The Ramsey Show - App - YOU Are the Only One That Can Turn Your Life Around (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 7, 2021

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Live 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. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, co-host of The Ramsey Show today, is host of The Ken Coleman Show, which is heard on over 75 radio stations across America, Sirius XM, and, of course, a very popular podcast and YouTube program as well. New book coming out in November. It's on presale right now.

Check it out, From Paycheck to Purpose, the clear path to work you love. Again, the phone number here, 888-825-5225. Robin is with us. Robin is in Lexington, Kentucky. Hi, Robin. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi.

Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I'm in a strange situation. My husband and I, we just recently started the Baby Steps, which I want to say thank you for, because your program finally convinced him that it was stupid to be saving for retirement

while we still had debt, which means I won. So very excited to be paying all that off. Good. all that off. But I am a research analyst for an agency in the intelligence community, which makes me a government contractor. So this vaccine requirement is kind of coming down the pipe for me. And I'm not one of the people that's willing to get it. And I was wondering what your suggestion would be about pausing paying on our student loans and trying to like kind of save up some money for my impending unemployment if this were to continue forward. Well, how far are we talking to the future? You think this is a month, two months, six weeks?

What are you hearing? So the emails that we've gotten are early December, and, of course, that's all subjective, right? So, I mean, I haven't seen the actual executive order come out yet. I haven't. The lawsuits aren't done yet. I mean, there's a million things that could happen, but I'm a planner, and if I get fired from this job for this reason, I don't have skills to get paid the same level outside of government work.

How do you know that? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I want you to answer that. How do you know that as a research analyst and the kind of work you do that that's not transferable outside? Well, I'm specifically a language-enabled research analyst, Chinese language for future threat technologies. So there's not a huge market out there for that. Now, I could apply my language and that ability to other things, but they wouldn't pay on the same level. I totally understand.

But let me also share with you that, yes, that's a super, super specific position, but the fact of the matter is Chinese language and that linguistic skill aside, you're really good at research. You're really good at analyzing things, true or false? True. Well, I'm just going to challenge you that— What do you make now? I'm making $80,000, and this is basically an entry level. I'm in line for, you know, do this for a year, and they bump you up about $20,000.

Have you done any research out in the marketplace to see what's out there near $80,000 doing that type of work? Forget the specific nature. I mean, I don't know about research. I did look for a job for eight months when we got kicked out of china to come back here because of covid in the first place um and i was unsuccessful i finally found a job in local government doing what i really enjoyed it um but it paid about half of what i'm making now um so i don't know about research but i know that it's really really hard to get a job with Chinese language research analysts and not a ton of experience in the field. Sure.

Well, again, I'm really going to challenge you. You are a researcher by nature, and I think you've got to take this really serious. I think just to assume, well, I'm going to have to pause my baby steps to try to weather this, as opposed to what can i do that's proactive uh i think that's what you've got to be doing right now i think you have so much experience and so much skill that's transferable you've got to be looking into what corporate jobs uh that are are good fit for me and if i'm making 70 uh but i think just to assume that you can't make 80 i think that's you've got some more work to do on that. I really would challenge you to do some homework. Okay.

While you're doing that, I have to agree with your initial idea, too. I'm going to stop the baby steps and pile up cash because until you land something else, I think there's a real heavy probability you're going to be done there if you're unwilling to be vaccinated. And so I think the president has made it pretty obvious what his intent is on that. And the only question is whether he has the power to pull it off or not before he gets slammed with 5,000 or 50,000 constitutional challenging lawsuits, which is what's going to happen. But the question is, is that going to save your job? I don't know. And I would be pretty pessimistic about that in this environment.

So, yeah, I'm going to stop and pile up cash. But I'm also going to start reanalyzing how your skills fit into the marketplace at Ken's suggestion and see if you can't land something that's there. Maybe even some independent things that aren't government contracts, but maybe you're just contracting out to defense contractors and so forth. But even those, I think the president's going to try to, anything that touches the federal government is going to try to hit it. And so it's going to be a lot of arguing going on before things are decided.

It's not as easy as the stroke of a pen in a democracy. So right or wrong, that's going to be your facts. So I'm going to pile up cash for a while here until I feel like I've got a greater than 50% chance of staying. And then once you've got that, then, you know, you can calm down a little bit. Roxanne is with us in San Antonio. Hi, Roxanne. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hello.

