The Ramsey Show - App - With Gas Prices Up Should I Buy a Tesla?

Episode Date: May 17, 2022

Dave Ramsey & George Kamel discuss: How to handle money when a spouse passes away, How to get out of a car lease, Does it make financial sense to get an electric car with gas prices so high? Deciding if you can afford to move up in apartment. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. He is also the host of our podcast that's very popular on ramsey networks the fine print where he uh helps you read the fine print on these companies and ideas that are screwing you over which is what happens if you don't read the fine print thus the name so check it out and also of course entree leadership podcast which i listened to this morning george it was really really, really good. Oh, thank you. Very good stuff.

So check it out. That's all for business and small business. And George is the host of that. We have wonderful world-class guests on there talking about leadership and business. This is the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Open phones this hour, 888-825-5225. The call is free, and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. 888-825-5225. Lillian starts off this hour in San Antonio.

Hi, Lillian. How are you? Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. I have a question about my husband passed away this March and I received life insurance today. Thank God he worked for a company that really took care of us, but I need to know if we're going to be okay. I do have five children, four pretty much adults, and I have one 15-year-old son at home. So the life insurance is $954,000. He has a pension of about $280,000.

And so they want to know, do I want to defer this pension or do I want to take payment monthly? It will continue to grow at 6% until retirement. So I'm not really sure he does have about $300,000 in retirement. And so I don't really know what to do. I still, my home is worth about $700,000, but I owe $330,000 on it. So I want your opinion on what to do. I'm sorry, hon. Thank you.

How old was he? He was only 54. Oh, just a pup. Yeah. How long were y'all married? 31 years. We're about to have our eighth grandchild. What happened?

He had a heart attack. Oh, my. I'm so sorry. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Rule number one, and then we'll back around and work around that rule okay um sharon and i are getting ready to celebrate 40 uh in a in about a month and um uh if uh we we have planned for me to die first because if she dies first i'm not gonna be able

to handle it so uh because i won't be able to breathe and that's where you are right now you can't even get a full breath uh because it's just you know you're you're sane for a few minutes and then another wave hits you and then you're insane for a little while and that's called grief and that makes you a normal human and because your heart's broken because i mean this is like your best friend for 30 years so um uh so the rule is try to make as few big decisions as you can until your brain clears a little bit okay i do this for a living and my plan is when in the middle of a major tragedy uh major grief situation i'm going to try not to make big decisions in the middle of that because our our critical thinking skills are just messed up by the fog of pain does that make sense yes so all of that to say i try try to avoid just, you know, now sometimes people have to, you know, because like they don't.

The good news is you got, you know, well over a million dollars access. And so you're fine. You're going to be okay. And then let's just start talking through kind of what your plan is and what you're thinking now. And then let's see how much of it we can put the brakes on. And because if you can do nothing for six months and just cry that'd be like a normal human reaction right and you make better decisions six months from today than you would today does you agree with that i agree yeah okay all right so let's just back into it from there george um now the pension, they're offering you a lump sum of 280?

They're offering payments monthly. And if either that or I'm late until retirement, it'll continue to grow at 6%. Oh, okay. But they're not offering you a lump sum? No, they are not. The 280,000 you don't have access to? No. Okay.

All right. Well, here's the rule on that. It's going to die when you die. It actually won't. It will go to my children. So that's the great part. So that's the great part of that. Okay.

How much are the monthly? What's the monthly they're offering you today? $1,800. Okay. Okay, how much are the monthly, what's the monthly they're offering you today? $1,800. Okay, and are you, do you work outside the home? Very little. Okay. Yeah. So we need to create an income for you to live on, agreed?

Right, I agree. What does he, what did he make? About $120. Okay, all right. So $1,800 is $20,000 a year, so we're $100,000 short. Right. Okay. Right.

So I'm taking the monthly. I'll go ahead and tell you that. Okay. Because accruing at 6% is not exciting to me because you can invest in good mutual funds and do considerably better than that. So even if you didn't use the money, I would take it and dump it into mutual funds. Okay. Because I'm moving it from 6 to 10 or 12 at that point. So we're going to do that one.

