The Ramsey Show - App - You Have Permission to Change Your Goals (Hour 1)

Episode Date: July 29, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. My name is Anthony O'Neill. Co-hosting with me is the one and only national number one bestseller and one of the most brilliant ladies I know, the one and only Christy Wright. You're very kind. Hey, Christy, man, it's fun. This is going to be awesome.

I'm excited to be here with you today. It really is. It's going to be a great day. And if you have any questions around your money, around your life, if you're a young lady and you're trying to figure out how to start a business, or if you just want some spiritual guidance, direction, Christy and I would love to talk to you. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. It will be a fun hour of just having a conversation with you. But I'm really excited, though, because, Christy, I had an opportunity to do some shooting with you this morning.

And I'm telling you, what you're doing and the conversation you're having on YouTube is just absolutely amazing. How have you enjoyed this new show that you have and this new journey that you're on right now? You know, it's been fun because, and you know, obviously we do this here in Ramsey Solutions, but we're always having a conversation with the marketplace. That's what business is. That's what we do even as personalities or authors or speakers. We're constantly having this conversation where we put something out there. It might be a book or resource, a show.

And then the market responds and they say, hey, I this, or I need more of this or less of this. And the pattern we've seen for the last five years of me helping women start side businesses and small businesses through business boutique, is that they don't just want a business they love, they want a life they love. And so what I've seen is there's a pattern of them showing up just because they're getting help in other areas of life, like goals or gaining confidence. And so we decided to, I guess, a couple months ago to expand the show from being the business boutique podcast to the Christie Wright show. And like you said, YouTube and on wherever you listen to podcasts, but it's been fun because we've kind of taken this, um, filter off of it just being business. And now we're talking about a lot more than that.

And, uh, and that's been really cool. It's been, it's been fun to see how God's shown up and, uh, and it's really helping people in a lot of ways. And you're right. You know, I've noticed that your show is all about firing all of it,

all the ladies up to really break through what's holding them back. Yeah. And it's not just for the ladies. Cause I was on there today and I gotta tell you like Christy, right? She can hold it down. Y'all let me tell you right now christy right man she's not intimidated by nobody she's gonna be in your face i don't know it's gonna be

a good conversation so i definitely want to encourage you all go over to uh youtube at christy right facebook official christy right uh twitter and instagram at christy b right and if you go to her instagram you'll see her amazing family. Like she's such an amazing mother, cool husband. And so I'm telling you right now, but I'm excited. You guys, this hour, we're going to be taking your phone calls. Chrissy Wright is an expert when it comes to starting a business. She wrote the number one national bestselling book called Business Boutique on helping ladies start a business. And what she's doing now is just really serving ladies in general.

So if you have any questions, if you're a young lady and need some wisdom around any area of your life, money, business, spiritual walk, relationship advice, give Christy a call. Ashley, give us both a call. Christy may help you out a lot more than me. But if you want to talk about money, yeah, give me a call too. I love talking about money, especially all kinds of stuff. So 888-825-5225. And let's kick off the first phone call with

Elizabeth out in Omaha. Good afternoon, Elizabeth. How can Christy and I help? Hi, Christy and Anthony. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's going on? So I am a stay-at-home mom. My husband and I are in baby step six with about $91,000 left to pay on our house. And I started a small business this year. And I'm kind of just, I'm a future thinker. And I'm kind of wondering what I should do with the profits in the future. We plan on paying our house off early, just on my husband's income.

And so I'm wondering if I should apply the $6,000 first of profit towards a Roth IRA and then put the rest towards the house, or what would you guys recommend? What's your business? I am a CPA, so I prepare tax returns. Okay, cool. What are the ages of your kids? Two and four, and I don't know if we'll have any more. Okay.

Well, the reason I ask is because what's interesting, Elizabeth, is you have permission for your goals to change. You know, I think a lot of people do this, Anthony, where in January, we set New Year's resolutions, and we kind of expect it to be this set it and forget it thing in life or business or even in our finances. And gosh, if this year has taught us anything, you can and should adapt. So the reason I say that is right now, you're a stay-at-home mom. That is your priority. You're doing this thing on the side. You have permission in a year or five years or 10 years to grow that business. Maybe that becomes a full-time thing. Maybe you want to have different goals and that

you hire team members. So I just want to kind of call out that you have permission to change your mind. You might apply the money one way today and differently in terms of reinvesting back into the business. But I would say it should just reflect your financial goals. So, Ayo, kind of talk a little bit about that because this is personal income as if you were working for a company. You're just going to apply it to your regular goals. Right, right. What are the goals that you have out there, Elizabeth, as far as – and I know you want your small business to win, but what are some of your other goals that you want to accomplish?

