too much. Try not to drown, right? Yes. Okay. So here's what we have to do. You are going to have to do what very few people have the

courage to do. And that is go to your leader and go, hey, I said, yes, I can do it, and I said yes, I can do it too many times. And I went to school for this. I love this work, but this is on me. I said yes that I can do it, and I took off too much. In other words, I went to the buffet, and I got too much food on the plate, and I can't eat it. I can't do it. I need your help.

Okay. How does that sound? Yes. I definitely need to do that. Now, come up with a solution. So when you go back to them, you have to say, I took on this much more work, and you know what that is. I don't. And you got to say, I need to cut back on this much. Like, I said yes here, here, and here, and I shouldn't have. So I need to make sure we give this work to somebody else because I want to keep doing this. I want to do a good job and they need you. You got it? Yes. All right. But Hey, do not be confused. This is not go get a new job because all of a sudden I don't like medical coding. This is you took on way too much and you're drowning

and we need to make sure that we can get our head above water, then the enjoyment, the love of the work will come back. All right, let's go to Bozeman, Montana. Jeff is there. Jeff, how can we help? Hey guys, thanks for taking my call. I'm just calling today. I'm kind of recently new to the Ramsey method and me and my wife have been working on it the last few months, but just recently her dad gave us the opportunity where he wants us to buy his business, which is where I currently work. And she thinks that we need to wait longer and pay off some more debt before we do it. I'm kind of hesitant and just kind of want to go for it. He said he will finance us himself

and we'd be able to just pay him off the profits that the business makes. So it wouldn't really be cutting into our current income at all. And it is a pretty successful business. So where's her hesitation coming from? Obviously, she wants to pay off the debt. You're saying it's not going to affect your debt payoff goals. So part of her hesitation, she doesn't want us to be stuck with the business. And also we're expecting a baby this summer. Big life change. Now, how quickly would this takeover happen? If you're paying him from the profits, are you owner's day one? How does that piece work? Yeah, we would basically be owner owners day one and we would pay him

for probably like 12 years. Are you guys ready to take on ownership and that responsibility? I'm guessing it's more time involved as well. I'm already running the business. I just got promoted in the last couple months. So it would be a little bit more, but not a whole lot. I'm already pretty much the head person in charge there. What's the structure of the deal? How much is it going to cost you guys? And how long will this take? It will take about 12 years to pay off. And it's like a $5 million business. So what's he charging you to take it? He wouldn't be charging us any interest. And so it's like $400,000 or $500,000 a year. Wow. So what happens a few years from now, let's say the profits aren't there and you still owe him millions of dollars. Right. And so that is a possibility.

He has ran this business for 30 years, so it is pretty consistent, but I mean, anything can happen. So that is a possibility. What's the rush on doing this now? Can it be a year from now? You start this process? I mean, he's kind of rushing us. And then I also am just like, well, I mean, the sooner we start, the sooner we start, you know, a savings account. Basically, you know, all the money that we pay into that business, theoretically, once we own it and are able to sell it, that would be, you know, just more money that we would have. I mean, it sounds like it could be a good deal,

but I'm worried with your pregnant wife stressing out about this and having the debt, if it's just, we need to pause and look into it more and get more in writing. What do you think, Ken? I think that he wants you all to have the business and I think it's okay for you to go, you know what, can we just push this off a year and then I'm all in.

I think George's advice is right and I think he'll be fine. He's not going to force you to do this now. So just be a man. He'll be fine. He's not going to force you to do this now. So just be a man. He'll be cool. Hey, George, good hour. Always fun time. Good show. I want to thank James and the crew behind the glass for keeping us on the air. I want to thank you, America.

This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's George Camel. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey Baby Steps, go to ramseysolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you

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