I'm a new listener, but I recently moved in with my parents, but I have a house that I could rent, but it's at 4.875% interest right now, but I need to do some repairs on it, and I needed to know if I should just sell the house or if I should keep it as a rental property. Why did you move in with your parents? My father has Alzheimer's. Oh, I'm sorry. And so I need to be there to help. I mean, I like the house. It's in a good neighborhood. It's actually a nice house.

Except for the part where it needs repairs. It needs a few repairs. How much repairs? Probably $15,000. And what is your income? $58,000. Okay what is your income? $58,000. Okay. You have any money? I have about $250,000 in a 401k and I do have retirement with my job

and I am probably $10,000, other $1,000 in debt. How old are you? 59. Okay. But the house is worth probably $230,000, and I owe $80,000 on it. Okay. Well, I mean, if I'm in your shoes, I've got a couple options.

One is I can sell it and get rid of the burden of fooling with a house and fooling with renovations and fooling with renters while I'm helping my dad with Alzheimer's. It sounds like a lot. If you're going to keep it, you're going to end up using some of your retirement money, which you can pull out and pay taxes on now and fix it up and then rent it. But I'm not sure I would do that just from a life standpoint if I were in your shoes. Sounds like you've got a lot on you, honey.

This is The Ramsey Show. While you're enjoying the present, you can't help but think about your future and your finances. As you explore your options, consider Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, for your healthcare. Their generous maternity program and budget-friendly monthly programs have been a blessing to members welcoming children into their families. Visit chministries.org slash budget to see if it's right for you. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey Trusted Provider. Well, the last two years have been interesting, haven't they? Interesting is one word. A lot of other words you could say, but yeah. People are worried. They're scared.

Wondering what's going to happen next. You're going to lose your job, the lady just saying. A number of people, they're just getting completely, their careers are just getting obliterated. It's enough to stretch you thin. It doesn't have to be this way. Listen, if you've got a plan and you're sitting on a pile of money and you have no debt and stuff happens, it changes the way, it changes your situation. It changes your peace level.

You're the third pig in the brick house when the big bad wolf comes by. You go, well, you can huff and puff, but, you know, we're still going to be in here versus you're going to get your whole world obliterated so listen we've been giving people this plan for a long time and almost 10 million people have gone through financial peace university to learn how to build the brick house basically and we're going to teach you everything you need to know to save money get out of debt and become wealthy and outrageously generous in the process. You can stream the lessons on your own or get support by going through the class with other people. And you can do all this by putting it into practice with the world's best budgeting app, the premium version of our EveryDollar budgeting app.

By syncing your bank to your budget, you can easily track your spending. And all of this comes only with a Ramsey Plus membership. So if you want a free trial to Ramsey Plus to get to Financial Peace University, every dollar, everything else, text TRIAL to 33789. You can get a free trial of Ramsey Plus. Start watching the Financial Peace University videos,

everything. Text TRIAL to 33789. Bozeman, Montana is with us. Kyle is on the line. Hi, Kyle. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? So I'm in a bit of a pickle. I'm glad Ken is there because his show is about as hard to get on as this one. So I have an opportunity to take another job right now. I'm currently self-employed, but this other job is in a field that I went to school for, and the salary is a little bit less,

but there is potential to grow because I'm starting a new division for this company, the commercial construction division. They've done residential for the last 10 years. Now they want to do commercial, and they've kind of headhunted me and found me to start this division for them. I'm just not sure if I should stay self-employed or take this other job. I think you probably are,

and I think your head and heart are probably having a little bit of a wrestling match. They are. Yeah. And so what's your head telling you? My head's telling me to take it because the potential there starting that, the salary will come. But it would just be a little bit of a blow initially for the first three months, I think 16 to 90 days, until we have a pay evaluation, and we can float that with our savings, the pay difference.

Sure. What are you making now? What would you be making there? By the end of this year, it would be about $110,000 take home. And doing that other job, it would be $84,000 before taxes. And then what would the bump get you to after that period that you're saying? That's what I'm unsure about, whether they could get up to that $110,000 before taxes even or not. So what I'm trying to understand is why is your head telling you to take that?

