The Ramsey Show - App - You Don't Need To Be Ashamed of Your Success! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 3, 2021

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. My name is Anthony O'Neill, host of the popular YouTube and podcast show, The Table, withony o'neill and co-hosting with me today is number one national best-selling author of business boutique has some amazing things going on a host of the christy wright show um and killing the game especially around ladies and uh starting a business like christy what's up hey this is gonna be fun you and i get feisty i'm pretty excited about this oh this is gonna be so good so this is going to be fun. You and I get feisty. I'm pretty excited about this today. Oh, this is going to be so good.

This is like, we haven't done this this year, have we? No, no. Y'all get ready. Fasten your seatbelts. Two people who love each other who also love to talk. We have two speeds, a sleep or 100 miles an hour. There's no in-between. There is no in-between with us.

We're going to talk real fast. We're going to get straight to the question. And we're going to be very honest. And so if you have a question about your life about your money if you want to start a business um there's this is a woman appreciation month or woman acknowledgement month or something like that um and so we have a woman uh who really loves helping ladies accomplish their goals their dreams starting businesses and so i want you to give us a call. Christy Wright is the, I say she's the queen, really she's the king, but she's a woman.

So she's the queen in this space. And so give us a call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Now you can find us both on social media. If you want to send us a question at Anthony O'Neill for myself and at Christy, is it right? Yeah. Christy B. Wright. Yeah, I thought so.

Christy B. Wright. Send us your questions and we would love to have a conversation with you. Let's get straight to the phone. Let's do it. I love it. So let's go out to my home state, North Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina. Good afternoon, Rory. How can Christy and I help him?

Hey, guys. How are you guys doing? Doing all right. Hey, so I had a quick question uh i'm currently 18 years old i just moved out of my parents house on monday okay uh i'm i'm in school part-time at a community college and i was just offered an internship with amazon it's going to be 15 months. It'll be paid. I'm cash flowing college. I'm paying for everything. I was just wondering

where I should get started with the baby steps. Oh, man. Roy, this is good. Now, what community college are you going to there in Raleigh? It's Wake Tech. Wake Technical Community College. Absolutely. I know all about Wake Tech, man. I was going to go to Fayetteville Tech in Fayetteville, North Carolina about an hour and a half away from there, so I know exactly where you're going. How much all about Wake Tech, man. I was going to go to Fayetteville Tech in Fayetteville, North Carolina

about an hour and a half away from there, so I know exactly where you're going. How much is Amazon paying you, man, for these next 18 months? It's going to be $20 an hour, $40 a week. Boy, you're making some money, brother. That's what I'm talking about. Okay, any

debt do you have right now? Do you have any credit cards? No, sir. I'm completely debt. Okay, any debt do you have right now? Do you have any credit cards? No, sir. I'm completely debt free. It's a robotic internship. They just built a warehouse here and I'm studying mechatronics. So I was lucky to have a program. Yeah, that's awesome.

I love it. I love it. Well, you know, Chrissy, I think the very first thing Rory should do is really just skip over Baby Step 2 and really just start saving your three to six months.

Roy, you're a young man. You just moved out on your own. And so what I want you to do is I want you to sit down and get on every dollar budget. OK, Roy, what you're going to do is you're going to list all of your income, which is going to be your Amazon check. If you're driving for Uber Eats, if you're doing anything extra, I want you to list all your income and I want you to list all your expenses. So this is going to be, you know, your rent. This is going to be, you know, if you have an iPhone or Android phone, any apps you're paying for. You're a young man, so I'm pretty sure you're single. So if you out dating, you need to have a line item for dating.

OK, so you got to get creative, list all your expenses. I know why you're young people out here laughing at me. I know that's real. I see y'all laughing at me. But, you know, you got to put everything on there all your expenses. I don't know why y'all young people out here laughing at me. I know that's real. I see y'all laughing at me. But, you know, you got to put everything on there so you can have control over your money. That's the key thing that I really want you to understand, Rory. You're going to start with baby step number three. And baby step number three is going to be three to six months of your living expenses.