Do you know your household expenses monthly right now, Lillian? They're probably at about $3,800. Okay. So let's call it $50,000 a year you need to live. How old are you? Right. I'm 51. Okay, the $950,000 was life insurance money.

Correct. Okay. All right. Well, his $300,000 in retirement you need to just leave alone. You will be – are you the beneficiary on that? Yes. Yeah. Okay, you're going to be required to draw down on

that at a 10-year rate so um well no i don't know spouses i don't know spouse is on an inherited spouse is exempted or not some of them are they're different do you know the terms of it no they're not different it's either it's either a 10-year drawdown or the spouse has an exemption one of the two i'll have to look that up in my cheat sheet notes um but either way um so for taking the life insurance dave are we saying to invest this to create the income for her or is she going to need part of it temporarily in order to create an income to live on. Do you think you're going to keep the house? I wanted to keep it for at least three years

until my son graduates high school. Okay, good, good. The market here is crazy. I can't buy anything for $300,000 in my area. Right, right. Okay. Okay. Okay, there's two options.

We can go with the $9 all right um you can either invest it all and keep the mortgage in place which is trying to not make big decisions okay or you can pay off the mortgage and invest 600 either way you sit down with a smart investor pro in your area and uh sit down and they'll help guide you through that. And they can answer the question on how fast you've got to draw down that retirement because I'm conflicted here. I can't remember what it is. I've got to look it up at the break. It's killing me.

But they changed the law about 18 months ago, and I've forgotten it. I've forgotten what they changed it to. But, yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. This is The Ramsey Show. I just saw a study that really made me sad. It showed that families owning life insurance in the U.S.

was at its lowest point since the 1970s. After what we've been through the past few years, I'm just lost on how people don't make this more of a priority. How are you going to make sure your family needs are met if something happens to you? This is why getting term life is an absolute necessity. Rates have never been cheaper and the whole process to apply is pretty simple, with many companies not even requiring an exam anymore. This is why I send you to Zander Insurance, and I have for almost 25 years. They'll make sure you get the right protection at the lowest cost possible, and they're there for you and your family every day.

I challenge all of you to make sure your families are protected. It needs to be a top priority. Call Zander at 800-356-4282 or visit zander.com. That's 800-3525-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Okay, time to nerd out for a minute on financial stuff for you nerds because it's driving me nuts. So I did look it up on my cheat sheet and actually looked it up to make sure and all that stuff. So the SECURE Act was passed in the beginning of 2020,uary of 2020 right before pandemic hit all right

and the secure act was basically a method of the federal government making you less secure and them more secure because the idea was simply this the you do not have to draw down on your traditional iras or 401ks until it used to be 70 and a half it's now 72 and a half okay uh and that was pissing them off they don't like that because they want their tax money now because they're like that's how they are okay so they they changed the law, and it says, and that was true on an inherited IRA. So I could name my daughter or son or both on my 401K as a beneficiary. It would roll to them an inherited IRA, and then they didn't have to draw it off. And so what happened is you could just roll it and never get drawn on it.

It would just build up if you never used the money. But if you use the money, there's no penalty, but there's taxes on it if you draw an the money but if you use the money there's no penalty but there's taxes on it if you draw it off draw an inherited ira off early okay so it's taxed at your rate personally if you your dad left you an ira or 401k then you use the money you get taxed on it but there's no penalty but you didn't have to draw it now according to secure act you have to draw it down in 10 years so 300k is 30 grand a year and they get their taxes one-tenth for 30 years that was the 10-year thing we were referring to with that last caller so she inherited as a spouse her husband's 401k which was three hundred thousand dollars

and what i was trying to remember was i thought there was a spousal exception and there is i was right okay so she does not have to draw it down in 10 years because she's a spouse if it was left to the kids they would have spouse does not have to draw it down until the spouse hits 72 and a half and then they have what's called rmd required minimum distributions so that you begin to draw down your ira and they get their freaking taxes so probably more information than any of you really wanted but i just wanted to act like I actually thought I knew something. That's good. I sort of knew it, and I didn't know it. And, well, such is life on live radio.