I think I know the answer, but I want you to hear yourself say it versus your heart saying stay and run your company. Yes, the potential of doing that and I've worked so hard in school to go start this or to go manage this branch and I i used to do that do you love what you do now for yourself i do um but i'm a trim carpenter so it's kind of hard on my body and doing that would be more of a desk job and i could work from home 80 of the time yeah but does this any part of this my wife at home any part of this new job the work itself when you think about it you run it through your mind gets your heart pounding like you know being a carpenter or potentially hiring other carpenters and you become a true leader of other carpenters does does the new job attract your

heart at all be honest yeah it does i i love that type of work and when i did it in the past it was it was great i the only reason i left it in the past was the atmosphere. And this new company, the atmosphere is much different in their Christian based company, which is big for me and my family. So the atmosphere is a lot better. So I think it would turn out a lot better. And I enjoyed the work when I did it previously. Okay. Well, so now it sounds like your heart is more involved and initially you said it wasn't so i think this comes down to if you can weather the financial change and it really is something and you're not clear on that so i'd find out i mean this is not something we're going to walk into and take that kind of hit with the hope that it turns into something you know i i that'd be my

there's a tremendous shortage of people in the construction industry right now. I think you just need to go back to them and tell them they need to match your pay. Okay. Let me tell you what's stopping you from doing that. This business you're running, I can hear it in your voice. You're emotionally exhausted. You're tired, aren't you? Yeah, yeah, a little bit. Yeah, and a famous general said, fatigue makes cowards of us all.

I've been there myself, my brother. I know how you feel. And so you're not walking in there with quite the swagger for this interview that I want you to have. I want you to, when you get off phone practice, walk across the room with more of a strut and then call these guys and tell them you want 110 to start. They're going to give it to you. Yeah. The initial offer was only 79, and I countered back to them at 90, and then they came down to the $84,000 or so.

Let me tell you, there are things in the construction world that have almost doubled in the past eight months, and pay for some things is one of them. I'm building an event center up here, and the dadgum steel, the bill on the steel just came in, and it's just astronomically over budget it's just gone bananas out there and there's a shortage of every industry is facing labor shortages every industry is facing them the construction industry chief among them they can't find people to do what they want you to do for what they're offering to pay you.

Kyle, I want to ask you something. What would need to be true? Give me the quick answer for you to make 50% more next year or in this next 12 months owning your own business. What would need to be true for you to make more money and not have to do all the work yourself? I had to find more contracts, which is kind of a shortage here, I guess. Shortage of work in the construction business? Not a shortage of work, but there's five or six really good trim guys that have all of the big contracts. So all of the work that I've picked up is one or two houses a year. So it'd be kind of hard to, picked up is one or two houses a year so it'd be kind of hard

to or one or two that the people do one or two houses a year um so there's no really big developments that i can get into at the moment yeah and then and then hiring somebody and paying the workman's confidence and all that there's a couple of negotiating techniques that people use when they're negotiating price the mistake people use when they're negotiating price. The mistake people make when they're negotiating price is the first thing they do is he names one price, you name another, and we meet in the middle. That usually doesn't work well. Instead, before you engage in that as your final step, I want you to engage in, I've been thinking about this, and I really appreciate the 84. It's a very generous offer. Guys, I'm making 110 right now.

Tell me the best you can do. This is just not going to work. Tell me what you can do, and don't put a number out there. Just tell them what you're making now, and just see. I'll bet you that one four-minute conversation makes you 10 grand. I'm just betting you, and I'm more confident in you right now than minute conversation makes you 10 grand i'm just betting you and i'm more confident in you right now than you are in you yeah does it hurt that i already countered back with 90 i don't know you're gonna have to figure out you're gonna have to figure out a way to couch

it so it doesn't feel like you're um you know that you're you're backing out on that but i think you're taking the job i just hate for you to take a pay cut because there's no need in a business that's got a labor shortage. It's just not logical. I've got to tell you, Dave, I wouldn't take it. I don't hear that. Oh, you don't think I'd take it at all? I don't think he takes it. His heart's in owning his own business.

He's got an opportunity. I think it's the easiest way out right now. It's not the best way out. I'd pass. We're hearing different things. Yeah. Okay. Interesting.

I'll let the career guy make the decision. Because that way I won't be wrong. I don't know that I'm right. That's just what I heard. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Anna is with us. Hi, Anna. How are you? I am wonderful, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. Good to have you. Where do you live?

I live in Mountain Home, Idaho. Which is near? Boise. About an hour away. Yeah, very cool. Just with some Boise people this week. Wonderful. Good to have you.

How much debt have you paid off? Just over $35,000. Whoop, whoop. How long did that take? 24 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? I started out about $23,000 to $25,000, and then we'll end this year at about $50,000.

