The Ramsey Show - App - You Have an Opportunity to Innovate During This Season (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 1, 2020

Christy Wright, 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 dumb, 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. That's 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk. Christy Wright, a Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author,

joins me to answer your questions as well. And Christy is known for being the creator of Business Boutique, equipping women to make money doing what they love. Of course, her interaction with the Ramsey audience and with the Christie audience both has expanded far beyond just helping people with their businesses. She's getting questions like, I'm so overwhelmed by everything right now. How do I get past that sense of being overwhelmed? Or how do I stay focused and motivated by being at home with 93,000 children it feels like in the room?

That's right. And so if you've got questions for Christy and or me, we'll both jump in and try to help each other out and get through this hour and help you guys. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Because, you know, you said last hour it was interesting uh you said when you went from one kid to two it was overwhelming i thought when you went from two to three because two to three is like you go from man on man to zone everyone says that but chris hogan ken coleman so many people told me that two to three was easier than one to two now rachel wouldn't agree she always disagrees with me on this one but that's been my experience i think part of it is rachel is more overwhelmed than she's ever been that's what

she says yes i'm like i'm loving it i'm just i feel like i have hit a different gear one to two though for me they were a year and a half apart so they're super close together and so it was like having two babies at home we took a little bit more time before mary grace so now we're you know we've got we've got a little bit more of a handle on things i feel like i just feel like when there's three of them they're going everywhere they are they are we had three obviously and uh but my memory was not of course the other thing that helps is is the last one in our case daniel was the easygoing one yeah so that if we'd had him first we might have had even more oh yeah you know that's very grace even already she's six months and she's so easy i said to matt just just this morning, I said, as they're all running around, I said, can you believe that we ever thought two kids was hard?

And when you had two that you ever thought one was hard. And when you have one, you ever thought you were busy and stressed before having kids like it's just perspective. You know, it's just it just changes, you know, whatever it is you're facing. That's overwhelming you like being at home, losing your job, or having to work from home. Whatever it is that you think is overwhelming, eventually you can normalize it. It doesn't have to continue to be overwhelming. Your perception, somehow you zoom back and get a better picture of the whole thing, whatever it is. I guess with some people, the anxiety just overtakes them of being overwhelmed.

But most people, eventually we zoom back and we just kind of normalize it. It takes a minute to figure out how to operate in this new world because if you think about it, a month ago, we operated by our schedules and our structures. I wake up at this time. I get the kids ready at this time. We leave and drive to school, drive to work. All these structures have been taken away that we are used to operating within, and we're kind of just left like, well, how do I operate? What do I do? How do I manage homeschool and working from home full time? And the fact that we don't know how to operate in that

is overwhelming. But to your point, all we have to do is create a new normal, create a new system, kind of get our bearings and figure, okay, here's what we're going to do. Might be temporary, but you realize you do have control. You just have to create a new system in this new environment. Well, and what's interesting is once you run at a certain speed, you never return to the same shape. You always, you know, because you're, once you've done something that was bigger than you ever thought you could do, it pushed you, it stretched you, you don't return to the the same shape and so some of you are experiencing some hard times that will uh as cliche as it sounds strengthen you for other times yeah because you're you'll look back and go well we got through that right so what's this thing you know uh i mean and a little bit of that i think is why i am so uh honestly not pollyanna

not positive thinking but honestly hopeful right now and why i'm calm and why i think you need to be calm and not panicked is i've survived national stuff going on that was scary and um and i survived yeah you know and so it's like i it takes a lot more to scare me now yeah you know because but you're like your first if this is your first big thing uh man this is scary as crud well i think it's a combination between what's going on within the four walls of your home that feels overwhelming because it's this new normal of we don't have a schedule. We don't have a system. I'm trying to work. The kids are being crazy.

