The Ramsey Show - App - You CAN Go to Law School or Medical School Debt-Free (Hour 2)

Episode Date: December 23, 2019

Home Buying, Savings, Retirement, Career, Debt Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is done, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. And some people say the advice is worth what you pay for it. It's free. 888-825-5225.

Roger starts off this hour in Orlando, Florida. Hey, Roger, how are you? I'm great, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I'm looking at purchasing a piece of property, my wife and I, and it is $350,000. And I have in liquid cash, my wife and I have around $450,000.

But my theory is to maybe buy the property with cash and then use that for collateral to build our home on, which is probably going to be around $250,000? Or do I cash out some of our retirement and just pay cash for the whole thing and then just build the retirement back up? How old are you? 40. Okay. And how much is in retirement? We have around $350,000 total. Good job. So where did the $450,000 cash come from? We had a home at the beach that we had about six years, and we just kept paying at it, and we just recently sold it.

Oh, very cool. And the home you're living in, would you be selling it if you did this transaction? No. I'd like to just keep it and have it as a rental. Got it. What's it worth? About $250,000. Okay.

And so the ground is $350,000, and then you want to build another $250,000 on top of that. And so we'd be at, what, $600,000, $700,000? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. I guess we'd be at $600,000, yeah. Get my addition working here.

I've got to get that part of my brain working or I'm going to be on the air. It's embarrassing. All right, so $600,000. And what's your household income? Around $220,000. Wow, that's awesome. Okay, and I take it you have no other debt? We don't.

And I've been really just pounding the pavement and making sure we do things right. I just don't want to go backwards. And the house you're living in is paid for? Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Well, there's two answers to your question. One is you take the cash and you buy the land, and then you take out a construction loan and build the house

and pay off the resulting mortgage as fast as you possibly can. Okay? Right. And in your case, you can probably do that in just a couple of years, I mean two or three years. Right. Because if you put $450,000 towards this, you're only going to have a $150,000 mortgage. I'm assuming you have an emergency fund other than this money, right?

Yes, sir. Okay. Okay. So if you put $450,000 towards a $600,000 project, ultimately that leaves you a $150,000 mortgage. Making $220,000, you pay that off in two years, right. Okay. So if you put $450,000 towards a $600,000 project, ultimately that leaves you a $150,000 mortgage. Making $220,000, you pay that off in two years, right? Correct. And that's definitely conservative, a wonderful thing to do.

You've got two paid-for properties, $850,000 in real estate, both paid for at that point. No problem there at all, okay? Right. That's answer number one, and I think that's a very reasonable thing to do. Answer number two is, what would Dave and Sharon Ramsey do? We don't borrow money. And so we would be forced to either save for a little while longer after we bought the property. I'd go ahead and buy the property, and then I would just save up and pay cash to build the house.

Or if we wanted to get in more of a hurry, we would just sell the rental and buy more rentals later. Okay, okay. We've been out of debt for about two years now, and it just really, like you said, going back into debt, it's like, man, even though it's $150,000, we could pay it off. I just don't like it. And I think you could have $100,000. I think you could buy the property and sit on it while you save up to pay cash and build the house and keep the one you're in.

And that's a very – it's not very exciting because you want to build the house, you know. Right. But honestly, have you got your plans drawn, your builder selected and all that? We have an idea, but like you said, by the time we get the rail in, it'd probably take a year just to get all that finalized, interior and pick out colors and stuff like that. It's going to take a little while. I'm going to buy the property in your case. And in my case, this is how I would do it, too.

I would buy the property. I would want to keep the rental. I'm with you because I like rentals, as you know and um that's paid for especially right so yeah i'm going to buy the property and i'm going to begin drawing my house and saving the rest of the money to build it okay and leave my investments alone just leave the ira i mean yeah i wouldn't yeah you don't want to cash out retirement you'll get hammered um you're gonna get the 10 penalty plus your tax rates no yeah you don't get it i called him today and asked him and he did that's what he said so i I can leave that alone. We never cash out retirement except to avoid bankruptcy or foreclosure. So that's off the table.