Good for you. What do you do for a living? I'm a children's pastor as well as a property manager. Ah, good. I love it. What kind of debt was the $35,000? Well, Dave, Sally Mae was living in my guest bedroom. I bet she was.

All student loans. I love it. Okay. So how long have you been out of school? Well, just about three years now. Okay. So a year in to adulthood, after school, you look up and there's $35,000 worth of debt. How'd you get tied into the whole Ramsey idea?

Well, actually, a year before, while I was in college, I had taken FPU. Okay. And I kind of told myself, you know, I'll get to that when I get out of college. Yeah, I'll get to it when I'm done. And a year passes by, I've been working and paying the minimum on my payments for the six months. And I end up working three jobs in the summer and I'm mowing yards on top of my other two. And I'm in a moment where I'm mowing about 9.30 at night, the sun's going down and I'm trying to beat the sun going down and get the yard finished. And it was an I've had it theme hour that I was listening to. So basically you were just yelling at me, I've had it for like an hour long. And I realized at that point that a year ago I had said I would get to this. And a year later, I still had nothing

to show for it. And I was, all of my money was just going away. It was just going, I was working these three jobs and it seems for not. And so that was the moment that i decided i've had it i'm done um i put a note on my bedroom door that said sell or my guest bedroom door that said sally may's room so that every day when i walked out i saw that oh yep there's a visual yep that was right across from my bedroom door and so i saw that eviction notice exactly yeah so that's kind of how that got started wow i love it i love it and so you you got out the old financial peace university materials blew the dust off of them yep and went after it yep listen to you at every every side hustle i did every job i was continually listening

the podcast and every time uh somebody was doing a debt-free scream, I was just envisioning myself here in this moment. Wow. And there you stand. Here I stand. You know, I've never asked this before to a debt-free screamer. What was it like moments ago when you stepped up there to get ready to do this? Did you run through all those odd jobs, all those crazy hours? What went through your mind?

Yeah, I was telling my dad actually just earlier today that envisioning those moments ahead of time, all day long, they've been going through every job that I did where honestly I would listen to debt-free screams and just be in tears as I would envision this moment. As I look up and the plaques here has live like no one else, right? This is only the beginning and this is it. You are a fantastic lady wow what was the hardest thing you went through um i think i'm i'm very much an experiential person and so when i spend money it's and i'm very much a spender um i spend on experiences and so uh probably saying no to people um i spent a lot of dinners at my parents' house. A lot of time saying no to different events or different things. And I think that was the hardest part for me.

Yeah. That self-awareness is what got you there. That's pretty amazing. Man, you're a rock star. Wow, you're on fire. That's fun. Got me choked up. Standing up there thinking about all those jobs and all the hard work and all the sacrifice to get here.

Was it worth it? Oh, absolutely. Undoubtedly. How does it feel to be free? It feels insane. It feels like I've got the whole world ahead of me, and I can move forward in everything that God's got planned. It's awesome. Amen.

Good for you. How old are you? I'm 26. And 100% debt free? Yes, sir. Wow. What do you tell people the are you? I'm 26. And 100% debt-free. Yes, sir. Wow. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Well, the biggest thing for me was how often you said, children do what feels good, and adults devise a plan and stick to it.

And then to tell myself, you're an adult, so stick to it. And I think that's one of the things that's just a reminder. And I put it on a blackboard at my house and it just said, you're an adult. You're an adult. Make decisions and stick to it. And then I would say again, envisioning this moment,

envisioning the end goal and going, where is it that I'm going? Where is this moment? And then reliving that constantly. There probably wasn't a week that went by that I was listening? Where is this moment? And then reliving that constantly. There probably wasn't a week that went by that I was listening to a debt-free scream and envisioning myself here.

You guys at home can't see it because the cameras aren't trained on it, but her mom and dad are sitting just off camera, and I'm afraid her dad's going to explode. His chest is so... He's so proud. His mom's so proud. And they ought to be. They ought to be. You're somebody to be proud of. Wow, I'm proud of you.

That's very, very cool. Good for you. That's pretty stinking impressive. The vision this young lady had. I hope you all heard that. That was a world-class speech, by the way. I don't think you realize how much depth. I want her teaching the kids at our children's pastor.

I promise you. Yeah, you've got some tremendous depth that comes from somewhere. But that vision is what got you here. Wow. Powerful. Powerful. Very powerful. Very, very, very, very well done.