Okay. And you're going to do that by getting on every dollar budget. And that's the first place where I would say start. But the key thing is, man, once you get at three to six months, Roy, if you can do that by the end of this year and start investing next year, you'll be 19. If you can start investing 15% of your income, Roy, but before you turn 50, you're going to be a multimillionaire just by doing the bare basics. Man, I love it. I mean. Here's the cool thing, Rory.

The fact that you're asking this question at 18, you're going to be okay. Like most 18-year-olds are not asking this question, not calling the Ramsey Show, and not cash flowing their college. You are doing awesome. You're asking the right questions. You're already set up for success. The one caution I would give you, if you take this internship, which sounds like an awesome opportunity, you're about to have

some money. And when you got some money, you know what it does? It wants to burn a hole in your pocket because you're like, oh, I'm living good. I got all this money. It feels like so much. And just like Anthony's telling you, don't lose focus of your goals and your plan just because you got a little cash in your pocket. It'll be very tempting to overspend that so just be aware of that stick to your plan and you're gonna be just fine that's awesome man i love hearing those calls what's so cool yeah i was not asking that question at 18 18 that's why i made some mistakes i made some mistakes listen here listen here man i was like do i get another t-shirt for that credit card where do i sign sign me right on yeah i had to pay for my mistakes in my 20s i'm thinking about t-shirts free pizza the ladies it's free money y'all no it's not no it's not no it's really not man so

roy man take my hats off to you thank you so much for calling in you are a true example of what most 18 year olds, what most young people need to be doing is thinking about their future. And so thank you for asking that question and make sure to check out with me, um, over on my show, man, I'm really gearing my show towards that younger audience. So come over there to the table with your boy, Anthony O'Neill, YouTube podcast, and I'm gonna show you how to keep the bag, um, and really build some more wealth, man. I love it. Let's keep the conversation going. 888-825-5225. Ramsey Personalities, Anthony O'Neill,

and Christy Ryder in the building today. We're looking forward to having a good show with you. We're going to go out to Richmond, Virginia and have a conversation with Matthew. Good afternoon, Matthew. Real quickly, what's your question? Hi there. Thanks for taking my call.

Yeah, talk to me now. So the question is, my wife and I have saved up a bit of money over the last few years. We now have enough for our first house. The problem is we don't know if we should actually buy our first house, buy an investment property, or hold off until we figure out where we go next with our family. Okay, cool. Just moved out of New York City. The plan is to go to the West Coast, closer to family, but, you know, with all the markets and everything going on,

we don't know what the next move is, and, yeah, maybe you can help us out a little bit. Yeah, so do you plan on moving within the next three years? Within the next three months. Oh, yeah. So then we're not buying nothing. Yeah. Yeah. So, so here's the thing. Um, I don't want you to buy anything until, you know, you're going to be in this city for at least three to five years. Bare minimum is three. The ideal situation is five. Um, but if you're moving within the next three months, no, don't, don't buy anything. Uh, because you don't want next three months, no, don't buy anything because you don't want to be a long distance landlord because you won't be able to watch it and really

take care of it. And then for me personally, I'm going to buy a house actually and live in a house before I go out and get some rental property. So put your family into a good home, then start talking about how to generate some more income. That's good. I like it. That's good. Good one. Yo, it's Chrissy Wright and Anthony O'Neal right here on The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Hey guys, Rachel Cruz here. Ever feel like you'll never save money or pay off all your debt?

We know 2020 didn't help, but it's a new year and you can hit reset with your money. It's time to focus and get debt out of your life so you can have more money to save and spend worry-free. We're here to help. Ramsey Plus is our step-by-step plan that gets you quick wins so you can make faster progress on your debts. And that debt is gone for good. You get more money back in your pockets. The best part is you can try Ramsey Plus for free. And once you become a member, you'll get a free federal e-file with Ramsey Smart Tax and the audio book of my brand new bestseller, Know Yourself, Know Your Money. You'll have everything you need to finally get your money under control. To become a member of Ramsey Plus, go to DaveRamsey.com slash Ramsey Plus.

