The Ramsey Show - App - YOU Control Your Financial Destiny, No One Else Does (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. George Campbell, Ramsey personality personality number one best-selling author and a host of multiple youtube hit shows including smart money happy hour on the ramsey network he's my co-host today open phones at 888-825-5225 brianna is with us she's in las vegas hi brianna how are you hi i'm actually brenna from oh it's fault. They spelled it right and I pronounced it wrong. Can't blame the phone screener.

My fault. Brenna, I see it now. I'm sorry. What's up? That's okay. Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm so excited to talk to you guys. You too.

So the root of my question is, are we financially ready to buy a car? Because the thought of it is making me super nervous. Here's our numbers. We've got about 50,000 saved in the bank. Separate from that, we have our emergency fund of about It's a 2020 Honda CRV. It's worth about 20 to 23. I looked it up like last month and we it's, it's running fine. We've been a one car family for about eight years,

but we've got a little one now and the juggling of the car and work and all that has been a little bit of a headache and it would make our lives easier to have that second car buy a freaking car what are you waiting for it's still making me so nervous to like give up that money and then you're 100 percent debt free right we are yeah we have a house. We're on Baby Stop 456. Good. So we've got a house. What are you thinking about on the car?

What price? I'm looking for like $25,000 to $33,000 because we do want a bigger car because we're thinking about expanding our family. So we want something with maybe some extra seats. But the other factor is my husband works very sporadically. Like he works for the movie industry. So he'll have a good like six month run and then he'll not work for maybe a month or two. And we do really good at saving money during that time. But you average 115. Yes. And we've had years where we go down as low as 100 and up as high as like 150 or more. But like last year, we were about 150.

So how is the car going to cause that to crash? That's a great question. It's not because you've never dipped into your emergency fund. We haven't. When he doesn't work, he does something else, brings in a little bit of money, or you tap into savings just a little bit. I don't know. How do you survive him when he doesn't work uh you do he does something else brings in a little bit of money or you you tap into savings just a little bit i don't know how you how you survive him when he's not working we save money when he is working so we just budget like so that we'll save money and that that account will have 25 000 left in it if you use 25 of the 50 to buy a car

right it just makes me so nervous well what were you saving the 50 for? Because I think money should have a goal. And I think the problem is you were just saving to save, and now it feels weird to use that money on a car, and it feels frivolous. I guess that's true. I'm very frugal. I can tell.

I feel it. And I've been in your exact shoes, where as we made more, we became debt-free. It still hurt to write that check. And the car market is still stupid expensive. But you are the prime demo for it's time to buy the car. You've been a one car family for eight years. This is a very reasonable purchase. It's not a big part of your world and you're doing it the right way. You're not borrowing money. You're not justifying. You're not overbuying to where you have $80, dollars tied up in cars and you make a hundred and ten that's dumb don't do that everything you everything you brought up

every single number is aligned with what we teach and we're pretty stinking conservative i think the difference is this is happy to hear that yeah this is popping in an emotional bubble that's all it is and you just said it out loud and that's okay you've never written a check this big except for probably a house right right only our down payment yeah so it's more emotional than it is tied to reality and facts yeah that's okay the richer you get the better at this you're going to be because you're going to get used because you're going to get used to it and by the way you're going to get rich because the stuff you're doing is so wise. Everything you've outlined.

How old are you guys? I'm 33. My husband's 38. Yeah. You're going to be millionaires by the time you're 40. So you're in really good shape. You're going to look back one day and go, remember when I was freaking out over that $25,000 car?

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So you're great. Listen, Brenna, just breathe by your car breathing by a car you're in great shape I would I it's George Camel endorsed that's right I'm exactly I'm really frugal and yes you are that's true you might you are tighter than me but I married a very bougie wonderful woman who I just bought uh you know we bought her a new to her car and it hurt to write that check it was cash but it still hurt emotionally and

you're not worse over a million and and again it was just the aspect of going this is a lot of money just the fact that you're a tight watch exactly exactly what it was but she deserved the car yeah that's all it is i love it she did deserve the car. She deserves more than that. No question. You work like a maniac. That's true. Y'all don't know George's work schedule, man. He works, so he's earned it. Way to go, guys.