Okay. But the rest of it, yeah, I think it's going to go fast. Here's the other thing that we add into this equation, come to think of it. It takes a year to build it. Yes, sir. A year to plan it and a year to build it. So you've got the money to start it, and you can cash flow into it. You don't have to have the entire sum in the bank if you can see it coming.

Oh, I see what you're saying. Just start. You could have. Okay, let's say you buy the property today. You've got $100,000 left in the bank after you buy the property. You need $250,000. At the end of one year about the time you're breaking ground when you got it drawn got the builder selected and all that

garbage right at the end of one year we have 175 of the 250 right start okay you'll have the other 75 by the time you need it at the end of that year okay i gotcha i gotcha so you're really not delaying the project hardly at all when you look at it that way. Actually, the current home I'm living in, I kind of did that. I had 80% of the cash, and I cash flowed into the other 20% while I was building it at the time. Well, I guess I should say ready cash is a better way of saying it. In your case, it's all your cash. But, yeah, hey, thanks for calling, man.

That's an interesting discussion. You're doing very well, by the way. Congratulations. Very, very well done. Amy is in St. Louis. Hi, Amy. How are you? Good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay. So we are on steps four, five, and six. Good. And for the past year, we've been putting an extra $2,000 on our principal in hopes to have the house paid off in four more years. Good.

And we have a freshman and senior in high school. And our senior, right now we have about three, we have three years of her college already funded between a 529 and mutual fund. Great. So, yeah, so kind of starting to see the light, but a little nervous because of the current roller coaster of the stocks and the timing of when we're going to start using the money. So the question that I have is we've been kind of toying with starting in this next year. We're currently putting between the two girls like $15,000 a year in their college savings.

Knowing I have one more year for the oldest one, if we increase our principal by $1,000 a month, we'll have that house paid off in three years, and we know that's just going straight to the house and we're not worrying about the stock market. Do that instead of stop putting in the oldest daughter's account. What's your household income? What's your household income? The last couple of years it's been about $240. Yeah, you're killing it.

I thought so. Okay. And what is oldest daughter's annual budget for college is what dollar amount? $30. You can cash flow it if you had to. I like your plan of putting extra principal on the house. And, of course, that will ensure that you can cash flow because you no longer have a house payment. But you've got enough income.

You can pull this together. It just might get uncomfortable if you don't make it. But I think you're going to make it. Yeah, I would do the extra principal on the house. I agree with you. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs?

Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau accredited organization, CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Health Care Ministries has done for over 35 years. And our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills.

To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Michael is with us in Fort Collins, Colorado. Hey, Michael, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave. It's an honor to talk to you. You too. How can I help? My wife and I are on Baby Steps 3 and 5, and my company offers an employee stock purchase plan.

And I was wondering if that's a good tool to use for an investment for short term. You have to keep it for one year after purchase? No. No, okay. It's a 15% discount and your stock is likely volatile in a 52-week swing within 15%. So you could actually lose money on the transaction because you've got to hold it a year. Look at the 52-week high and the 52-week low on your stock chart, and you'll probably see more than a 15% move.

And I don't play single stocks because of the volatility, and that includes your company stocks. How are you on baby step three and five at the same time? I'm confused. I'm sorry, four and six. That's my fault. Oh, it's okay. Okay, four, five, six.

You're skipping five because it doesn't apply right now. Correct. Okay, I'm back with you. Good, thanks. I kind of got a head tilt. I went, huh? Okay, you're working on your emergency fund and your kid's college. Okay.

All right, good. I'm working on my plan. That's all just it's a whole different thing here that was a new one no good perfect perfect perfect okay no i i just i don't fool with single stocks uh if you do want to buy your company stock at the 15 discount to hold long term because you're just all jonesed up about your company and you think it's the best thing since sliced bread and all that as far as the stock goes that's fine uh i would not allow it to become more than 10 of your net worth and that way if they go bananas on you and it goes down real fast you don't have a problem um i had a lady for instance uh several years ago that had seven hundred thousand dollars in her 401k all in company stock and it dropped to a hundred

and that's what's kept me from doing that you know that's what years ago that was probably 20 years ago i had that woman sitting in my office crying she just retired and uh that company went in the tank and it was a big well known company you know and so um i think it came back later actually but uh but i just don't want to play that kind of volatility so you want better diversification than that if you're going to play it just because you're all jonesed up about it that's cool that's cool i don't but if you're going to don't let it get to become more than 10 of your net worth so if you're. I don't, but if you're going to, don't let it get to become more than 10% of your net worth. So if you're a millionaire, don't have more than $100,000 in company stock, in other words.