The cheat sheet came in handy. Well, we try to, when we don't know, just, like, be real and say, I don't know, but I kind of knew, but I wasn't sure. You had a feeling. Oh, there we go. Meaning I had read it and retained it, but. You had a feeling. Oh, there we go. Meaning I had read it and retained it, but I couldn't recall it. Oh, there you go. All right.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Aliyah is with us, or Ilya is with us. I'm going to try and mess that up. In Chicago, is it Ilya? Yes, sir. You got it right. Thank you. Thank you.

It took me about three tries how can i help um yeah so i have a question basically kind of of uh what you guys would do in my situation um i just got a brand new job literally starting second week right now good for you my wife thank you my wife and i um have two cars a 2011 camry with a hundred twenty three thousand miles that we own outright and a twenty twenty RAS for that we currently lease at the three year lease. We're halfway through it right now. And with this new job, I get a company car. Oh, I'm just trying to figure out that I can use for personal use as well. So I'm just trying to figure out, like can use for personal use as well. So I'm just trying to figure out like what is the best course of action. I know the car market is crazy right now.

So I can probably sell the Camry for the most I can like ever get for it. And if I can, I don't even know if it's possible to get out of a lease. Like how do I go about that? And is that even possible? Do you have any money? Yes. How much? Liquid, liquid cash we have about 25 okay good well you can just pay off the the rav uh you're buying the lease out early

and you're you know at the end of the lease a closed-end lease there's a buyout amount right yeah amount you can buy the car for it's that plus some of your lease payment is what it'll be. You can call them for an early buyout number, which is like a payoff on a loan. Okay. And you've got enough money to pay it off. Okay. How much other debt have you got?

So, yeah, that's the thing. We have about $15,000 in student loan debt. The reason we haven't paid it off yet is because we just got married in december and i was like in the job market and i finally got this job and we were waiting until i like started and kind of now we're trying to get everything aligned now cool okay well i wouldn't sell the camry because it's not going to free up a payment and then you're gonna have to turn around and go get another car on top of that but i like getting rid of the lease well they got a company car, though.

They only need one car. Oh, you only need one car for the whole family. He's got a company car, and then either keep the RAV or keep the Camry. Yeah. So I was going to say keep the RAV and pay it off. Yeah, and then sell the Camry. Yeah, sell the Camry, and then let's throw the rest over the student loan. Yeah.

So you got 25, and you said you're three years in. I don't know. What's that RAV4 worth, you think? Oh, man, I don't even know. A pretty penny in today's market, that's for sure. How many of them is what I was asking? How many pretty pennies? We pay $300 a month for the RAV right now.

All right. Let's pretend, okay? I'll just make up a number. Let's say 15,000 buys that lease out. I'm probably not that's pretend, okay? I'll just make up a number. Let's say $15,000 buys that lease out. I'm probably not that far off, okay? You with me? Okay, so now you own the RAF, and you got $10,000 in the bank, and you sell the Camry for $5,000.

You got $15,000 in the bank. Oh, now we're going to pay off the student loan. Wait, we're broke! Yeah, that's a good idea because you were already broke. Now we just admitted it, and now you're going to use a new job to build up your emergency fund and you're 100 debt free am i right yep so that's the kind of game plan i want to execute here if i can i don't know if you're going i don't know what the payoff is on that rav but um what i would do is pay off the rav sell the camry pay all of it towards the student loan but a thousand dollars

and you're on baby step two working on your student loan. What's the new job pay? Like household income for both of us, base is about $115, and not including side hustles and like commission bonuses, we're about like $130, $140. So at the latest by Halloween, you're 100% debt-free. Okay. You see how we're doing this, okay? Yeah, absolutely.

No screwing around. And I don't want to hear about going on some vacation while you've got a student loan staring you in the face. Yes, sir. You just went to work, so by God, go to work. Yes, sir. I hear you. That RAV4 is worth about $35,000, $40, 40 grand by the way okay all right but yeah that's a lot of pretty pennies yeah so um i wonder if i i don't do he tells the night he gave you the year

it was 2020 okay so it's pretty new this is 22 it's not gonna be a 15 payoff then it's gonna be a 20 2022 somewhere in there probably to buy that out. It's halfway through a three-year lease. Yeah. So the buyout and the lease had to do with old used car numbers before the market went nuts. So could sell it. And make a profit at this point. They're making enough money to just clean this mess up by Halloween either way. Yeah.