They're out of school and acting out and all that. But then you also have the external things going on, the news, you know, all the things that the unknowns that we can't control. So when you combine those two, it does feel overwhelming. But Dr. John Deloney said something, I think it was yesterday or the day before when I was doing an Instagram Live with him. And he said, when all of our things that represent normal to us, so our schedule, our school, our work, our community. Our income. Right. When those are taken away, our brain sends off this alarm saying, this is unsafe.

Now, we wouldn't probably say, I feel unsafe at home because I don't have a schedule. But that's what our brain is saying. This feels unsafe. So the best thing you can do to tell your brain you are safe is to create a new normal, create systems and structures. And we're going to wake up at this time and we're going to have breakfast at this time and I'm going to work and you're going to do your homework and to create a new system because that makes your brain calm down and go, okay, I have control over my environment. I am okay. And, uh, and I'm safe. And I thought that was interesting because the first few days we're all kind of going, what do I do? I'm feeling around in the dark here. Okay. Wait a minute. All we've got to do is turn the

lights on. We can do this. It's just a, it's just a different way of operating. Yeah. If you're working from home from the first time we've told our team, there's tons of data on this that, uh, you need to set a schedule and you need to set a physical location in the home that's off limits. That's right. And you get up and you have your coffee or whatever it is you do in the morning and you take your shower and you get dressed for work and you go to that area and you work. That's right. Because if you try to just lounge around until 10 a.m. in your pajamas,

your brain is starting to go crazy. It's starting to send off those alarms. Wait a minute, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. And then when you try to make that transition to work, it's much harder. Well, research shows it's fascinating because I've been teaching business boutique ladies this for years because many of them have home-based businesses. So we've talked about how to be successful at home for years. Research actually shows that you are more productive when you get up, get dressed, and get ready for the day.

And so your output is greater because you simply went through the act of getting ready. I read that 40 years ago to have that location and don't use it for two different things. When I was going to college, they said, don't don't pick up the habit of studying in bed, because when you're when you sit down in your bed, your brain says sleep. That's right. And you'll fall asleep all of a sudden when you start studying. That's right. But if you go study at a desk in this location, you don't party at that desk. You don't watch TV at that desk. You don't do entertainment at that desk.

You don't play cards at that desk. You study at that desk. And I put one in the house I moved into when I was a freshman in college or a sophomore in college. And there's a huge value to having these things, these physical areas that you do a certain thing there. For kids, too. They see when mom and dad is in that space, they're working. When mom and dad's not in that space, they're not working. That's a visual cue for kids that's important.

It's off limits. Otherwise, it's like, I used to sit in your lap, dad. Now I can't because I'm talking business on the phone. And now I'm not important. It gives them weird cues. And now I'm not important. It gives them weird cues. Yeah. That's interesting.

Good stuff. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. 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? 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 Healthcare 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. Ramsey Personality, Christi Wright joins me this hour and this day on the Dave Ramsey Show answering your questions. We are doing a Message of Hope series, if you haven't heard.

Each of us, Rachel and Ken Coleman and I did a Message of Hope last Thursday night. And then beginning Monday night, each of the individual Ramsey personalities are doing their unique message of hope as well. We're trying to put some positive stuff out there because there's plenty of negative. So, and not made-up stuff, not false positives, but just really here's a reason that you should have hope. Messages of hope. Rachel Cruz was Monday. Chris Hogan was Tuesday. Tonight is Christy Wright.

Thursday is Dr. John Deloney. Friday, Ken Coleman. And this coming Monday, Anthony O'Neill. We've pivoted our entire company in the past 10 days. Not only is our team working from home, which some people find fun, but most of us don't. Obviously, we're doing our radio show with a skeleton crew. We've got 1,000 people on the team, but there's 15 people in the building right now, probably something like that, to do the show itself, to produce the show,

and the YouTube streams and the messages of hope and so on. One of the things we did as we pivoted was we thought, how can we offer you folks that are staying at home um some extra content some things to do some things to change your life with because there's a lot of stuff to look at while you're there and uh man we started adding to it we popped up a page Dave Ramsey dot com slash hope and we popped that up and started putting things on there Monday afternoon. And then we've just kept that a week ago. We've kept adding to them almost every day.