Well, and actually, Christy spoke on that. I'm hoping that once my last child is in school that this becomes a full-time job for me. But really, my husband and I, we love to travel, and we want to be financially set for the future and just be able to be there for our kids. We're already investing in their colleges. He's already putting money into retirement. But it's just more of what do I do with my extra money that I'm, I mean, it's our money, but from this business that we're not living on at all, what should I do with that? I think from the money perspective, I think you sit back and you have an honest conversation with your husband.

Say, hey, listen, what are our goals together? Okay, so here are my goals, Elizabeth, and here's my goal, husband. And then we combine those goals together. And then really, I don't really believe in this is my money. I made it over here. This is your money made over here. It's like, hey, this is our money. And so what are we doing together to go

towards the goals? I believe on baby set number six, you are already financially in a good place. That's right. So America listening right now, baby set number six is she's paying off the home early. Her and her husband have saved up to where she's going to pay off the home early, got $91,000 left. And so if that's a goal to be debt free in the next year or two as far as with the house that extra money needs to go towards that if the goal is to enjoy it and take a vacation then that money should go towards that you're in a healthy place to where like christy said it's it could change you know you could do whatever you want to do as long as i believe both you and your husband are on the exact same page.

Yeah. And I would say one thing, Elizabeth, too, and this is very specific to the season you're in right now, just like Anthony saying. So this $6,000 that you just referred to, that is your income. That is your personal income from running the business, which you have no other goals for the business right now. You have no other expenses for the business. Let's just fast forward 15 years and say you're running a full-time business and you've got $6,000 and you've got two team members and you're not sure what to do with

it. Well, I would say if you don't have an emergency fund, just like you do in personal, you need that for your business. You don't need it right now because you don't have any expenses. Or let's say you're looking to hire someone in the next year. You would want to put that in savings to save up for hiring, for additional equipment, things like that. So that money could, like Anthony said, you talk to your husband, go back into the business. But if that's not a priority right now, it's your personal income. So yeah, it can change. It really can change.

And listen, man, thank you so much for calling in, Elizabeth. You know, America, this is what we can be doing a whole hour. Christy Wright, just giving us some real good knowledge about around ladies and starting a business. I'm telling you, go check her out on YouTube every Tuesday. Christy Wright, we'll be right back. about around ladies and starting a business. I'm telling you. Go check her out on YouTube every Tuesday. Chrissy Wright. We'll be right back. Most people's money problems come from not paying attention. That's why before I spend a dime of my money on something, I do the research and I make sure it's going to live up to what it claims. Recently, I got a great pair of sunglasses from a company called Shady Rays. When you're

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Sitting in the studio with me is number one national best-selling author christy wright and my name is anthony o'neill we're taking your phone calls this hour triple eight eight two five five two two five any money questions any life questions uh we would love to have a conversation with you so uh you too good to see y'all i'm watching you all right now and i'm seeing some of the questions come across but give us a call christy would love to talk to you she actually said it she's like are you talking to youtube i'm like i am i'm talking to youtube he's in there chatting yeah so uh give us a call so we can chat with you and um help you out with your journey as well but christy let's go ahead and have a conversation uh with mary out in Pennsylvania. Mary,

good afternoon. How can Christy and I help? Hi, guys. Thanks for having me on. No problem. Okay. So my question is, my husband and I are fairly new to the baby steps. We're on baby step number two right now. I do the budget usually every month, and I've worked through our budget, and then we realized that my husband was still contributing to his 401k. So my question is, should my husband stop contributing? So we kind of like bring that down to zero, take in that extra cash every month, or should I still have him contribute since I already have done the budget without that in mind? It's kind of like out of sight, out of mind. Yeah, that's such a great question. Let me ask you this. How much debt do you have in baby set number two right now? We have about $130,000.

We have a bit. Okay, that $130,000, what is that basically? It's mainly student loans. Student loans. So when you say mainly, would you say that's about like maybe $100,000, $120,000? Yeah, I would say probably about $100, about 100 that is student loans and then you have um about 10 000 in a car 5 000 in a car and another like 15 in credit cards so we have it's all over the place cool where'd you get your degree and i just have to ask um i'm an accountant and my husband is um

it security it security okay all right sounds good. And what's your annual income? $145K a year. $145K a year. Okay, cool. And how much is he contributing to his 401K a month? So it's about $150 per paycheck. So it's about $300 a month. Okay, yeah.