I, like her, have a hard time spending, and it's hard for people to let go of that a little bit. Dustin's in Los Angeles. Hi, Dustin. What's up? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. Well, how can I help?

Well, I've got a question for you. It's a little quick backstory on me. I'm a 35-years-old small business owner. I started my business when I was 20 years old. All of my 20s kind of lived on rice and beans because I had no choice. Grew the business, and about 30 years old, the major lifestyle creep really started setting in, um, started making some real money and just living way too high on the hog. Um, made money and spent even

more, uh, twice as much. I was the guy I'm like the poster guy for, for some of the dumb stuff you hear out there. So long story short, about a year ago, I kind of found you guys, uh, right about the same time I got married and me and my wife said, we're done with this. We're done with payments. And in the last year, we have paid off at about $350,000. Look at you. Way to go, dude. How can we help today?

Well, here's the thing. So we have our primary home and we also have our vacation home. Pretty good equity in both. And we think we can afford both. My question is, do you think it would be wise just to sell off the vacation home, almost pay off the primary mortgage? What do you owe on it? So on the vacation home, I owe about $500,000. What do you owe on your home? $400,000 on the primary worth about a million. What's your income nowadays? Household. About four.

Household, about $400,000. Okay. So you got $900,000, you paid off $350,000 in the last year. Correct. If you stayed at that rate, you'd be debt-free of both houses in three years. You're not going to stay at that rate, but you could do it in three to five years. And that was kind of our plan, just do everything. Our goal is five years. Yeah, I would do it. We'll pay it off and we're done i would do it and if if you hit a bump in the road sell the vacation home

in an instant don't hesitate i'll be done with it but as long as as long as you're as long as you're moving smooth in a three to a five-year plan i would hold it and do it pay off your home first and the vacation home second and then if anything if the business hits up you know if you have a pandemic problem or something you know and it just stops one day because the Fauci pandemic comes back or something, hopefully Fauci won't come back, but his pandemic might. But anyway, it's all of that. So yeah, pay off the vacation home second. And I think you're in good shape. You're doing good work. Proud of you. Hey, we're giving people permission to live here. I can't believe it. What a fun segment. Twice in a row. Wow.

Who says we're fuddy-duddies? Ah, just the duddy. This is The Ramsey Show. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We're so glad you are here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Krista in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Hi, Krista. How are you? Hey, Dave and George. I'm a little nervous but excited. I hope you all are doing well. Better than we deserve. Happy to help. How can we?

Okay, so my question is what to do if we have a loan that they won't let us make extra payments? So we've kind of come up with our own solution, but I just want to know. Who's your loan with? It's a 401k loan. Oh, none of them allow extra payments. Okay. That's a standard part of the regulation. So we, our solution, do you want me to jump into it no it's yeah

tell us what your solution is yeah okay so um the total on the loan was 18 000 we've got it down to about 16 900 my husband just got a bonus and then we got um an tax return. I know, shame, shame. But we went ahead and went through our bank and took out a personal loan to cover the difference to pay off the 401k loan. Then we can throw as much as we can on the extra payments towards the personal loan. So you took out debt to pay off the debt? So you've already done it.

So really, what's your question? debt? So you've already done it. So really, what's your question? I mean, you've already done it. Is that the proper way? You said you couldn't make extra payments. They can't. Well, we have enough to pay it in full. With the bonus and the tax return, we were just a little short. What's a little? Like right around $4,200. Okay. All right. And then you're just going to attack that and pay it off very, very rapidly, right? Yes.