There's something new on there and just all kinds of things. So I think the biggest thing that's been the biggest hit was for the first time in 30 years, we're giving you an online 14-day free trial to Financial Peace University. So you get the premium package for 14 days free. A lot of you are home for 14 days, so it's perfect for you. And so the premium 14-day free trial for Financial Peace University, all nine lessons. You take the class in a virtual class online. You can go through it with your spouse. Rachel's Smart Money, Smart Kids lessons are there. The Legacy Journey follow-up

class is there. Also on the DaveRamsey.com slash hope, there is a ton of other things that are absolutely amazing. We have a product called Smart Dollar, which is where major companies take their employees through an HR program through our curriculum, teaching them how to handle money. It's called Smart Dollar. For instance, Costco has taken all of their employees through it, which is kind of fun when I walk in Costco, I get to see all the people that have been seeing us on the videos. That's pretty neat.

So the Smart Dollar team has done this. Listen carefully. If you have had to lay people off at your company, get in touch with us. The people that have been laid off can go through Smart Dollar free until the end of the year. But your company has to set that up, not individuals. You can't just call up and go, I've been laid off. You've got to get your company to set it up. So if you got laid off, have your old company that laid you off or furloughed you set it up,

get in touch with us, and we'll set it up to where they can go through Smart Dollar completely free. Some of those companies, for their existing employees, want to go through a free trial period with Smart Dollar. We're also offering that for you because your employees are all very concerned right now, as you might imagine, about this. So there's all kinds of goodies out there and all kinds of things to work on. And so be sure you plug into this series of hope, message of hope series, rather, the 14-day free trial that's never been done before for Financial Peace University. And this is stuff we're not going to have stood up forever. This is unique response right now where we can give you access to stuff that's going to help you right now at free or really, really near free

on a whole bunch of things at DaveRamsey.com slash hope. It's a good business lesson for small business people, too, because I was doing a webinar for our Entrez leadership team tribe yesterday, Christy, and the neat thing about entrepreneurs is they know how to solve problems. Yeah, it's amazing because this is a time to innovate. Like if you're a business leader, whether it's a side business, small business, you're an entrepreneur, this is a time to innovate. Creativity thrives in limitations. When we have all the time in the world, all the money in the

world, all the resources in the world, we don't have to be very creative because we don't have any limitations. But it's when you have all these barriers and obstacles and limitations, you're forced to think about things differently and innovate in a way that you never otherwise would. We're doing this as a company. I was just this last week, I'm telling my Academy members to respond to their customers' needs. We've got to adapt and innovate to stay afloat. So one of the things I did,

I normally do a coaching session with them live once a month. I decided last week, I was like, I'm going live every day next week at 10 a.m. So this week I was on day three and I'm walking them through a blueprint of what to do right now. I normally wouldn't do that, but I'm doing that to help them meet them where they are. So as a business, you've got an incredible opportunity to innovate and show up and meet

your customers where they are. It's what you're teaching people to do through Entrez. It's what we're doing as a company. One, you have to do it. Two, it's not forever. Right. And three, you're probably going to learn some things you would have never learned. And four, you're going to execute some things in the shortest period of time you possibly ever would have in your entire life. We have stood stuff up for this day. Ramsey dot com slash hope page so fast. Yeah. I mean, probably 10 X faster than we normally do.