That's DaveRamsey.com slash Ramsey Plus. Or call our Ramsey concierge team at 888-22-PEACE. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show i'm christy right author of business boutique co-hosting with fellow ramsey personality anthony o'neill and anthony i'm so excited because we get to have a conversation with someone that i absolutely love jamie kern lima is the founder of it cosmetics who recently sold to l'Oreal for a billion dollars. So just a small accomplishment in her life. And she has a new book called Believe It! How to Go from Underestimated to Unstoppable. Jamie, how are you? Christy, I'm so good. Thank you so much for having me here.

How fun is this that I get to talk to you on the Ramsey show with Anthony. We were just talking about you off air and how amazing you are. Jamie, I know so much of your story. I had the honor of having you speak at Business Boutique last year. I've had you on the Christy Wright show. But for anyone listening that isn't familiar with you, would you just tell us a little bit about your story and your new book, Believe It. Yeah, you know, I'm probably most well known for going from Jenny's waitress to creating a dream in my living room and going after it and building that to IT Cosmetics, which is now one of the largest luxury makeup companies in the country, and then selling it to L'Oreal. But the reason I wrote Believe It, Christy, is, you know, every single day I hear

from so many people saying, oh, congrats on, you know, your fairy tale, but I'm struggling or I'm getting rejected or my dream's not getting off the ground. And I realize if we don't ever share like the real stories behind the stories, then everyone feels alone in their own setbacks and gets tempted to give up and everything else. So Believe It is really a book about overcoming self-doubt, what to do when you're not getting the kind of traction or success that you're hoping for. When people look you in the eye and tell you you're not enough, what do you do in those situations? And my real story is, you know, three years of having

everyone say no with IT Cosmetics and eventually turning those no's into yes's. But it was a really long road, really filled with a lot of self-doubt. And it's really, it's really how do you go from not believing in yourself to believing in yourself? And I think it's not just my story. It's a story of so many people out there right now, especially coming out of a hard season, right, of 14 months. And a lot of people have been dimming their own light. And this is a book that hopefully will help everyone ignite their light again and learn to believe in themselves

and the possibility of their own dream. I love that. And I love your story because one of the things that's really cool about this book, Anthony, is she has so many stories that you would never know if she didn't tell it. And Jamie, you shared some of these stories on stage at Business Boutique, but I think that people would easily look at someone like you and think,

well, she's an overnight success. She just magically appeared on the mountaintop. She's so lucky. All these extra things. And you tell story after story after story in this book of how you were looked in the face and told no how you had to overcome adversity overcome setbacks from stories at qvc to trade shows where you're literally stalking people down the aisles trying to get to the right person to tell your story but you have this even through all these stories and setbacks you have a tenacity you have a won't take no for an answer attitude. And I think that that is something so special about you. Would you tell us, like, where does that come from?

And how can people that don't have that naturally, how can they do that too? That may not come as naturally to be such a go-getter like that. Yeah, I think, you know, everyone listening to the three of us right now, I feel like all of us know inside of God's like place, a dream on our heart, or maybe there's something in us that, you know, we, we, we have that inkling where we know we need to create or, or, or, or launch the business, or maybe we're in the wrong job or the wrong relationship. We all kind of have those feelings. And, you know, I did a lot of things wrong that I talk about in the book, but, but the biggest theme through the whole book, really, and the things that I did right was when I had that feeling, that knowing, that internal knowing, I made a decision to trust it. And I think that so many people know if they're kind of made for more or, you know, have more to give or create or they need start painting again, or whatever it might be, but they still doubt themselves anyways. And this book is really about how do

you break through that barrier of self-doubt and step into really the person you're born to be, you know, and yeah, it was super, super hardworking and super ambitious. But I think really, this is what I believe, I believe. And that's why I love that you guys share so many people's stories and so many people that have had success stories through everything that you've done it with the Ramsey companies. Because when we see other people's stories and we learn how they got through it, that's when we like pull those stories in and we can lean on them ourselves. So yeah, my book is really about, of course, working hard and not giving up and those kind of things. But really, it's about how do you learn how to believe

in yourself and trust yourself, like hear your own knowing and make the decision to trust it. Because I think that's the ultimate success for all of us in our lives. So Jamie, let me ask you this question. This is Anthony. Good to meet you. I've seen you on the stage and I'm like, man, she's amazing. And I have a question. We have a lot of people who sometimes do not believe in themselves. They doubt their own selves. They're scared to experience some type of failure to go to the next level. What was one thing that you had to get over?