It's not the end of the world. It's not what I would have done, but it's not the end of the world. Okay. So what we tell folks to do is just set up an account, a savings account. This is your last debt or the place you are in the debt snowball, and just pile up money until you've got 16.9 in there and then write them a check they will take a lump sum okay what's your discovery i told my husband that's that's what you would say yeah yeah i

was just nervous to have the money sitting there where we could get to it you know we're still um well that's a different issue we've got to build that habit separately because you're always going to have some money sitting there i got a lot of money sitting there none of it makes me nervous but i've been in control for 30 years after i was out of control so i don't know how long how long have y'all been in control uh since about december okay well that would be normal to be nervous then what'd you take all the years prior to december you were out of control and you got what three whole months of in control so that yeah that makes sense that you're nervous but the bank loan doesn't get rid of it i mean you still got the debt so

you know it's it was just illusion. But here's the thing. Just work on going forward like you are managing money well and then manage money well. Act like you've made these adjustments and they're permanent in your behaviors, okay? Yes. Yeah, you've done good. You've done great.

It makes me nervous thinking about it. Is this all of your debt? Do you have other debts? Thank you for that good. You've done great. It makes me nervous thinking about it. Is this all of your debt? Do you have other debts? Thank you for that. So we started in December. We actually took your class once in 2016, once in 2017. But yeah, it obviously took a few years to get back on it. Let me take it again.

We have $50,000. I am. We are right now. Okay. We are right now. Good. So excited about that but um yeah so we started off with 50 in December um 4,000 on a credit card 18,000 was the 401k loan and 28 on a car loan

well and we just made the last payment on the personal finance as you know from Financial Peace University is 80 behavior the reason you're nervous is you flunked the class twice. Right? Exactly. I mean, it's not being mean. You did not change your habits permanently, so now you're going back for a third time, and your pattern of not following through is rattling around in your brain,

and it should be that's that's wisdom so yeah that's okay but i i don't think that um but but what i want is i want your future to be better than that because we love you we want your future to be peace because you are in control your money is boring not stress indu, because it's doing everything it's told to do instead of you wondering where it went. You no longer dread you misbehaving, because it's been so long since you have misbehaved. And so I have the benefit of it being 30 years since I went bankrupt, 32 years since I went. No, it's longer than that now it's gosh but it's 36 oh my goodness yeah anyway so i've got a lot of years of behaving after my after my extreme misbehavior so i'm

real calm about it nowadays but back in those days nobody was happy with what dave was doing including dave or his wife or anybody else right so? So I get it. I understand. And now Sharon's always happy with Dave. Well, hypothetically. Let's not push it too far. And now that you broke down. Yeah. It's money-wise. Yeah.

There we go. But, yeah, it's a pretty simple thing. But you're building trust with others and yourself with your steady positive behaviors. And that matters a lot. It changes everything. Well, people think my identity is I'm bad with money. No, you've been bad with money. You've made mistakes.

But as long as you believe that, you're never going to change. You know, James Clear is going to be speaking at the Entree Leadership Summit this year. Oh, yeah. The famous Atomic Habits book. And I've known James a long time before. He was this massive author. That book has done so well. I'm so proud of him. But it is a habits book. And I've known James a long time before he was this massive author. That book has done so well. I'm so proud of him,

but it is a great book. And the whole concept there was not, I'm going to grip my teeth and change my habits. Basically the core thesis of part, at least part of it on atomic habits is I'm going to change my identity. Craig Rochelle. And I talked about that on his leadership podcast one day. We're talking about James and this idea of I'm going to start saying this is who I am, not that's who.

I'm horrible with money. I'm not good at math. I have no impulse control. You know, I'm bad at Amazon. I don't know. Whatever it is you say about yourself you know you just start first thing is you have to say not me i'm not that way i'm an intentional spender i'm someone who doesn't do life with payments i mean there was an identity there was a period of time

during the fauci pandemic that uh i ate every donut in a 50 mile radius and so um because i was stress-induced donut eating right and so uh yeah but I had to decide I'm a guy that doesn't eat too much. I'm a guy that doesn't overeat and is not going to be grossly obese. I had to decide that because I became grossly obese. It was crazy. So because I ate every donut. So I haven't had a donut. I don't eat donuts.

That's who you are. Don't tempt him with a donut. And I get up on Saturday mornings when I'm at home, and I take a half dozen donuts to each grandkid's house, and I don't even eat one. That's how good I am. I actually tried to tempt you the other day with a donut. I don't eat donuts.