And so I don't know if I have to ask, other than your parents, I guess I should say, who were your biggest cheerleaders? They made the trip from Boise, Idaho with you to cheer you on, and they're proud, and they should be. But other than them, who was cheering you on? My whole family. And I've got a great church family, the Rock and Mountain Home. A lot of them are listening now. They're super awesome. And my friends really just joining me on this journey.

But my parents particularly, they didn't know this. I didn't really tell them. But for the whole two years, they were basically my grocery plans. So I'd just pop over for breakfast and then I'm like, hey, I'm visiting. I think they knew it. Have you noticed we're seeing more of Anna lately?

Yeah, exactly. The envelope's getting a little thin. Must be that time of the week. Yes. Must be right before the paycheck comes. I'm going to see Anna soon. I love it.

That's wonderful. Well, that's good. That's the kind of support that when you know you've got it, it changes everything. There's a difference in that kind of support that propels you on versus loneliness and desperation, which will also motivate you. But it's just the fear driver that's different, and that's a powerful thing

you've done so proud of you you did it i love it very very well done we got a copy of the legacy journey for you that is the next chapter in your story you've changed your whole legacy and um pretty stinking cool pretty stinking cool very articulate very well done copy of uh the total money makeover for you to give away to someone to interrupt their life because you know somebody who needs to be interrupted right now uh everybody does and that book has been an interrupter a disruptor for some time and it'll help you do that for one of your friends or relatives or somebody well done anna from boise idaho 35 000 paid off000 paid off. Four jobs, three jobs.

Ghost grocery plan, the whole bit. $23,000 to $50,000 a year. And she is debt-free, 26 years old, rocking it. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! Wow! Wow!

Woo! Woo! She is nominated for one of the best ones in a while. That's amazing. Wow. Well done. Powerful. And so when I get to meet those and you get to meet those, if any of you want to make it your hobby to run down the 20-somethings generation,

the Zs and the millennials, I'll have to remind you that I meet the ones that disqualify your demographic. It's true. As long as there are these out there, we're going to be okay, folk. Yeah, wow. And there's a bunch of these out there, we're going to be okay, folk. Yeah. Wow. And there's a bunch of these out there. Unbelievable. They're out there. And we get to meet them here every week, every day, not only on the debt-free stage, but inside this building, working on our team.

And we get to meet them every day as we're out and about across America. There is a lot of power in this generation. A lot of power. This is the ramsey show Thank you. Our scripture of the day, Nahum 1-7, the Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, trust men and they will be true to you. Treat them greatly and they will show themselves to be great.

Jonathan is with us in San Diego. Hi, Jonathan. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you. How are you doing? Good, man. What's up? Yeah, so I have about $45,000 worth of debt. Now, I'm not particularly concerned with it as of right now. That debt has accrued from student loans as I went to college

and got a master's degree in chemical engineering. But I've been having significant trouble finding work. Not because I don't interview well or anything like that. In fact, I've had about half a dozen offers over the last year that ended up getting rescinded because every time the company gives me an offer and then they go through a background check, they find, um, some, some charges in my background report that, uh, basically, you know, you know, they, they end up rescinding the offer as a result.

So you got criminal charges? Uh, yes, sir. Okay. For what? There are charges that stem from a domestic violence incident. They're all misdemeanor charges. It was since two and a half years ago after finding out that my ex-girlfriend or girlfriend at the time was unfaithful. Okay. All right.

And how long ago was that? About two and a half years. My probation ends actually in December in a few months. Okay. Well, I want to encourage on something. This is not surprising, but I'm actually sharing an article this week on the Ken Coleman Show about how more and more companies, especially right now, with the lack of employees available, with 10.4 million jobs available and 8.3 million people unemployed, they are open to hiring people with a criminal background. Now, I'm going to tell you that it's not necessarily going to be easy, but this is becoming more and more of a thing. And I think that, number one, you're going to have to take this by the horns, this bull by the horns.

And so no longer when you go forward are you waiting for a company to do the research and find out about it. That's what's killing you. Yeah, you've got to tell them on the up front when the interviews get good. And they're calling you back and you're starting to make some headway and I would, you know, they're calling you back and you start to make some headway, I would explain it. I would also go another step further. If you have yet to get some counseling, I would do that and I would have a good counselor really, you know, pour into you and also vouch for you that not only have you paid your,

you know, your crime, your time on these misdemeanor charges, but that you're going the extra step to dealing with the anger issues that came from some obvious pain. I think if you own this, I think you can overcome this. In fact, no, I don't think I know you can. And I'm going to give you one other piece of very practical advice. As you're going for these jobs in the future, and you may have already done this, but make absolutely sure that you are having people that know you well and can vouch for you that are taking you to these companies to say, hey, this is a really great guy.