You got your house paid for. You got $400,000 in 401K and no more than $100,000 in your company stock if you want to play it because you just really, really believe in it. But the 15% discount does not make it a play. The only thing that will make it a play is you really believe in the future of the stock price. The price. This company, you know, it's freaking Apple. It's just gone up and up and up and up and up and up and up and they have more money than Egypt. You know, they literally have more money than Egypt. But, I mean, you know, that kind of stuff. And it's crazy. And so, you know, if you've got some kind of a company like that that you're working for

and you just love that company stock and you're buying it at a discount, that's fine. Don't buy it because of the discount, though. Because, again, all of you, if you look at your company's 52-week high, 52-week low, most of you will see a 15% swing. Jordan is with us in Lexington. Hi, Jordan. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave.

How are you doing? Better than I deserve, man. What's up? I love it. Well, I just wanted to call in and kind of a two-fold purpose for this call. First of all, I want to say thank you. I'm a recent law school graduate, and thanks to your principles and your encouragement, I was able to get through not only college undergrad but also law school completely debt-free wow how did you do law school

debt-free um well uh it was a myriad of things um and i know you get this question a whole lot yeah and so that was the reason i'm calling is uh for me and i think it's going to look different for everybody who does it uh for me it involved some scholarships. I got about half of everything paid with scholarships. A law school? For law school, yes. What kind of place issues scholarships for law school? So mine were all through the school itself.

Okay. I went to the University of Louisville. And you'll find a lot of the law schools and even the med schools have a lot of institutional scholarships available through the schools. And that's one thing a lot of people aren't aware of. How are they awarded? Grades-based or what? Generally, yes. The two biggest factors in those are grades and then your LSAT score, which I had a decent LSAT score.

And the University of Louisville, I would guess University of Louisville Law School not to be super, super expensive. No, it was about, when I went through, I graduated actually in 2015, and it was about $20,000 a year for tuition. And it's a three-year? You know, expensive but manageable. Three-year deal? Yes, sir.

Okay, so $60,000 gets you through law school at the University of Louisville. Wow. Exactly. That's amazing. Yeah, that's reachable. I can see that. That's a lot different than $260,000, yeah. Sure, exactly.

The other thing is, you know, this may vary from program to program. Our school had a limit. You were allowed to work up to 20 hours per week during the semester, which I did. But the other thing is you can work, you know, I worked my tail off on the weekends and on the summer breaks and then the semester breaks. That's how I made up the difference, actually. I started cutting grass in high school and had a little mowing business that I did in college and then kept it going through law school, and that's what paid the rest of it,

all my rent and all my food and the rest of my remainder of my tuition. That is so impressive. UPS used to have a thing there in Louisville, because that's their home, where if you worked for them 20 hours a week, they would pay tuition on the undergrad. I don't know if they still do or not, but they used to. Yeah, I think they do. That's very cool, man. Very cool.

Yep. Good for you. Well done. I'm proud of you. So you're what, man. Very cool. Yep. Good for you. Well done. I'm proud of you. So you're what, 27, 28 years old? I'm 28. Yeah. And I got hooked up with you guys when I was 14, so 14 years ago.

And actually, I've been a huge fan. I've led FPU since I was 18, 20 times, twice a year. Oh, my gosh. So I give you a lot of the credit. Well, I'm impressed, man times, twice a year. Oh, my gosh. So, no. I give you a lot of the credit. Well, I'm impressed, man. You're a rock star. Thank you for leading the class.