And you said it was a get-behind-me-sick moment. I might do something else that's evil and bad, but it won't be a donut. So you just self-identify, right? That's all I'm saying. And over time. I'm capable of doing stupid stuff, too. You are. Everybody is.

But you start going, I'm just, I'm i'm like i'm there and the one i love is where you go it's like a besetting sin from your family our family has always been it's like like a recessive trait what's going on stop it i mean there's you know don't marry your cousin stop it you know this can stop now you don't have to replicate these stupid decisions you can change the gene pool or the one people people that grew up in my neighborhood well somebody got out something in the water you know and it's like people that are my race people that are that there are immigrants people that aren't immigrants people that are bald people that have great hair.

I mean, whatever it is, everybody's got, like, that's your excuse. You don't understand. I've got a bunch of kids. Well, so what? People, a bunch of kids get rich all the time because some of them have to to feed them all. And so, you know what I mean? It's like, don't tell me.

Everybody's got, like, some reason. Don't self-identify with failure. That's the point. And that's not some muckety muck positive thinking deal although it is but it is it's the reality of people who are wealthy it's why you become who you hang around with too by the way because you're self-identifying with those people our millionaire study we found a millionaire study 97 percent of them believe they control their financial destiny and 69 69% of the public does.

Belief. Ta-da. There it is. There's a correlation there, and it has causation. For those of you into research, this is The Ramsey Show. George Campbell Ramsey Personality is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Brian and Joanna are with us. Hey guys, how are you? Great, Dave. Great, Dave. Good to have you guys. Where do you live? Toronto, Ohio. Oh, fun. Welcome to Nashville. And how much debt have you guys paid off? $215,000. Wow. How long did that take? 61 months total, but we did 120 in the past 10 months.

Woo, getting it. Okay. All right. Big time. And your range of income during that 61 months? Started at $150,000 up to $240,000. Cool. What do you guys do for a living?

I'm a family physician and Joanna's home with the kids. Awesome. Very cool. So your practice took off? I went from the Navy to private practice. Oh, that'll do it. Okay. All right. Good. Good for you guys. what kind of debt was the 215 it was our mortgage paid off your house looking at weird people i love it way to go you guys awesome what's this house worth about 380

000 i love it oh it's out in the country yeah you got some acreage with it i saw it just pop up on youtube we have a farm yeah yeah how many acres about five oh very nice it's a good place for kids exactly excellent excellent very cool so is toronto a rural area i don't know that city it is it's about 40 minutes west of pittsburgh oh okay yeah okay i know the area very cool good for you guys okay so what made you decide we're paying off the house and everything well our story starts about 17 years ago when we were engaged we took financial peace i dragged brian there kicking and screaming um a newly graduated md actually we're in college we're seniors in college we met met at Franciscan University and we were not on the same page about money. And so I convinced him if I paid for it, would he go with me? And so we went and after the first class he was sold. And that's when we really put this as our goal. Someday we want to have a paid off house. We want acreage and we want a large family. And it's kind of surreal that we're here now. What happened though was

during COVID, I almost lost my job because of the vaccine mandate. And so it really put a fire on us to make sure that we were completely debt free, including the mortgage, so that no matter what happened, we'd be safe. Okay. So they were mandating you get one and you didn't? Correct. Okay. And so you're in private practice now where you control that no i work i mean i work for a hospital system out there but so they're mandating it through the government so i had to fight that back oh i got it okay all right wow that got you that got you a fire lit that fire in that last what was it 10 months you went crazy huh yeah we actually had built up a bunch of cash reserves

in case Brian had to open up his own practice suddenly. And so when we came through that time, we said, okay, let's get really busy about this house so we're not worried if something happens again. And so we decided to take that big chunk of change we had been saving aggressively in case he needed to leave his job quickly and we put on the house and we drained everything except retirement and

our emergency fund and threw it out the house in these last 10 months and then we've just been scraping everything we can brian's been teaching butchering workshops we raise all our own meat now to on our farm and butcher it on our farm you know i wish you had said that first um we have six kids a doctor giving butchering cons i'm just it's bothering me it's the farm not the practice i got it i got it he knows anatomy really well i bet i bet oh man so that that's cool well because uh homesteading and raising your own stuff is huge it's a big movement and so people lining up to take that class i bet and to learn how to do what you guys are doing because the freedom of it and the

independence of it yes um where you're not dependent on someone who's mandating something on you that you don't want to do. And you're the guy with the medical degree. We'll figure that out. Isn't that interesting? We're not going there. We're just going to celebrate with you that your farm is paid for and is worth $380,000. How much have you got in retirement?