I mean, it's a thousand person company. It takes us a little while. Usually turn the ship around. Yeah. We turn this baby like a speedboat on a dime and just started pop, pop, pop, pop. Get that on there. Yeah. Get that on a dime and just started pop pop pop pop get that on there yeah get that on there that's a good idea no that sucks don't do that yeah do that one and we're just like and we're just rapid fire popcorn man it's going and you get so scrappy

like even just this was maybe two weeks ago or so this is the monday after i think we'd come back from new york it was when all the news was starting to come out it was starting to kind of really hit that oh this is going to have a big impact and i'm sitting at home and I thought I'd talk to, you know, Christina and Tyler and some people on my team, the Christy Wright team. And I said, I want to do something. And I don't even know what that means, but I'm going to go live every day on Instagram and I'm just going to spread hope. So I called it hope in the chaos, 10 truths to get you through. Well, then I had an idea while sitting on the couch with my husband. I said, I'm just going to text some friends, see if anybody would join me. I text about eight to 10 people to see if, you know, if you would join me on a split screen live.

Every one of them said, yes, I did 10 days with Christine Kane, Emily Lay, Jamie Ivey, Rachel Hollis, uh, you know, Stephanie Mae Wilson, every single day had a different guest. And we talked about what anchors us in this storm. It was imperfect. It was scrappy. I just made it up as I went, but I thought, I'm going to do something. And so we have an opportunity to not wait for it to be perfect, but get scrappy and do something. Just get it up there. Get the DaveRamsey.com slash hope page up there. Get things out there to help people and respond. Yeah. And the interesting thing is most of the stuff we've thrown up there are not really revenue producers. It's from a business perspective, but what they are is helping people. You're serving people. And we do know that if we help enough people, we don't have to worry about money.

That's right. So it does work out. But in terms of in the last seven days while we've been doing this or eight days while we've been doing this, has it generated this life-changing amount of revenue? Absolutely not. Quite the opposite. It's been a big expense to get it up there. And some of the stuff we're selling, you know, either at a loss or so close to a loss that the revenues are relevant

based on the accounting on it. But that's not the point. The point is you're getting to do some things like when you were brand new and you were excited. That's right. You know, it kind of does that, but in a sick kind of way, I guess, because it's all due to a crisis. Right.

We wouldn't have done it if we weren't made to do it. We had to do it we had to do it right because of the environment we find ourselves in and some of you were in that situation you would have never tried this job and you never go back to the old one yeah because this one turns out so good but you're completely pushed out of the nest you're pushed out in the middle of traffic and you're dodging cars you know and you gotta you you never you look back and you're dodging cars, you know, and you got to, you never, you look back and you say, you know, the number of people that I've gone in the Cajun restaurant and it's because they, and it's somewhere in some other state other than Louisiana because of Katrina.

They left New Orleans and Katrina and they never went back. Wow. And now their Cajun restaurant is in Maine or it's in, you know, Kentucky or it's wherever, you know. And the number of times I find that and I hear that story, how would you start this? I left New Orleans after Katrina and never went back. Wow. After coronavirus, I left that job. Right.

And I went on this career track. And that was 30 years ago. And I never went back. That's right. I found my love. Wow. Found my first love, you know. And that's, you can, there's all kinds of things that can happen in this environment that

are fun like that but look for them because of all you're looking for is all the manure you can find it there's plenty of it out there too but with that much manure you got to grow something this is the dave ramsey show Thank you. Shelby is with us in Idaho. Hi, Shelby. Your question for Christy Wright and me. Shelby is with us in Idaho. Hi, Shelby. Your question for Christy Wright and me. Shelby? Shelby?