So get her done. If you like the RAV4, keep the RAV4. Well, I mean, you like the RAV4 better than a 2011 Camry. Yeah. That thing will run forever. It's only got 120,000 miles on it. I mean, it's not a bad hoopty, but it's a hoopty, okay? If you're going to choose your ticket.

I mean, a guy's making $110,000. He's cleaning up his mess. He doesn't have to. They don't have to. Because if they get rid of it and they're driving a hoopty, you know what's going to happen this time next year? They're buying another car for cash anyway. That's where they started.

So might as well just keep the good car and work your way through it and that's the way i'm looking at it but i mean you can argue with me if you want i'm not gonna dare do that not here we'll do that off air why not because i can't win dave it's not fun for me come on george of course it's fun and of course you could win we'll let you win sometimes thank you but if you let me win did i really win that's the question the thing with these car leases dave a lot of people are probably in one and thinking should i get out how do you know the right way to get out of a lease is it always early by what amount and save up the cash the car lease is the worst buy

in all of automotive and here's why when you put in the value of the car and you look at what you're paying on it your cost of capital on average in a car fleece is 14.2 percent so you're borrowing money at 14 interest only they don't disclose that it's interest because it's not technically interest you're technically renting the car so there's no truth in lending law because there's not technically any lending point a real good time to get out of a car is now. If you can get rid of that lease by selling that puppy in this upmarket, that'd be a real good plan because you're getting fleeced in your lease. This is the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Well, it's event week, you guys.

Orlando, I hope you're ready. Because I'll tell you, a couple weeks ago, Vegas, they brought the house down. And Orlando, we got 26 tickets left. So we got over 3,000 folks coming. Going to be a sellout easily here in the next hour or so. You know, jump in and get your tickets quick. Rachel Cruz, George Campbell, my co-host today, and I will be doing the event with Dr. John Deloney and Ken Coleman.

They will be hosting a free bonus session, John and Ken will, about work and relationships before we kick off the main sessions. And then George and Rachel and I will be there along with those guys. As the event ends on Thursday evening, May the 19th, a couple days from now, we'll be signing books and taking photos and all that kind of good stuff after the event. And so, yeah, come on out, guys. It's going to be great. Human beings should be around other human beings. That was my favorite part, was just shaking hands and meeting people, hearing their stories.

It just gave me fuel in the tank. Well, and I'm just, you know, I'm like, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, because people are like, we'll never shake hands again. There's a new normal. By God, I am. I might even hug you, so be careful. Wow. You know, it's just unbelievable. I'm not signing up for that. I can't make that, so be careful. Wow. It's just unbelievable.

I'm not signing up for that. I can't make that promise quite yet. We'll start with a handshake. We'll take it from there. See how things go. Oh. But it's a fun event. We had a great time in Vegas.

And if you're in the Orlando area or even it's worth the flight, people have been traveling from all over the country to join us. I mean, the Vegas, you know, had a whole bunch of Californians there. Of course, you know, Los Angeles thinks Las Vegas is a suburb. But anyway, it sort of is. I mean, it's right there. But anyway, thanks for coming, guys. And Orlando, thank you for your turnout.

Again, there's a couple tickets left at RamseySolutions.com slash events. Phoenix is half sold out for November the 1st, or September the 13th. Sacramento is three quarters sold out for November the 1st, or September the 13th. Sacramento is three-quarters sold out for November the 1st. Minneapolis, three-quarters sold out. And there's just a few hundred tickets left for these events in the fall already. And don't call me whining because you didn't buy your tickets because I've been telling you about it. So get your tickets.

We'll be in San Antonio November 15th, and we would love to have you there. $25. If you want a four-pack, we have four-packs starting as low as $60 and going up from there. So check it out, guys, and get your tickets as soon as you can. 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.

And you get free samples, free shipping, new promos all the time. Always use the promo code RAMSY to get the best deal. Today's question comes from Kyle in Tampa. With gas being so expensive right now, I'm looking into selling my Jeep and getting a Tesla. My wife and I are going way over budget on gas, and it seems like a good time to get an electric vehicle, even with the car market the way it is. She thinks it's a bad idea to finance a car, but I think it'll save us money in the long run.