About another $350,000. Okay. So you're approaching millionaire already. Well done. And you brought the kiddos with you. How many of them are there? We have six. Six. Wow. They're all with. Well done. And you brought the kiddos with you. How many of them are there? We have six. Six.

Wow. They're all with you. Yes. And what are the age range? We have 15 down to one. All right. Very cool. That's a party.

Very cool. That's a party. Some farm workers right there. That's right. Well, and shock of shocks, they're well behaved. Okay. And when there's two, they're climbing the walls, right? But they just line up like the picture.

Amazing. It's just like perfect. All right. N right? But they just line up like the picture. It's amazing. It's just like perfect. All right, names and ages. Let me hear who they are. So Joseph is 15. We have Killian who's 12. Fulton is 10. Cormac is 7.

Rosie is 3. Jamie is 1. Way to go, Jamie. I figure you must lose track of 1. That's impressive. That's good. Wow. So how does it feel to not have any payments?

It's kind of surreal. This is our first family vacation, Dave, that isn't just to visit family. So we're going down to Texas, and we're a little crazy. Go for it. Be a little crazy. You earned it. You're almost millionaires. You're a doc.

You make good money. You got freedom now. I'm so proud of y'all. Thank you. It is amazing. And as you said, it's freeing to where now I look up. I do what I want to do because I want to serve people. And I want to be there because I want to be there, not because I have to be there.

Yeah, and I'm not going to be forced into something to pay a bill. Right. Yeah, that I don't want to do to my body. Way to go. Good for y'all. So proud of y'all. Excellent, excellent work. Very, very cool. What advice go. Good for y'all. So proud of y'all. Excellent, excellent work. Very, very cool. What advice do you have for somebody

that wants to get out of debt? For us, it was contentment, knowing our why, and the budget. We've been doing the budgeting since we were printing them off every month. We have our first paper budget we ever did i love it and um so yeah i would say having that monthly budget meeting is key yeah but no matter what uh

income we have just learning contentment yeah good job you guys way to go proud of you all right it's brian and joanna and the powerful six way to way to go Count it down. A $215,000 paid off in 61 months, with most of that in the last 10 months, making $150,000 to $240,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Yeah!

Wow. Wow. That was the most behaved debt-free scream I've seen with six children in it that's impressive ever that's excellent very very huge what a great family and what a great story that's so exciting and uh sometimes we hear people say you can't do this ramsey stuff if you have a big family so i rest my case somehow they did it somehow they figured it out they're like we'll raise our own cattle if we have to feed these kids yeah apparently or and i will that's one strategy yeah that's good it's good stuff i mean it's possible and it's probable when you make the decision to do the right thing and um you know there's some trade-offs but the powerful trade-off is now he's in a position to uh not feel the stress or the pressure if something else comes

along in the medical community that's not ethical for him yeah and then he's not he's not forced into something he doesn't have to be a because so many people were did stuff because their income was dependent upon it not because they believed it a lot of them and so so it was wild. And so that's a lesson that we can learn from that time is that freedom, one of the things that financial freedom gives you is it gives you choices. With your career, with where you live, with how you live? Who I want to work for. I don't have to put up with this crap anymore. If they start yelling at you, just start walking off.

Where are you going? I don't have any payments. You know, it just changes everything, right? It's a, why would I work here? Why would I work for somebody like you? I don't have any payments. That is impressive. Nobody's going to put up with that.