Oh, no. Are you there? Yeah, there you are. Don't put me on mute, girl. Oh, my God. I know. I'm so embarrassed. It's okay. I got my first nerves out. It's okay. I'm just giving you a hard time what's up um well first thank you i consider you to my virtual mentors you're reading your books listening to your podcast so thank you so much um i am a new business owner and was just um

you know before all this started was just getting ready to start growing it with marketing and clientele and stuff like that. And then this all happened, kind of put pause for a second. And then, you know, my heart's kind of breaking now for all the small businesses owners out there. And I want to be able to help them kind of like when you've shown with Ramsey Solutions and just wondering how I could go about doing that at my level. What's your business, Shelby? Bookkeeping. Bookkeeping. Okay. Starting out bookkeeping. Eventually I'll add on more. Okay. So when you say it's kind of put it on pause, what do you mean by that? Have you gotten people that are actually canceling your services? Because the need is still there for bookkeeping. For sure. Yeah, for sure. It's out there. No,

I just have one client right now and I was just, I was figuring out kind of my target market where I wanted to go. And then when all this happened, you know, they started right now and I was just, I was figuring out kind of my target market where I wanted to go. And then when all this happened, you know, they started getting affected and I was like, oh, it's probably not time to start marketing to them yet for service, you know, for them to become clients of mine. And I was just wondering if, you know, what could I do instead? Yeah. Well, I just want, you know what I mean? I don't want to.

Can you afford to take on, can you afford to take on a few clients for free right now? Yes, yes. My husband has a stable job. He's a lab scientist at the hospital. He's pretty stable. Why don't you give them a 30-day free trial or whatever on your services and just say, hey, let me come in. While times are crazy, don't pay me.

I'll just come in for 30 days, and I'll show you that that i'm valuable and when things get back to normal a little bit then uh then you can hire me or then you can start or then you can start paying me you gotta go ahead and hire me now but i mean it's almost like uh giving them a sample right yeah i mean we were just talking about financial peace university we're letting people do this for 14 days for free so you're allowed it gives you an opportunity to build trust with them but i just want to I mean, we were just talking about Financial Peace University. We're letting people do this for 14 days for free. So it gives you an opportunity to build trust with them. But I just want to encourage you on one thing, Shelby. I'm having so many people, especially women in the business boutique community, women in my academy, asking me, can I still market my business?

Can I still sell? Does it seem out of touch and sensitive? you put a lens on your marketing that shows that you are aware of what's going on, you are trying to serve your customers, meet them where they are, and you are sensitive to what they're experiencing, you can still market your business. You should still try to stay afloat so that you can serve people so you can stay in business and they still need you. And the point is, it's a service. So you're still serving. Yeah. You just don't want to be tone deaf in your marketing. Right. You don't want to seem like you have an agenda and you're trying to take advantage of people. So if you have the right lens on it, even if you do have paying clients during this time and you're saying, hey, there's enough stressful things going on right now. I'm going to reduce my rate,

do a reduced rate. We're looking at ways to do this across the company. How can we reduce the cost of things for our customers to help them and keep our lights on and stay in business? And make it a virtual because a lot of them need virtual everything right now. Right. So I think you stay in business, Shelby. I think you keep rolling. I think you can do free, like Dave said. You could do reduced price for a short period of time.

I think you put the right sensitive lens on your marketing, and you can keep marketing because people are going to need you now and then. So keep putting yourself out there. You owe it to them. You have a responsibility to them need you now and then. So keep putting yourself out there. You owe it to them. You have a responsibility to them because you're serving them. We just want to show that we're sensitive to what they're going through during this time. Yeah. I'll give you an example of that.

This is one we were talking about in a meeting this morning. Okay. And I had them lay it up here because when it first came up, I went, ooh, that's gross. I don't want to do that. Because it sounded, it could be really, it could be really wrong if it was tone deaf. Okay. So people are at home, they got time on their hands.

You know what a lot of people are doing? They're cleaning. You know what a lot of people are doing? They're organizing. You know what a lot of people are doing? They're cleaning out their closets, their desks, their files.

You know what else they're doing? They're getting their financial stuff in order. Right. Because they got a little time. They're doing things they never have time for. So they're doing stuff like doing a will. Okay. And they're doing stuff like getting their term insurance in place.

And they're doing stuff. But if you say, hey, go get a will. Yeah, now's a good time. Well, everybody's freaking out that everybody's going to die. Right. You know, and go to Mama Bear. Go to MamaBearLegalForms.com and get a will. Go to DaveRamsay.com slash will and we'll help you with your will.