And what could you say to inspire someone to say you know what hey start believing in yourselves start pushing yourself forward what would you say to that individual listening right now yeah the first thing I'll say is like I've now Anthony had the blessing of meeting so many inspiring people that I never could have imagined meeting the first thing I've learned is they all still struggle with self-doubt. So the first thing I'd say is you're not alone. Anyone listening right now feels like, oh, I just don't believe in myself. You're not alone. And I think that's really important to know.

But also one tool I would say is really starting to take inventory of who you let speak into your life about your own dream. A lot of us, and I talk in my book, Believe It, about how to do this in terms of like, if you imagine you have your own microphone, we all have our own microphone. And sometimes we hand our microphone over to somebody who after we share our hopes or our dreams or our situation with, we end up like, you know, self-doubt gets bigger, right? And sometimes it's our partner. Sometimes it's our family, our friends, people who love us. But when we share our dreams or our hopes with them,

they kind of see them through the lens of their own fear or their own self-doubt. And so one thing I talk about in this journey of building belief is learning how to like, take your microphone back from some people in your life. You can love them, but talk to them about, you know, what's going on with the weather and how it's for dinner. But, you know, really curating the people around you, the people listening to your radio show right now, that's a way for people to speak into people about things that they want to do, whether it's get out of debt or go after their dream, right? Curating who you hand your microphone to, who you take it back from, super important.

A lot of times we, you know, let everyone else's opinion get so loud that we, and our own self-doubt builds that we don't even hear our own truth anymore. So that's one of many things to do on the journey. But I had to learn how to do because Anthony, I was told no so many times. I was told no one will buy makeup

from someone who looks like you with your body and your weight is what one investor said when they passed on investing. I was told, you know, I mean, on and on and on. And I had to learn to turn down the volume on that before it took root in me and like turn up the volume on my own knowing

and people that spoke positivity into my life. Wow. I love that because it's so practical and something anybody can do. Now, Jamie, before we go, I want to ask you one more question because we talked about this on stage at Business Boutique. You've shared this story on the Christy Wright Show, and I know Anthony is going to love it.

So you are the epitome of success, and you have a story about how you were on the Christy Wright Show, and I know Anthony is going to love it. So you are the epitome of success, and you have a story about how you were on the Forbes richest self-made women list, and you didn't want to be on it. And after three years of them putting you on it anyway, you learned something. Would you just real quick before we go, tell us something you learned about that experience, because I think it is such a great lesson for men and women as we want to chase our version of success. Yeah, you know, I did not when I got that first phone call. Because listen, I've been a Denny's waitress.

I have been so scrappy and worked so hard my whole life. And when we eventually sold our company to L'Oreal, they announced the purchase price. It was all over the Wall Street Journal, everywhere. So all of a sudden, I find myself on the Forbes list. And the name of the list is Forbes' Richest Self-Made Women. And I was mortified. I was embarrassed by it. I didn't want it to be shared.

And this went on for three years until I had this huge epiphany where I was like, wait a minute. Oh, my gosh. Jamie, I am so grateful for your story. Thank you for sharing with us. Thank you for being a light. I love how you are just inspiring people to believe in themselves. This is The Ramsey Show. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225.

This is The Ramsey Show. And Ramsey personalities, Chrissy Wright and myself, Anthony O'Neill, are with you during this hour. And on the last segment, man, we have the opportunity, Chrissy, to interview one of your friends, Jamie, who is clearly a success story. Oh, my gosh. I'm like, wow, I kind of want to get her on my show. I need to talk to her some more. She's amazing. And what's so cool about her story from starting this makeup company in her living room to now having a billion-dollar company that was sold to L'Oreal, she just has this humble spirit. And she really wants people to believe in themselves.