And that's a great call because it encourages people. Yeah, you can do law school, and you can do med school. And, you know, we always tell people where you go to school matters. And, you know, $60,000 for a law degree is not bad. That's a value right there. That really is. Very cool. And cut grass to get through law school. There you go, man.

I'm loving this guy. That's awesome. Way to go, Jordan. Congratulations, brother. Merry Christmas to you. Thank you for calling with that great story. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

It means even if you mismeasure or you pick the wrong color, they will remake your blinds for free. Site-wide savings are happening right now, plus take an additional 5% off at Blinds.com slash Ramsey. Today's question comes from Esther in Missouri. Dave, I'm on Baby Step 2, and I'm paying off cards. So far we've settled for no more than 25% on the balance and paid those debts. We're on our next debt and they're insisting they cannot settle for less than 70%.

Should I continue to push them or settle? If you have the money, I would get it done. If you can only do it at 25%, that's fine. Or if you've got others in line that'll do 25, then skip over the 70 and let them sit a little bit. Sometimes if they sit and sweat, they sweat down a little bit. It just depends on what the situation is. Obviously, you've been in a real financial pickle. You've gotten behind on all of these cards, and obviously you've got problems there. And so you've got a stack of collections that you're trying to weed through.

This is not a thing. But if it's your last card and you can get the 70% together and you want to just put a bow on this and be done with it, there's no shame in that at all. You paid a larger portion of that bill. That's okay. But if you've got a whole list of them, then just go the next one. If you'll do $25, you're going to get this money instead of this other guy. Because you might pay off the next two for $25 for the same money that this one at $70 would have been. So you

might clear up two for that. So you can skip around a little bit where you're working a collections thing like this. It's a little different process. As you know, when you're working and settling, always get it in writing. Never give them electronic access to your personal checking account. They will clean you out. Thanks for following us. Glad you're winning, Esther. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Support a small business this holiday season that does business right. I'm talking about Grip6 belts. It's the only belt you can get online with no holes, no flap, and no bulk. And the buckles come in really cool designs and are interchangeable.

I personally own a number of these belts. Plus, these guys have a great story. B.J. Minson started Grip6 on Kickstarter from his garage in 2014 and now sells hundreds of thousands of these American-made belts to customers all over the world. As a mechanical engineer and a minimalist, BJ took his dislike for heavy, bulky leather belts that never fit right and created the Perfect Belt, a high-quality, minimalist belt that gives the strength and support of a belt without even knowing you're wearing one. I'm really proud of these guys, and I'm thrilled to recommend them to you. Go to Grip6.com and search for the Dave Ramsey page to get 35% or more off Grip6 products.

Grip6.com If you didn't know, there's a private Facebook group you can join. We'll let you in. It's called The Ram group you can join. We'll let you in. It's called the Ramsey Baby Steps Facebook group. It's the official one. Yeah. Joanna says, I've reached Baby Step 4. I think I'm reading to start investing in a Roth IRA and get ready for retirement.

Does anyone even know where to start? Sure. The best thing you can do when you're getting ready to do an investment and you've never done one is get some help with investing. If you've never worked on a car, you get a car mechanic. If you've never done a will, you get a lawyer to do your will. If you've never pulled your own teeth, you get a dentist to pull your teeth. And investing is no different. You don't have to DIY it. You learn about it from an expert who teaches you and then can help you actually fill out the paperwork

and get the thing done. And that's what I personally do. I know a lot about investing. I can actually do it, but I don't even want to fool with it. I don't have time to study 8,000 mutual funds and decide which ones are the best. We suggest you invest in your Roth IRA, Roth 401k, 401k, whatever you're doing, across four types of mutual funds,

growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international. When I'm in the open market, meaning I have a lot of options, I always buy 10- and 20-year-old or older funds. I do not buy three year old funds. They don't have a long enough track record for me to trust that they know what the flip they're doing. But I put a fourth in each growth, growth and income, aggressive growth and international. And I use a smart investor pro. What is that? Well, you're getting ready to be, Joanna, a smart investor. So we call you a smart investor.