And they are such the anomaly because most docs out there, they just raise their lifestyle as they make more money and they continue to live on less than they made and go, what if we could send all of that money to the mortgage so that we don't have a payment in a few years? Yeah, and there's so much, and a lot of life happened during, you know, from that first financial peace class 17 years ago to now. Six kids, that's one part of the life. That's a lot of life. Man, that is impressive on its own. No pun intended, but they're heroes.

They're absolute heroes. They took control of their lives. And that's what you guys can do out there. And that's why we have debt-free screams on here. And they gave us the secret, the big mortgage hack, Dave. Apply extra to the principal. Ooh, look at that. That's like smoking marriage.

And if you've got a big pile of money, throw it at the principal. You need a TikTok channel. It would be too short of a TikTok. How do you pay off debt? Pay more on it. Pay it off. That's too simple, Dave. It needs to too short of a TikTok. How do you pay off debt? Pay more on it. Pay it off. That's too simple, Dave. It needs to be more sophisticated.

I got to chill. They did it. This is The Ramsey Show. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, is my co-host. Thanks for joining us. Avi is with us in Philadelphia. Is it Avi? Is that correct? Yes, that's correct.

Cool. How can we help? How are you doing, guys? Better than we deserve. Great. Love it. So I've been working for a service business for about, give or take, six years back in 2010. Um, I opened my own in about 2016. Um, you know, trying to expand my income, um, transitioned from a service company to a construction company. And in the meantime, got married, built a family. Uh, my question is as follows. I have now just started calculating my budget and I figured out that I either need to address my personal income and expenses or change the business

kind of model to be able to match my personal income. Essentially, I'm paying myself from the business, but... Not enough. They're not matching up. Yeah. Yeah. So how much do you pay yourself from the business? Well, I don't. That's the biggest problem.

I've been mixing personal and business expenses since I started. I didn't know anything about business. I just knew what I was providing, the service. Now, I'm looking now to separate the two. And how much do I pay myself? Do I pay myself what my personal budget is needing? Or do I pay myself what my business can handle? It doesn't matter.

You're going to be taxed on your profits on the business regardless. And you have been all along. Are you current on your taxes? No. How far behind are you on taxes? About two years out there. Okay. You need to take care of that. I do quarterly, but not yearly. Well, if you don't file, not filing federal income tax returns is a criminal offense. They put 2,711 people in jail last year for that. So not filing is not okay.

Not paying is a different issue. That's not criminal. They'll just drive you into the dirt. But not paying is not criminal. So you need to get that part of your life cleaned up immediately, and we'll go ahead and answer your question as a part of this, but jump online at Ramsey solutions.com and talk with one of our taxi LPs, and they can help you get current and set yourself on a system to stay current. Now, this will also help you do your taxes and your quarterlies on time and accurately. And that is simply this. You need to open a separate checking account for your business

from your personal i assume you have a checking account is it in the business name or your personal name no i have everything separated i just you just don't have it separated okay so now that the business account is open 100 of the income that goes into the business account is only business the only thing that comes out of the business account is business never again pay anything personal out of that account the rest of your life ever oh yeah i spent the past three months separating those that's that i started with your uh well you told us you weren't separated, so I'm telling you to separate it. Yeah, okay. All right, so now you're separated, and 100% of the time, this is a business expense,

you use the correct debit card, the correct checking account. 100% of the time, it's a personal expense. You use your personal account. Now, what does it take if you've laid out a budget for your – you don't know what it takes to operate your household, right? I do. You told me that. Okay. So what profits do you think you've made in a given year?

What do you think the business makes profit that you're going to end up paying income tax on? I believe I'm operating at a loss right now. Then how is your family eating? Because, well, I'm accruing debt. That's my problem. So you're borrowing money to eat and stay open? Not really. I mean, yeah, if you put it that way. I've been paying... Are you living off of credit cards? Exactly. So now we stopped in December of 23. How much credit card debt do you have? Personal, about 50K.

Okay. What other debt do you have? Personal or business? They're all personal. It's all in your name. You signed all of it. So business, I have about 80. On top of the credit cards.