One of the things she didn't mention when we talked is she's donating all the proceeds from the book. She donated her time to be at Business Boutique. She's just such a generous, giving person. I could have talked to her all day. But I wanted you guys to know you can get her book believe it at jamie kern lima.com or believe it.com and i know she has an action plan and that kind of thing i did want to tell you anthony one story that we didn't get to wrap up because you'll find this fascinating so when jamie was uh called to be interviewed to be on the forbes richest women list she didn't want to be on it they were

like we're gonna we're gonna publish how much you make, and we're going to publish. And she's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want to be on it. This makes me feel uncomfortable. They said, well, the records are public. We're going to put you on it, like it or not. And they did. So they published about her. Year number two, same thing. Published her. She's like, oh, I feel so weird. People know how much my business is worth, how much I'm worth, all this stuff. Year two, they put her on there without her having a quote. Year three, I think it was. Year three or four, they call her again to get a quote.

And so by year three or four, she's like, all right, I think I'll give a quote. Like, I think I'll actually, like, maybe this could be a light for people to help them see if I can do it, you know, they can do it too. And so she decided to. Well, she's talking to the interviewer, the journalist, and she said, I'm sorry, it just makes me really uncomfortable. And the journalist said, all the women do it and she said what she said all the women don't want to be on the list she said what's funny is all the women don't want

to be on the list and they feel very uncomfortable with how much they make and that anybody's going to know it but every single man argues that they should be higher on the list there's some new records about why they should be jockeying for a higher position i was like man women can learn something from this you don't need to be ashamed of your success your success can be a light for other people to go behind you so that's the story i was trying to get to and we ran out of time but she's amazing you can get the book believe it and the action plan at believeit.com it's just incredible uh how inspirational her story is What a light she is. And I like how you just came for the brothers on that one. Isn't that crazy though?

You just called that out. No. Ladies want to be humble. Guys, we want to be boastful. Guys, sit down. No. Women need to stand up. We both got something to learn.

We both got something to learn from that. Don't be ashamed of what God's doing in your life. Absolutely. You don't need to apologize for that. I agree. So I thought that was cool. And that's a good one. And for the guys, whatever God is doing for your life, don't exaggerate life. Absolutely. You don't need to apologize for that. I agree. So I thought that was cool. And that's a good one. And for the guys, whatever God is doing for your life, don't exaggerate it.

Yeah. Well, you know, one of the things I see women, and this is true with Business Boutique, but anything, this is our posture. It's like, oh, this little thing. Oh, just this little, I just got this little side business. Oh, it's nothing. And I'm like, you're diminishing not only your own sense of self confidence, but you're downplaying the kindness and truth in someone's compliments. You're apologizing for God's gifts in your life. Like this is not humility. This is just not true.

And so I think there's the confidence and humility are not mutually exclusive. You can be confidently humble and humbly confident and you can hold your life with open hands. So anyway, I just love her example because she is gracious and humble and insanely successful and yes you can be both and honestly all jokes aside we need to hear messages like hers that's right you know to go from there to now a billionaire a wealthy woman um i mean we need that yeah and keep your character intact along the way it's she's so impressive absolutely absolutely, let's get back to the phones, Christy. 888-825-5225. We're having a conversation

about your life, your money. You want to start a business. The lady is in the building. If you are a woman and you need encouragement in whatever area of your life, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, hey, Christy Wright

is in the building. And for all y'all young people, you want to get this bag or you want to make some money for the older people, older generation, give us a call. 888-825-5225. And let's go out to New York and have a conversation with Matt. Matt, good afternoon. How can Chrissy and I help? Good afternoon. Pleasure to talk to

you guys. So I'm about to graduate from college. I have a job secured at the $70,000 salary. And I'm going to graduate with a $30,000 in debt. So I already have $8,000 saved up, and I want to attack this debt, but the issue is I have my car that I currently use that I'm going to have to use for my job. It's kind of 20 years old, and I suspect it's about to die in the next year or so.

So how do I balance between making sure I have enough cash on hand to get a new car or a new used car and attacking a debt? All right, so you have $8,000 in the savings, right? Right. Okay, cool. And you're saying you think the car is going to die in a year, right? Yeah, there's nothing specifically wrong with it, but there's things that have been going wrong with it recently. Yeah, yeah, I get you.