Right. Whoa! Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when they brought that up this morning, I went, oh, no, we can't do that. and get a will go to Dave Ramsey dot com slash will and we'll help you with your will. And when they brought that up this morning, I went, oh, no, we can't do that. But yeah, but the whole thing is a lot of people are actually working on that. Right. And that's a reality. And I'm getting questions from people that go, you know, not only have I got some time on my hands, but and I'm not really being trying to freaking out. I'm not panicking.

I don't think I'm going to die. But with all this stuff going on that's so serious, it made me stop and just be really reflective and thoughtful about making sure I have life insurance and making sure I have my will in place. So they are getting in touch with Zander Insurance. And they're a little bit worried that coronavirus may change some of the life insurance pricing. And that's probably a valid worry. So getting your life insurance locked in right now, pricing before that may go up. We may see an increase on it.

Not sure. It's harder to get life insurance right this second because the medicals, nobody's working in the medical field on life insurance exams. So it's a little more difficult. It's cumbersome. But a lot of people are doing them, you know, going to DaveRamsey.com slash will. There it is. I'll go and put it out there. This lady says, I don't want to live in fear. but during this time, the reality is my husband and I need to

get our wills updated. We have a son that has special needs and we want to make sure he's cared for. And with time on my hands and the coronavirus wake up call, I want to get this done. Can you, I'm not freaking out, but can you tell me how my, do my will, right? And there's nothing different that you need to do with your will because of the pandemic doesn't change anything uh everybody should have a will regardless of a pandemic or not right and it's not but boy you could put that out there and have one little twist in it and it sounds manipulative uh taking advantage of the fear in the market and it's really quite the opposite uh but i don't want to stop we've always had mama bear legal forms uh you know for wills and i don't want to stop offering that uh but boy you got to be thoughtful about your messaging and

your your your ad copy so to speak in this case so um yeah so you can get the guardian set up you can get special needs trust laura for your situation with your special needs child. Putting a special needs trust that happens upon death of both parents only is the only time, the only kind you need, unless you're divorced. And, you know, having that be part of a standard will is not that big a deal, and you can do that easily. Just go to DaveRamsey.com, and we'll help you get, slash will, and we'll help you get that lined up. And, you know

do the same thing go to zander insurance dot com and get a quote on your insurance sanders operating from home too so they're not answering phone calls as fast and they're not able to get stuff through as fast churchill mortgages still doing mortgages interest rates are down yeah it's a good time to do a mortgage but they're working from home yeah and they're not answering phone calls as fast but a lot of people are looking at sitting at home going, well, while we're sitting here, we might as well get this refinance going. Yeah. They need help. So you want to provide the service that they're needing help with. The demand is still there. The felt need is still in the marketplace. You just want to be sensitive in how you reach them.

Yeah. It's very interesting. So I think your point about being careful not to be tone deaf is really, really important. And even when you're careful about it, be aware that somebody's still going to be pissed off. For sure. Someone's going to be mad that your toddler laid on their dog. Dave Ramsey's just greedy, and he's Dave Ramsey's Satan's son, and he just wants all your money and all this BS. You know, all that stuff comes out, right? And so that's just part of it.

And the more volume you do the more idiots you run into so uh you're going to get the more chance of that kind of stuff happening and showing up um and so yeah we still see some of that um apparently because we're down here trying to do the show and make sure everybody's helped and stays calm and uh keep revenues all these families that these thousand families get to keep their jobs and all that kind of stuff but but we're you know we're evil because we're down here doing the show. So, I mean, some of you people are just, you really, really, really, really, really, really need to understand that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And sometimes when

you speak, it reveals a really dark place in your heart. Some of you guys are out of control out there. So, uh, be careful. But I just, from an entrepreneurial perspective, it's such a positive. So many positives can come out of all this stress. Yeah. And it's stressful. We're problem solvers. That's what entrepreneurs are. And we got a big problem. We got lots of problems. So that's our job is to solve them. It's heavy. It's hard. But pressure is where diamonds are formed. You know? Otherwise, you just stay a stinking lump of coal. You know?