And I assume then you have the IRS taxes. Do you know how much that is? No. It doesn't follow the tax report. I pay quarterly, so I have not filed a card. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, we're not sure. So that's going to go to the top of your debt payoff list. But you shouldn't have any taxes if you're not profitable. So why are you paying quarterly? Based off sales.

I've been doing it myself. I'm not really sure. Okay. Dude, you're a hot mess. Okay. So there's so many things going on here. The first thing we have to do with the business side is we have to figure out if the business is really profitable or not. If you are running a business at a loss, it is not a business.

It is a hobby. Close it and go get a dead gum job. If you're really losing $50,000 a year, why keep doing it? That's dumber than crud. So you have to get this business where it brings in more than it spends, and it actually makes a profit to feed your family. Whatever the profits are is the most you can take home. You cannot run a company and fund it with debt. It won't work.

It's not sustainable. There's obviously an end to that. You'll hit the wall like you're a NASCAR, okay, and it'll be engine up in the stands, disintegrated vehicle. That's what's going to happen. So you've got to stop this. You need to be in panic mode on your taxes and on your accounting because both of them suck beyond belief here.

So once you get the business under control and you can tell if it's making money and decide whether to leave it open, then you can say what I've got to have come home. Now, you can build a household budget based on household expenses. Get the EveryDollar app and download it, and you can look at it and say, all right, I need this much in my food, this much in my electricity, this much to keep the cars running, this much to pay the credit card debt, this much to monthly, this much to buy diapers or whatever it is. I don't care. You just make a list of your monthly expenses and total them up. And that's going to give you an idea of what it takes to operate your household. It won't be completely accurate because your stuff is so chaotic that you're not

going to be able to tell. But at least get started there and at least go over on the business side and let's start running the business with a monthly profit and loss. So when you contact our tax ELP to get your taxes caught up and filed, also sit down with them and ask them if they help with small business bookkeeping. Most of them do. And they can help you set up a small business bookkeeping system and get you started on running this business and telling yourself if it's a profit or not. It could just be as simple as you need to get organized and raise your prices a little bit and actually collect from your customers on time. Because I don't think you're only $50,000 in credit card debt if you've been running

this business all this time at no profit. So something's wrong with that story. You've been making a profit somewhere. I just can't tell how much and you can't either. It's been eight years of this. Listen, what you're doing, it's freaking amazing that you've survived as long as you have. What you're doing is not sustainable. It's stress inducing. I mean, you're going to be living panic attack to panic attack. Your spouse is too. You just can't, that much chaos in your finances will ruin your life and it'll keep you from all your hard work from causing prosperity because you're working your butt off. It sounds like, but you can't tell if you're doing anything. You're just like a rat in a wheel. Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, have a heart attack and die of

anxiety. Don't do that. Okay? Get out of the wheel. Sit down. Let's lay out a game plan. Execute, execute, execute. And the numbers will talk to you and tell you where you're out of line. But I don't know if your business is out of line or not, where it's out of line or not. I know it's out of line. I know one place is it doesn't have an accounting system.

The second thing is then you get your home in place. Now, if the business is making $80,000 a year, you're getting taxed on $80,000 a year, you can bring home $80,000 a year and the business will run just fine. If the business is making $72,500, you can bring home $72,500. If you leave a little bit in there, in addition to that, you're going to pay taxes on it anyway, but you leave some in there to reinvest and grow the business, that's okay too. But you can set that up once you actually know what the numbers are. Got another basics. And there's a great free guide that our Entrez leadership team put together.

This is Dave's playbook for how to build a business. It's called Entrez Leader's Guide to Business Finances. So I encourage you, Avi, and anyone else listening to go check this out. It's completely free at entreleadership.com slash finances. And this is the playbook that Dave's talking about. Here's how to set it all up. Here's how to run a business debt-free so that you have prosperity and peace. Scripture says, be diligent to know the state of your flocks and herds. Obviously, Solomon wrote that proverb in an agrarian culture where flocks and herds were representative of wealth. So if you don't keep up with the lambs and you don't

watch for the wolves, you go down. That's what this is. This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you.