I'm just concerned about its longevity. Yeah, I get you. You ain't concerned about the car because I think you're concerned because you got the money and you want to go buy a newer car. If nothing is going wrong with the car right now, this is what I want you to do. I want you to take $7,000 of that and I want you to put it towards your $30,000 of debt right now, your student loans. Then what I want you to do,

if you start seeing issues with your car, okay, and it starts to have some issues, I mean, some serious issues too, Matt. I'm not talking about, you know, you think you heard something, so now you need a car. Like, no, it's not working broke it's not drivable then i have no problem paying off this thirty thousand dollars but how old are you right now matt uh i'm 21 yeah yeah yeah matt so i want you to knock out this debt this year okay if you can be really get gazelle focus get intense get a purpose get driven um you can pay off the debt this year you're making seventy thousand dollars on there how do you do something on the side to generate another twenty thousand dollars this year so if you can pay off your debt this year then next year you can focus on saving up cash

go buy you a real nice quality used car so what i'm going to say for you right now is don't worry about purchasing a new car right now because you said nothing's wrong with the car right now. Great. I will take it to the shop, maybe get it tuned up a little bit. You can take some of your $8,000 to do that. I get a good fresh, get a good oil change, maybe get some good new tires on there.

Then from there, put the rest onto your debt and just attack the debt. Then next year, let's go ahead and start the process of saving. Yeah, my advice is so similar to a call we had a little bit earlier Anthony that I would say you're about to get this job where you're making $75,000 a year you need to pretend like you're not you need to pretend like you're making $25,000 a year and because if not it's going to be oh my gosh this new big

exciting amount of money oh I can live a little more comfortably I can slow down on my debt snowball or my student loans or like Anthony said need need this car. And there is some, you do need a car at some point. And so that's why you need to stay serious, live on way less than you make, have that margin to take all that extra towards your student loan, towards the car whenever you need it. And then after that, you can get a little bit more comfortable after you get your savings up and all that kind of stuff. But I just don't want you to take your foot off the gas because you've got a lot more money than you're used to having, which will be easy to do.

So keep that intensity even though you're making more money now. Absolutely, Matt. And listen, man, you're doing things right. You're 21 years old, making about $70,000, $75,000. The average income in America right now is right around $48,000 to $54,000 depending on what part you're in.

So you're ahead of the average person in America. So now let's go ahead and get strategic. Let's go ahead and think about what can we do to really set yourself up to be successful down the road. And that is pay off all your debt, get a fully funded emergency fund. And so you do live in New York. So I know the prices up there are a little bit more expensive. So you're going to be a little creative. But here's the main thing. And Chris, this is what I tell everyone,

especially young people, you know, when they're so young and when they are ahead of the game a little bit, get a clear why, get a clear vision. And if you get a clear why, a clear vision, then it's going to be very easy for you to do the things that you have to do to be successful. But if you don't have a clear why, a clear vision, then you'll have those kind of questions. Well, should I do this? Should I do that? But when you have a clear why, there's a clear answer that you need to take to get to your why.

Not only that, but that clear why is going to help you avoid the short-term temporary distractions of the bag or whatever. Apparently, I'm the old people because you're like, a bag or more money. I was like, what does a bag mean? I guess I'm in the old. All the young people are laughing. I'm like a bag. I'm learning things from Ayo today.

Learning things. Anyway, that Y will help you resist those distractions and stay focused. Oh, Lord. I forgot. I am on the Ramsey show. I'm not at the table with Anthony or me. I need to. Lord, Jesus. I'm sorry, y'all. The bag means money. I need a bag. I need a bag. I'm sorry. James, I'm sorry. Kelly, I'm sorry. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. have you ever wondered if an online will is right for you do you need a trust or a mirror will what kind of power attorneys do you actually need you hear me say everyone needs a will and i seriously mean this.