That's it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Cedric's in California. Hi, Cedric. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can Christy and I help? Great. So I have a couple quick questions. I am in baby step two. I'm working on the debt snowball, and I have about $3,000 in debt

before I get to my student loans left. But the student loans are currently with the deferment from the government with the COVID-19 going on, has until September 30 where it's not occurring the interest. So I'm wondering, the other debt that I have is all in collection, so it's not collecting any interest or anything. Would it be better to pause and just do the minimum on those and then hit the student loan hard while it's not collecting interest so that once September 30 rolls around, that interest is going to be a lot hard while it's not collecting interest, so that once September 30 rolls around, that interest is going to be a lot lower because it's calculated on the total loan left, or should I continue with the debt snowball starting with the smallest first? So I'm assuming your income is stable because you're continuing to work your debt snowball, is that right? Correct, that is

correct. Then I would list my debts smallest to largest regardless and attack them in that order. It sounds like you'll have the student loans paid off before December if you do that. Am I right? That is correct, yeah. So that's fine. I don't care. If you miss out on a little bit of the interest savings by them waiving the interest because you pay it off early, well, whoop-dee, you're still out of debt.

Okay. That make sense to you? Great. That makes sense. Thank you so much. Hey, thanks, man. Appreciate you calling. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Be sure and join Christy Wright at DaveRamsey.com or ChristyWright.com or BusinessBoutique.com tonight for her Message of Hope as a Message of Hope series continues here with the Ramsey Network. By the way, that is all broadcast on Sirius XM. It's all part of our podcast lineup as well. You can get all of it, YouTube, Facebook, everywhere. And Christy will be doing that tonight.

That's why she's joining me on the air today. Plus, it's time for her to do that and answer your questions. Let's go to Edward in New North Carolina. Hi, Edward. How are you? Doing pretty well. How about yourself? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Well, I called because I'm currently facing some dilemmas I was hoping you might be able to help me figure out. I'm currently 27 years old. I'm serving in the military. I've been following your show for a little while now. And I've got to say, I really admire what you guys got going on over there. But while I am watching the King Coleman show as well, I'm currently doing both Baby Set 2, even though I've barely got any debt left.

I'm having trouble figuring out what my next move will be, even though I'm trying to transfer over to the Army. The coronavirus has caused some complications in creating what my next steps will be. And I'm having trouble finding out even where to look for finding a job. And also, there's um even some uh family issues not big ones like it's not like criminal activity or anything like that

but uh i am trying to figure out how to be like how do you create like behavioral modification within a entire family even though they're kind of, you might call it complacent. Yeah. Well, that's your extended family. You're not your wife, right? No, no, no. I'm single. Okay.

Thank you for your service, by the way, Edward. So I think what you're doing is you're facing a time of great transition and a time when basically a lot of people are paralyzed on their decisions. A lot of organizations are paralyzed on their decisions. A lot of organizations are paralyzed on their decisions. They pretty much put their lives and their decisions and their businesses on hold for a period of weeks here. Hopefully it's only a period of weeks. Hopefully everything passes and everybody's okay and all that kind of stuff very soon.

But it may be that you're not going to get clarity on your options for a little while. Do you see something different, Christy? No, it's interesting because I think, just like you said, what you're experiencing, Edward, is actually what a lot of people are experiencing, maybe in a different way. The variables might be different, but everyone's feeling a little paralyzed of how to move forward when it feels like the whole world is on hold. So I just want to encourage you that what you decide to do today, this week, this month, doesn't have to be what you do forever. What I'm really encouraging people to do, especially women in the business community, is looking at a three-month goal.