This is a really great candidate, and he's overcome some challenges in the past, but I can vouch for the character and the quality of this human being. I think if you put all that together and you own this up front, you've got a much better chance. Yeah, that's exactly right. And that's what's killing you here. You've got to come out early in the process. As soon as they start nibbling on the hook, you've got to tell them what's going on. And just all you have to do, Jonathan, is just think about if you were hiring, under what circumstances would you hire a guy that had that record?

If you thought he was past it. If you thought it was a one-time thing, if you thought it's never going to happen again, he's been seeing a counselor, it's in his past, everybody is screwed up one time or another in their life. But if they don't think that you're past it and they think, oh, I'm going to have a guy in a me too world that's going to hit a girl. Nobody wants that on their payroll. You wouldn't want it on your payroll, right?

Yeah. So you got to weave a truthful story, a truthful narrative here that says, okay, now here's what you're going to find. You're going to find the 18 months ago and here's what happened and here's what I've done since then. And I'm perfectly clean. The probation's almost complete. Been seeing a coach and a counselor.

Here's what she says. Here's a letter from them, and this is what you're going to find. If this makes it a no, if the fact that those charges are back there are going to kill the deal, we might as well kill it now because I want you to know now. And if you tell us that at Ramsey, we, you know, I'm a lot more concerned with what you're going to do in the future than I am what happened to you in the past. Because I hadn't met anybody that has an unblemished past. The only thing I'm worried about is, are you going to be defined by that? And is this going to be a continued pattern?

And then I've got to deal with it as your employer because you're going to embarrass us by being in the news the next time that comes along, and I don't want you on the payroll. And plus, I don't want to employ someone that's going to be doing that kind of stuff. And you don't either, Jonathan, do you? Correct. Yeah. I actually wanted to say, the reason why I'm calling now, not after the first time this happened, is this most recent offer that was rescinded was at a company where I actually had two people there vouching for me. And it's incredibly discouraging.

Well, that's depressing, and that's a gut punch. Did they tell them, though, when they vouched for you, did they also tell them that you had some misdemeanors in your background? Yeah, they did. Well, I'm going to tell you something. You did all you could do. You did all you could do. But you don't quit.

Somebody's going to give you a shot. You are not defined by the worst thing that you ever did. Yeah. None of us are. Hey, man, I filed bankruptcy. Now I give all of America financial advice. Go figure that one out. I mean, really.

How absurd. But the difference is that I learned from it. i've never been there again and that makes me trustworthy and the fact that i felt the pain of real life makes me trustworthy because i can relate to people who are hurting which is like everybody and or everybody has at one time or another because most everybody's done something stupid right so you know you got one of your stupid things out while you were young it's in your past um you know most of us that are old have often commented that if twitter and um instagram had been around when we were in college none of us would be employable because there would be photographic digital uh evidence of our behaviors so um yeah can you imagine when streaking was popular

in the 70s just the stuff we did to our friends that we thought was funny would be considered criminal level bullying and we were just being idiots and making each other laugh i mean goodness probably a lot of everything but yeah not not making light of or minimizing what you got convicted of that's not a good thing yeah and we're not endorsing that uh but we are trying to give some grace so that you can give yourself some grace because you've already run into a lot of places that aren't going to give you grace yeah and so grace is i'm not defined by my past yeah i'm not defined by my past i get to make new decisions starting today ready set go i get to be a new kind of man a new kind of woman starting today ready set go and so if that's you

dude uh you got our endorsement and i think you'll get a job but don't wait till they get far down into the interview process because then they feel tricked they feel like you're trying to slide one in on them. And that doubles down then because you've got deception and a criminal record is the way it feels from the employer's viewpoint. That's how I would feel if Ramsey were interviewing you. And then we get, hey, this guy's really talented, but we got way down into it before he brought this up.

And one other encouragement. I don't know what your work situation is now. We didn't get into it, but I would stay active. Even though you're going for this over here, if it's got to work two, three jobs, don't let yourself fall into this, I don't matter anymore, and I'm a stain. That would be really discouraging. Absolutely. Keep staying with it.

Do something until it pops. Keep moving. Keep moving. Keep your feet moving. Keep your feet moving. You're going to be all right, brother. You're going to be all right. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books.

We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.