My cousin just passed away a couple of weeks ago and she had a very detailed will and life insurance in place. And it was so peaceful for the family. But I get a lot of questions asking if a simple online will is right for someone specific situation. So with the question in mind, our team decided to build a quiz. That's right, a quiz. And this quiz gives you custom results based on if you are married or single, where you live, and even the size of your estate. It helps you understand exactly what you need for your specific situation. So, I want you to take the quiz to find out what you need to protect your family and your wishes. And you know what? Your loved ones. Text the word quiz. Q U I Z two three three seven eight nine.

We'll also text you back a promo code for 20% off your will. So again, text the word quiz Q U I Z two three three seven eight nine. And I promise you, you will thank me, Christy, Dave, our team later, because I'm telling you, eight, nine. And I promise you, you will thank me, Christy, Dave, our team later, because I'm telling you, Christy, when we lost my cousin about about three weeks ago, it was it was hard for our family during that time. And it still is hard for us. But to to see that she had her will in place and to see that she had her life insurance in place and to see that she had the correct powers of attorney to see that she had her life insurance in place and to see that she had the

correct powers of attorney in place as well, which couldn't use the power of attorney then, but she had the right people on the account to get to it. We were able to mourn with peace, not mourn with stress. Yeah, I think probably the number one reason I would guess that people don't do it is because they just don't want to face

it. They don't want to think about it. They never get around to it. It's not fun. I understand that. But gosh, the peace of mind, once you do it, and we've made it so easy on people to be able to do this, the peace of mind you have knowing that that's okay. Like I had surgery in November and of course leading up to surgery, I just want to make sure everything's in place just in case anything went wrong, you know? And it's like, well, do we have, we've got everything in place. And so it's just, it's just gives you the peace of mind and also gives your family the peace of mind.

So it's just great advice. Oh, man. All right. Text the word quiz, Q-U-I-Z to three, three, seven, eight, nine. And your family will be very grateful because when you have that stuff in mind, what you're telling your family is I love you. You know, that's what you're saying. I love you and thank you. And I'll see you soon. Let's go out to Indianapolis and talk to Luke.

Luke, good afternoon. How can Christy and I help? Hey, good afternoon to both of you. As always, thank you for the help you provide. Yeah, what's going on? Yeah, so at my church, I lead a group, and we're actually going through FPU. And this

past weekend, we're talking about Baby Step 3, 3-6 weeks, and actually tomorrow, 3-6 months, and tomorrow, we will be debt-free debt free tomorrow we're paying off our bank congratulations because that's tomorrow it's not today okay now um my big question my wife and i uh other people in the group have the same question three versus six months so we played the clip in the video you know based on a single family a single income income family, or how reliable, commission-based. So if I can give you my circumstances, I'd really appreciate you helping me out three versus six months. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I'm retired military, 20 years, so I have retirement pay. That's never going to go away. I have disability from the military. That's not going to go away. And I'm a school teacher. School teacher pay, of course, can go away. My wife, we homeschool, we have seven daughters. Yeah, and I'm watching them play out the window right now. It's a lot of estrogen. Yeah. And so while we are a single family income, I am the sole person. At the same time, the military and the disability comes out to about

$46,000 a year. And my pay for being a teacher is about $45,000. So it's kind of funny, I get paid more for doing nothing now than I get paid for teaching. But, you know, but we have seven kids. So even though some of that income is reliable, you know, more kids, you have more events could happen that you need to dig in. More expenses. That emergency. But the sooner that we can get past baby step three, I mean, baby steps four, five, and six, I got a lot of colleges starting to say I'm not for these kids. Yeah, yeah.

So I don't want to put a lot of cash in savings or money market that I don't need to. Yeah, yeah. So I'm looking for advice. Yeah, yeah. So, Luke, what's your guaranteed annual income right now? If I were to quit or get fired from teaching, my guaranteed income from the military and disability is $46,000. But there's no indication that anything's wrong with the teaching, right? Like that's been stable up to this point.

That's a hypothetical. I just want to clarify this. Not only is it a hypothetical. I finished my grad degree in educational leadership. I'm thinking about being a principal, which would it a hypothetical, I finished my grad degree in educational leadership. I'm thinking about being a principal, which would, of course, come with a pay raise. Yeah, so that's, as far as we know, that's a steady, stable job. Yes.