And a pro is someone that's an advisor in that world that can help you and that sells the mutual funds. So click at DaveRamsey.com. You just click smart investor, and you fill out a little bit of your information. It drops down a whole list of the smart investor pros in your area. You choose which one you want, but these are all people that have been vetted by our team. We've gone through and talked to them. They have the heart of a teacher. They're not going to slime you trying to sell you stuff and just go along that way.

So that's how we do it. Just DaveRamsey.com. Click SmartVestor. Dee is in Cape Girardeau. Hi, Dee. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Thanks forVestor. Dee is in Cape Girardeau. Hi, Dee. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? I'm going to try and make this brief. Murphy has basically lived on my couch the last three years. And I have a mobile home that I previously bought with my ex. And I owe about $43,000 on it. I think it's probably worth about $35,000 or less. My income has dropped drastically, had some ups and downs.

I was diagnosed with leukemia, went through remission, got a job, a good job, and then lost that job. So I'm at a job right now that I'm not planning on staying at. So I make about $15,000 to $16,000 right now. I plan on making about $30,000 to $40,000 next year. I'm just determined to get me a good job. I know I don't need this mobile home. Right. And I know that you recommend selling them.

Right. My father has offered to buy it. Why? For what I owe on it. Why? Just to help you? Because it's on his property. Oh.

Yes. Yeah. Sell it to him. Yes. And he's offered to rent it back to me for less than I'm making payments for. Okay. And so I just kind of needed your approval, I guess. Sure, in a heartbeat.

You're out of the debt. Yeah, I'd be out of the debt. And you're out of the mobile home ownership issue. He now has a mobile home on property he already owns. He's going to rent it to someone, and right now he's willing to rent it to you at a deal to help out his daughter. Right. I think that's awesome. Okay.

Okay, well, I think it was kind of hard for me to take the help, and so I just kind of needed some approval. You make $15,000 a year. You've been through a divorce and leukemia. These are times you need help. Thank you. That doesn't make you a wuss. That just makes you a human being, and you've got a good dad. Yes.

Amazing. You're not a parasite living on his couch because you're too lazy to work. That's not what happened to you. Okay? You've had bad crap in your life, and's just walking with you And he's hurting with you And he's able to help you And he wants to help you And I don't think that's bad on your part at all

You're not someone who's You know, unwilling to carry their own weight Or something like that You've just had some bad stuff come at you, kiddo How old are you? I'm 28 Wow, okay Yes, take your dad's help.

You're doing nothing wrong from a character standpoint. And someday you'll be able to help your kids because you're going to get your financial act together, okay? Yes, sir. Thank you so much. God bless you. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Teresa is in Minnesota. Hi, Teresa.

Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave. I really appreciate being able to speak with you. You too. How can I help? Well, as I was telling your screener, I'll be honest with you, somewhat embarrassed. I'm 56 years old, and I honestly, until I started listening to you, I thought everybody was in debt. And I thought that's how it had to be. I did not know there was another option. And so

in April, my husband and I sat down and really started looking at, you know, what you were saying and how to do things. And I think my basic question is at 56 years old you know with eighty one thousand dollars in debt um am i too old to be able to be out of debt and actually have retirement you're way too old you'll never make it of course not call in here and call a 58-old man and tell me you're 56 and you're too old? That's not what I wanted to hear. You're not too old. You're not too old. $81,000 in debt.

So what's your household income? Okay, so this is where it gets a little embarrassing. We actually have a very good income. I make a good income. I make about $185,000 a year. So why don't we be debt-free in a year? And you're wondering, where is it all going? Yeah, I am. Well, we're working on it.

Like I said... No, I mean, really. If you make $185,000, you have $81,000 in debt. Why can't you be debt-free in a year? Well, our goal is to sell the house, and when we sell our house, we should be able to be entirely debt-free in a year. Oh, you have to sell your house to be debt-free. If you want to sell your house, you can, but you make $180,000 a year. Stop, stop, stop.

If you make $180,000 a year and you paid off $80,000, does that mean you had to rough it on $100,000 for that year? Right. You're killing me here. I know. I know. Yeah, you just got to decide what's important. And you've made enough money. Let me tell you what you did, because I've done it and I can recognize it.