Who wins the argument? Oh, Dave loves this question. I can see fumes coming out of your head right now for a thousand reasons. There's just so many things wrong about his decision. A, it's a Tesla. B, there are payments. Dave, I got a comment. C, you thought it was going to be cheaper,

because you have to pay the light bill bubba to plug in your little car this is true i got a comment yesterday on instagram a guy said i don't trust a man who drives an electric vehicle whoa yeah that's that's new for me now i understand respect but trust i'm untrustworthy because my car doesn't have an engine like yours dave oh but that's besides the point just wow just venting i mean you and rachel both both of you are driving these batteries now i mean it's and you're paying for our gas thanks to the chargers out front so that just pisses me off because the people that work here that drive gasoline vehicles don't get free fuel so why is

it that the landlord is obligated to put out a little plugging station for you people? I didn't decide that. You did. Well, some block codes or something. Like, I don't know. Or maybe my... Maybe... Wait. I know what it was. Rachel's husband built the building. This is a conspiracy.

He's in cahoots. He's in cahoots. That's right. He put those plugs out there so he could end up... Because he knew she was going to end up buying one of those dadgum things. Winston, if you're listening, be on the watch. That's what it is. Your father-in-law is mad.

That's what it is. Now I figured it out. I see their scheme. Well, back to Kyle's question. Here's the thing. I took a question like this similarly the other day. Okay. The young guy, he's single, and he said, well, I'm in Canada.

The petrol is very expensive. I'm just going to go finance a $60, tesla to save money because that makes sense when you say that coming out of your mouth does that not does that not blow your brains out i mean it hurts my brain so i'm gonna go finance sixty thousand dollars to save money how do you calculate the roi the break even on a situation like this? Obviously, the financing aside. Well, how do you know what you actually pay to fill up the stupid thing? Do you know? I've done the math on it. Oh, is it okay?

Yeah, at home it's cheaper. Now, if you're charging out in public, it's a little more expensive. But it's, you know, it's like 13 cents a kilowatt. And so you multiply that by how many kilowatts your battery is. Okay, so what does it take to drive the car for a week? For a week? Depending on your driving. I know, but I mean, you're driving back and forth to work here.

Yeah, I would say about maybe $10, $15, $20 for me. Okay, so it's substantially less than my gas. Yes. My gas might be $30 in that same period of time. I mean, we live about the same distance from the office. Yes. So neither one of us drive that far. Okay.

So if that was the case, so you're saving $20. How long does it take to get $60,000 saving $20? Many, many years. Maybe retirement. Longer than you're going to live. Okay. Oh, my God, that's stupid. So the excuse of, well, I'm doing it to save on gas, that just doesn't cut it.

Well, you are saving on gas, but you're not saving on money. Well, to them it's the same thing at this point. It's not the same thing. It's the same thing. When I first started teaching this stuff a thousand years ago, I had a guy in the Financial Peace University class, and he drove one mile to work. He was an 18-wheeler driver.

He drove over the road. So he would drive one mile to work, park his truck, get into the 18-wheeler, drive for a week over the road, come home, get back in his pickup, and drive one mile home. Wow. He had an awesome, perfect, cherry little 1978 pickup. It was kind of a classic. It was beautiful, perfect.

There wasn't a thing on the thing. Comes in and goes, sold my truck. Going, why'd you sell your truck he goes i wanted a new one gas mileage was killing me going dude you drive two miles a week the gas mileage can't kill you how you gonna you're gonna break even on that new one by driving it to the moon and back maybe oh my gosh the break-even analysis is what it's called people and how long does it take you for to get your money back with the money saved that's a break-even analysis is what it's called, people. And how long does it take you to get your money back with the money saved? That's a break-even analysis.

And the point is it's going to take longer than you live. No, you don't finance a Tesla to save money. That's dumber than a rock. This happens a lot in the solar panel world. You get these all the time with solar panels. It's the same idea. Hey, Dave, we're going to get solar panels to save on electricity. It's going to cost $50,000 to finance them.

Yeah, but they don't cost $50,000 anymore. But, I mean, they actually do have about a seven-year break-even if you're in an expensive, if you're in a good sun area and an expensive electric market. And you pay cash for them. And you pay cash for them. They got about a six- or seven-year break-even, which makes them, eh, okay.