Yeah. Okay, so if you're going to combine everything, then we're looking at $92,000 or $93,000. Yeah, $92,000. Yeah, so you're good with no debt. You're perfectly fine with just three months, man. Yeah, I would just jump into, and the reason we give people a range, even when you're talking about finances that is mathematical and formula-based and there are steps and principles, there's always going to be a range in comfort level. There are going to be some people that they will not sleep at night unless they have six

months, just because that's their comfort level, even if all the numbers add up fine. And there's other people that are like, I feel pretty good with three months. I want to go ahead and get that money going into college funds. So the range is really for you to customize that aspect of it to your comfort level. And so if you and your wife and have a conversation, you feel good about your steady income and you feel good at three months and three months worth of expenses, and you want to start to put that money towards colleges because it's a very valid reason to want to go ahead and do that, I think that's totally fine.

I think there's just a little bit of room for customization within that range. Absolutely. I mean, I totally agree with Christy. We want you to choose. Now, if you were to call in and say, hey, I'm on a commission-based job. I don't have any savings. I still have debt. Well, sure, if you don't have debt, we're going to tell you to pay off all your debt.

But if you didn't have something stable and situated, then we may say hey you know what go ahead and get six months because uh you're not as stable with your income but with you you're stable luke you have good some good income you're out of debt yes set aside three months and go ahead and jump over to baby steps four uh through six right now so i would definitely do that but thank you you so much for doing the class. And before you go, I'm curious, throughout your debt-free journey, what was the hardest part of your journey? So I was actually going to say that for everyone that's listening and hasn't taken the plunge, starting that $1,000, there is a mental leap that you have to take. It's a mental game. And if you're not willing to take that, you're not all in.

And you just go, ish, well, just don't do it yet. Wait until next year when you're ready. So making that first leap and saying we're in it to win it and not going, ish. The commitment. The first step. The first step. That's right. Yeah, that's good.

Good advice. Good advice for money or anything. Just commit. You know what? I think it's Seth Godin has a great quote. He says, if you wait until you have success to commit, you'll have neither. You need to commit to this thing, whether it's the baby steps or your business or whatever. You need to commit, and then you'll have success.

You will not have success if you halfway tiptoe ish your way through. You'll never have either. So let's stay right there, Christy. Let's turn on Christy's teaching head. What if someone said, OK, I want to commit. I know I need to do this. But like, what are the first, let's say, two things that they need to do to actually commit to the process, to the journey? So, you know, one of the things we talk a lot around here is action.

I tell people all the time, it's not the thought that counts. I don't know who came up with that. No one cares what you thought about doing. No one's bragging about what your husband thought about getting you for your anniversary. No one's posting on Facebook about what your kids thought about earning on their report cards. It's what you do that counts. But what's interesting is if you take a tiny baby step, literally a baby step in anything, not just financial baby steps, but that's why we broke it down this way.

If you take a tiny baby step, it builds your confidence and it fuels your momentum to take the second tiny baby step and the 33rd tiny baby step and so on. You look up one day and you've built the business. You've lost the way. You've gotten out of debt. You've done the thing, but it didn't happen overnight. It happened one tiny baby step at a time, but it all with taking a step it's that step that moves it's the first domino yes then the second is easier the third is easier you start to get some adrenaline some

endorphins some reward from your hard work some payoff you cut off cut up the credit card you lose the weight you whatever that thing is you get your first sale. You're like, oh, my gosh, I'm doing this. Research shows, Anthony, that the most motivating thing to people, male, female, any age, does not matter. The most motivating thing to human beings from a psychological perspective is not money. It's not rewards. It's not recognition. It's seeing progress, seeing the scale to go down, seeing the bank account go up. You see progress. You want to do more of that.

So make some progress. I told you she go down, seeing the bank account go up, you see progress, you want to do more of that. So make some progress. I told you, she a teacher, y'all. Chrissy Wright, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, yes, yes. Oh man, this has been a great hour. Thank you, Chrissy. Thank you, James. Thank you, Kelly. Hey, you guys, we'll be right back. This is The Ramsey Show.

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