I would say even for you, Edward, what does the next three months look like? What does it look like for your income? What does it look like for your priorities, your goals, your schedule, your life? Like how can you kind of get some things in place? We were talking even earlier, Dave, about structures or systems or processes or schedules, something, some kind of normalcy where you're like, hey, this is what I'm going to focus on right now to give you a source of income, to give you a sense of normal, even though nothing feels normal right now. And I just want you to know that you have permission to change that. So when the world is up and going again, hopefully sooner than three months, you may continue some of those things you decided.

Like we said, we learned some new things about ourselves. But you have permission to change that. Right now, I think people are just going into a different gear because we have to in many cases. And so what does the next month to three months look like for you and figuring that out and getting kind of something you can sink your teeth into and get a hold of to get your bearings and then just give yourself permission as the world gets going again to have more options and have more clarity

as you learn more about yourself and learn more about what's available to you. That's very good. The other thing is as far as the extended family issues go, you can't fix them and it's not your job. So if you'll just set the sense of responsibility you have for their life on the shelf and say, I love you. I'm going to pray for you. Here's some ideas for you. And then you carrying their burden is not necessary, nor is it productive, nor is it going to be good. So if you'll focus just on the things that are in front of you, that is actually the best way you can help them is by modeling a lack of complacency if they are struggling with complacency. I think that's

what he said. And so, but just people spend a lot of energy trying to fix other people. We all do. And it's just, it always frustrates you. Yep. Because they just aren't fixable. Boundaries. All I can do is show you what to do and then you can either do it or you cannot do it. And my love of you is not a conditional on whether you do that or not yeah

i may think you're stupid or i may not think you're stupid but i still love you either way you know and so it's just that that's the reality i've got friends that don't do the stuff i teach i've got family members that don't do the stuff i teach i love them anyway that's right uh they're wrong but i love them anyway you know and so i but i can't make them right want to do it the only thing i can do is say you know here's what happened in my life here's what happens when i do it here's what happens when i'm not complacent here's what happens when i don't misbehave here's what happens when i'm got a healthy spiritual walk here's what happens in these situations and um go from there what i would say to edward is you know you and i are friends with henry cloud his book boundaries

is amazing but that's where you set a boundary of how their behavior or misbehavior affects your life, what you'll allow and what you won't allow. I have family members that I love very much that I have sent a response on text to, I'm not doing this today. And that's all it says. I'm not doing this today. It's a, you know, whatever that looks like in your dynamics, your situation, you teach people how to treat you by what you'll allow and what you won't allow. And boundaries can be very powerful so that their actions do not take away from what you're trying to do and encroach in your space in your world.

That's a good text. I like that one. I'm not doing this today. I may borrow that one. I'm not doing this today. I may borrow that one before this segment's out yeah it's just i mean you do you have to um and this is a financial thing as well as just a life issue especially when uh right now everyone there's a lot of people spending a lot of energy trying to manage other people's business that's right

you don't get to decide if so-and-so walks their dog you don't get to decide that you may not believe in that you may not believe in that you may think that's horrible you may think it's perfectly fine but it really doesn't matter what you think it's not you or their dog no you know so you get to you just get to do your dog walk your dog let your let your toddler lay on your dog if you want to you do whatever you want to do you know but but but you don't get to tell other people what to do. Yeah, that's right. Boy, there is a lot of telling other people what to do right now. It's all based in so-and-so's afraid, and they think that so-and-so's being reckless or irresponsible, or the reckless and irresponsible people think the other people are being panicked and afraid and stuck in their houses,

and it's neither. You get to choose what you want to do. I may not agree with what you're doing, but I don't get to tell you what to do. It's not your life. Unless you ask me, and then I'll tell you. Which is kind of what this Dave Ramsey show thing is all about. Love it. That puts this hour of The Dave Ramsey Show.

If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.