But you're not going to break even on Tesla while you're alive, okay? So, and you're a Tesla driver. Keep that in mind. Yeah. Come on, George. Here we go. Let's not make it personal. Come on, George.

Here's my question. Anytime someone says, well, I got to. Well, you and Rachel. You and Rachel. I'm just, I'm. What did the guy say? He doesn't trust a guy that drives a battery. He doesn't trust a guy who doesn't have a car with an engine in it.

That's his vibe. Hmm. So it sounds like he has a personal problem. I've had cars in the backyard up on blocks that didn't have an engine in it. Does that count? I don't know that I'd trust you, at least not with my car. Oh, man. That's cold.

I mean, I like making fun of y'all, but they're actually very cool cars. They're really fast. They are. And they scare me because they're too quiet. Oh, so it's a fear. There's fear, Dave. That's it. It's a latent fear.

You think it's witchcraft. And the fear is coming out as anger. How is the car moving without gasoline? It's witchcraft. That's what it is. My mom felt the same way about Harry Potter when it came out. Yeah, well, she was right about that, too. But the, yeah yeah the yeah but the uh no i drove one of the

things and it's because all of a sudden you're going 60 and you don't even know it because there's nothing telling you it's just a g-force there's no other than your brains are flying out the back of your head oh my gosh and it's just um i mean because i'm used to like hearing a muffler when i'm going fast or something kick in. I want to hear. There's audio feedback that says to your brain, you are now going fast. The louder it is, the better. That's the redneck way. And when there's no audio telling you you are now going fast, it scared the crap out of me.

Because I was like, dadgum, I'm in a neighborhood here. I'm about to break the sound barrier or something right here in the neighborhood. Well, don't be scared, Dave. You're safe with me and Rachel. So it's not that I don't trust you people. It's I'm scared of you. Thank you for admitting it. Really now what it comes down to, I'm scared of you, George.

It took me getting tested. One of your life goals has now been accomplished. This is the Ramsey Show. all right to wrap up all that carrying on whether it's electric or whether it's gas you cannot afford to buy a more expensive car to save on the fuel it all the break-even analysis almost never works because the car is so much more expensive than the fuel so you're moving from a 3 000 or 5 000 or 10 000 car to a 30 or 50 or 60 000 car that spread you're not going to recoup it in fuel savings of any kind electric or gas period and you're certainly not going to be able to justify the payment under any freaking

circumstance so just don't do it there's very very few exceptions to that rule now if you're driving a eight thousand dollar pickup that gets four miles to the gallon and you trade it for an eight thousand dollar honda accord yeah because you didn't spend any more money and you don't have payments then you would save money on your gas bill but but what happens is is that the human brain melts down and says to you you're allowed to buy a newer car with payments and that tells you that your brain is not working okay it's amazing how our brains can justify those terrible decisions because we go well on paper i mean i'm gonna save a lot of money yeah i'll help you with the paper emily is in st louis hi emily how are you i'm great how are you better than we deserve how can we help well first i wanted to say you don't get enough credit for your amazing comedic

timing so if you get to get this whole radio thing you could always do stand up instead oh bless your heart i'm'm here for that Netflix special. How can we help? So I'm about to jump up in rent from $900 to almost double that at $1,600 a month. And I just wanted to make sure I'm not making a big mistake because I do have a relatively low income. I net about $2,500 a month. So the reason why I do think that it might be okay for me to do that is I am very fortunate to have a trust fund and I do draw $700 a month from that and then it is always just there in the background. I try not to even think about that it exists because I want to save that for my retirement but it is there.