See if this is right. You tell me if I'm wrong, okay? You've been trying to out-earn your stupidity. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And you just about were able to, because you make a lot of money. I know, and I'm really tired. Yeah, you work your butt off.

What do you do for a living? I'm a nurse practitioner. A doctor. I work in psychiatry. Okay, all right, cool. So here's the thing. The neat thing, then, is that what we're discussing here is not a math problem. It's a behavior problem, and you know how to solve behavior problems.

Yeah. And this is someone that's coming in your office with an extreme situation, and the answer is an extreme change in behavior patterns. Okay. And you know how to coach them through that. Right. And so physician, heal thyself. Okay.

Yeah, you're going to have to get on a written budget, and you're going to have to look around and go, where the freak is all this money going? You've got to ask yourself that. You and your husband have to say, we work too hard. We make too much money to be this broke. We're heading towards retirement here, and we have a few years to straighten this up

and make our, you know, straighten up and fly right, as my mama used to say, right? And you can do this. You can do this. You make plenty of money. The math on this is easy. It's all between your ears then. Okay. So it is possible if we've paid this off in a year or two at the very maximum that we could still save enough to be able to have retirement.

Sure. Okay. Sure. Okay. Sure. Absolutely. But you're going to have to pay attention for the first time in your life. And it is an old dog, new tricks thing. Not that old a dog, though. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. show. Margaret is in West Palm Beach.

Hey, Margaret. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Hi, Dave. So I went to college that I couldn't afford, and I was pretty much homeless. So I graduated with my bachelor's in 2008 during the crisis, so I couldn't find a job.

And I went back to school for my master's and still was not able to afford it, but I was homeless. And so I got a job. I moved to Florida, and I made $45,000. The problem is that I have $118,000 on student loans. And what is your master's in? I'm sorry, say that one more time. What's your master's degree in? In school counseling.

In school counseling. In school counseling. Okay. And that's what you do, making $45,000? Yes. And you have $100,000 and how much again in student loan debt? $118,000. Okay. How old are you?

I'm 33. Okay. So now you've stabilized yourself. You've got a sustainable situation, meaning you make enough to eat and have a place to live, and the homeless thing is not at your door anymore. Yeah. But now this thing's just hovering over your head, right? Yes, because I can't afford to make the payments for my student loans, not even the full interest, and it's just going up every month. Okay.

And what are you thinking you're going to do? I'm not sure, but right now I'm babysitting on the weekends. I stay after school, doing after school programs, trying to catch up, but it just seems to be impossible. And my friend told me that maybe I can just enroll in the Army and see if there's any way in the contract they can pay some of my student loans. Okay. Is the military what you want to do for a living?

No. You're just trying to escape the student loans. Yes, because I feel stuck, and I do pay my t tithes and I feel like I need a breakthrough. I cannot buy a property. I cannot start a business. When I have a lot of business idea, I cannot invest on anything due to my student loan situation. Well, you can start a lot of businesses with just sweat. You don't need a lot of money to get a business idea going,

especially some kind of a side hustle that might make you more than you're doing with the after-school care thing. I don't know what you're making. But, you know, I don't think the military is the answer for you because you're not going there because you want to. You're going there to try to escape. And I think that's going to end up being a miserable experience for you with that motivation. Yes. So I think we've got to just continue to work on ideas for your career and ideas for short-term income in the interim.

What can you do with this degree that makes you more as your long-term career? And also, what can we do as side hustles with some of these ideas you've got going? Let me send you a copy of Christy Wright's book, Business Boutique, Equipping Women to Make Money Doing What They Love. And maybe some of that material can help you put some of those ideas to use and get your small business ideas started. You do not need $10,000 to start a good small business. You don't.