What do you do for a living um well luckily it's George today instead of John because I'm in doggy daycare I heard you guys arguing about that recently okay you oh you do doggy daycare yeah yeah I'm not here with that I missed that discussion okay I can I can only imagine. Okay. But you're not making much money. Correct. So what is your long-term career plan? Well, I'm 34, and for a long time I really didn't have a career plan

because I had a very difficult multi-year struggle with crippling anxiety and depression. And that started turning around when I actually started working in doggy daycare. It changed my entire life. And now I'm like, when I used to be miserable, it was very hard for me to get out of bed in the morning. And now I'm just like one of the happiest people I know. I have the pandemic. Actually, I'm an introvert. And it's kind of I feel bad saying that the pandemic really was great for my mental health because I like this three-month period where I just got as much alone time as I needed without neglecting my friends or family or my job. But it really just started me on this big upward trajectory of healing. and um so now i am i do feel like maybe i could without jeopardizing my mental health start looking in other directions um unfortunately the other direction i want to look in is the screenwriting that my degree is in film

mm-hmm um obviously that i think you can start that now i think you can start that now while you're doing this and i think you need to start i actually have them and i think you need to start doing some freelance writing also to start making some extra money right now because honey you know i i really love the doggy daycare has helped with your anxiety i love all that i think that's fun and I like that part of your story. What I don't like is that you're trading it for another kind of anxiety called financial anxiety because you don't make any money. And you cannot do rent that is 50% of your income and prosper.

You're not going to prosper. So, no, the $1,600 rent with a $3,200 income, including your trust money, that's 50% of your income. You're going to struggle. And, you know, so I would stay with the $900 for a while. So I've been at the $ 900 for four years actually and it's a teeny tiny apartment um about 275 square feet doesn't matter you can't afford it yeah doesn't matter you can't afford to go to 50 it's just you know it's like okay uh you know i'm driving an old car but i and i'd

really like a brand new uh car well you can't afford it you don't have any money you know i'm driving an old car but i and i'd really like a brand new uh car well you can't afford it you don't have any money you know and so that that's kind of where this is and it's cold but it's a math thing it's not a an emotion thing now what i do want you to do is i do want you to have some hope to move into a better place but that hope is tied to changing your income that's why i was asking you those other questions yeah the, the thing, Emily, I want you to think about is your long-term future, not just what's going to happen next year, but the next 10 years. Where do I want to be? Do I want to be a homeowner because rent's going to keep going up?

And so when you think about it that way, 50% of your take-home pay being eaten up by your rent means you're not going to be able to save up for that down payment. You're not going to be able to invest 15% and retire with dignity. So I want you to think longer term and make decisions based on that. So the good news is there are plenty of ways for folks that are introverts to make a lot of money. It does not require that you put yourself in a highly crowded room every day, all day, to make a living. I wouldn't recommend that.

I'm not proposing that to you but i do want you to say okay what can i do that gives me the same kind of peace that that what i'm currently doing does and makes three times more um and i don't know what that is exactly uh it could be it could be in the writing could be, um, the good news is that you can do a lot of writing now from home and, uh, and then you move up into a little better place and then you start saving for a house, but we got to get your income up longterm or you're going to be trading one kind of anxiety for another. That's what's going to end up happening.

And no, I cannot, I'm going to beg you not to do the $1,600 in rent until you do something to change your income. Hold on. We're going to have the team pick up and send you a copy of Ken Coleman's book, From Paycheck to Purpose, and also the career assessment as well. The career assessment, and that will help you maybe determine some ideas of some things you could work on that would be beneficial. The good news in our current world, George, is that there's so many jobs available.

There's such a shortage of labor in almost every area that she can probably find something that is not a high-stress, high-anxiety situation. Every headline is, there's a shortage of pizza delivery drivers now. And so you can go make really good money, $25 an hour, delivering pizzas. She can actually make more than she's making now doing that. And this doesn't have to be forever. People think, well, I don't want to do that. Well, I'm asking you to do it for a year to clean your financial mess up.

Yeah. And there's a – I mean, we saw an article come out yesterday. Every Pizza Hut, Domino's, they're all uh they're seeing drop in sales and and the revenues are down not because people don't want pizzas but because they don't have any drivers to deliver them and when delivery is down sales are down and so all of them stock is hurting uh and they're because their profits are down because they're not delivering pizzas they can't get drivers and so there is a shortage and so this is you know what biden bucks did when you pay people not to work people here's how this works when you pay people

not to work guess what they do they don't work they don't work how's that work is that called cause and effect that's scientific yeah see. Economics. Economics. It's a tricky little business, this econ thing. Pay people not to work and then they won't work. Create a shortage of anything and the price goes up. Supply and demand. People. So guess what your inflation is caused by?

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