Lots of people start all kinds of small side hustle things with almost nothing or nothing. And it's not that unusual at all. Again, you've just got to think through what it is you're going to do and how you're going to do it. But I believe that's what we work on in your situation is just work on your long-term career goals. And in the midst of it also, that could overlap with a side hustle idea, a business idea as a side hustle. But in the meantime, you've got to make some extra money

until you get the full-time gig where it's producing more, whether it's a career choice or whether it's a small business idea. So hold on. I'll have Kelly pick up, and we'll give you a copy of the business boutique and get you going. Mike is in Nashville. Hey, Mike, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Thank you for everything you do for people. It's a pleasure to speak with you. You too. I'm having trouble with your phone. Can you speak directly into it? Yeah. Is this better? A little bit, yes.

Okay. I had a quick question about retirement for you. Okay. I want to make sure I'm doing everything right. I have an IRA individually, and then I have an IRA through my workplace that just started up this year. I also bought a house in West Nashville about five years ago, and as you probably know, the market has taken off. And I have a $40,000 equity loan. I owe $119,000 on the house. I know Zillow is not completely accurate.

It says that the house is worth about $310,000. So I'm very tempted to sell the house and pay off the home equity loan. And I would have about $100,000. And I would use that towards a down payment on another house and put a lot of it away for retirement because I just don't feel like I have enough saved right now at 35. At 35 years old? Yeah. Okay.

Do you like the house? I do. I actually have become uber intense on paying off the home equity loan. I sold my Audi, which was really hard. So my workplace was five minutes away, so I biked to work every day. Wow. I'm eight minutes from downtown. Yeah.

It's a nice neighborhood. I do like it, but... I would not sell it. What is your income? I make about $50,000 a year, a little over $50,000. Okay. And so you have this house debt, the home equity loan, which is how much? Together, both would be about $160,000.

Okay. And what other debts do you have? That's it. And what's your income? $50,000 a year. You told me that. I'm sorry. Okay.

All right. No, I would told me that. I'm sorry. Okay. All right. No, I would not sell that at 35 years old. I would put you on a budget, a written plan. You're concentrating on this money thing, but you're frustrated by your level of traction. And so you're debt-free. Do you have any money saved for your emergency fund? Yes. I have about $1,500 in the money market right now.

Okay. Yes, I have about $1,500 in the money market right now. Okay, let's get that raised up to three to six months of expenses as your first order of business. In other words, $10,000, give or take, in your situation, just for emergencies, never to be touched for anything else. Above that, then let's begin to save 15% of your income. Now, if you'll jump on ChrisHogan360.com and use his RIQ tool, it's a free tool, a retire-inspired quotient, calculate what 15% of your income saved from 35 to 65 will be. 30 years of saving 15% of your income, which is income which is 7 500 a year is going to be huge it's going to be millions of dollars without selling your house and so you need to get in a situation where your budget allows you to save 15 of your income you should be there once you get that emergency fund in place and the fact that you don't have any payments except the payment on

this house this is very doable but you've got to get on a game plan. If you need some help with the budget, jump on everydollar.com and use the budget app. It's free, and it loads on your phone or on your desktop, whatever. It takes about 10 minutes to lay your budget out, but you get that puppy laid out, and then you've got the ability to control the money that you've got, be putting 15% away. Again, ChrisHogan360.com, check the RIQ. When you put the numbers in on that, you're going to have plenty of money.

You're going to be fine. 35 years old, you just need to get started and do it. That's what it comes down to. So, hey, thanks for the call. We appreciate you joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for the call. We appreciate you joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for being here. We appreciate you.

By the way, folks, when we're talking about selling your house, unless you don't like your house, because you'll hear me ask that. Sometimes when someone asks if they should sell their house, unless you don't like your house and you're thinking of moving anyway, most of the time, the house is not the problem. Now, if your house payment is 50% of your take-home pay, the house is the problem. It's got to go. You're not going to make that unless you have an income increase coming in the next short term just over the horizon. You're going to have problems with the 50% of your take-home pay being a house payment. That's not going to work. But other than those situations, usually the house is not the problem.

Usually it's getting organized, getting on the budget, getting your other debts paid off, maybe sell a car, which he did in his case, that kind of stuff. It puts you in a different position than when you do that. So, hey, thank you for listening. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, and we'll be back.

Hey, guys, this is Blake Thompson, senior executive producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know over 15 million people listen to The Dave Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen to one of over 600 radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.