So to answer your question, this is what I generally teach, okay? I want you to pause all investing. The key word there, though, is pause. Mary, I didn't say stop and pull it out. I said pause. We're not going to stop. We're just going to pause the investing right now because that three hundred dollars, you could be adding that to your baby step right now. Your debt snowball, but you should be lining up your debt from smallest to largest to make your minimum payments you can take this extra three hundred dollars and put this on top of one of your credit cards one of your cars that you have right now

and really start knocking it off making a hundred and forty five thousand dollars a a year christy is very good money for her right now as a family um especially in penn, the cost of living shouldn't be that expensive out there, depending on where she's at. But if they attack this debt and pause the investing, maybe get some extra income coming in, I could see them getting out of debt here for the next two to three years. Yeah, and it's interesting because I think there's a couple things I've noticed when it comes to walking people through the baby steps that seem almost counterintuitive. One of them is that you're going to list your debts smallest to largest.

Everyone's like, oh, the interest rate, interest rate, interest rate. No, no, no. What we need to understand and remember about the baby steps that makes it so effective is it's more about momentum than math. So we're looking at we want to get focused intensity towards the debt snowball, towards all of your debts, smallest to largest, and take that extra $300 a month and put towards that because we're going to focus on one thing at a time and really knock it out. And then you can invest like crazy once you're debt-free. But when you're spreading yourself so thin, you're not actually making any progress or getting any momentum. You get discouraged, and you want to give up. So we want you to see great progress, and you can do that on that income.

Just like you said, Anthony, like that's a great income. She can, 130 may sound like a lot, but with that income and adding that extra investment money, she can knock this out. Mary, you said you're new. I'm curious. What's your reason? Why? Why do you and your husband want to get out of debt? Honestly, we've been living paycheck to paycheck for a while. Um, and I'm kind of sick of it, to be honest. Um, it's a lot of juggling every month,

so I just want to feel free, honestly. Cool. Let's go deeper. Why do you want to feel free? What are you missing right now? Having this amount of debt? I feel like we don't have much in the things. So just every little thing that comes up, I'm constantly like, oh, how are we going to get through this? You know, a tire goes, the windshield goes, how are we going to get through this? You know, so I want to be able to just, you know, it's okay. We're going to get through this. It's just another thing that lights through at us and just move on. Yeah. I think that's important for you and your husband to talk about tonight you know i i really want you and your husband to sit down and say no why are we doing this

because it's going to be hard to stop investing into the 401k if you don't have a deep a deep enough why to why you want to get out of debt there has to be something so deep to where nothing's going to stop you it's going to give you fuel it's going to give you fire it's going to give you that energy and you're gonna be like you know what we gotta do whatever we gotta do to get out of debt because i'm sick and tired of being sick and tired i i never again want to be here i do not want this anymore and so mary and for everyone listening right now, you know, whether you're in America or whether you in London, James, he's happy with me on that part now. I just really want you to get a deep why to why you want to get out of debt, because you will always have something come up.

Well, you know what? If I don't invest, I'm going to miss out on this. Or if I don't do this, I'm going to miss out on that. But what's that why? And that's something you talk about often too, Christy, is the why. What's the why? Well, we talk about it. We both talk about it. We all talk about it here at Ramsey Solutions because we love to fire people up because that's what's required for life change. It doesn't matter if you're starting a business, if you're getting out of debt, if you're stopping your investing.

It can be hard to change your life. But you've got to get fired up and you've got to care more about your future than that thing today and the inconvenience today. But it's so funny. I love how Dave Ramsey says, you can wander into debt. You cannot wander out. And I have experienced that as someone who got myself in trouble in my early 20s and had to dig myself out of the financial mess that I made. You have to get mad and fired up and focus on your why if you're going to stick with it. If not, it's going to be like a diet fad that you try for a

week and it got hard and you gave up. We want you to stick with this for the long haul because it can change your life. But I love how you said that you focus on your why, get fired up, and then you'll actually stick with it for the long haul. Let's say right there, Chrissy, I like this question that came in on Business Boutique. She says, I am a hairstylist, but I just don't know if I have what it takes to break out on my own. I'm scared. I really want this, but I don't want to fail. What should I do? Well, I think it's interesting because first of all, Allison, who wrote this in, everyone feels that way. Oh yeah. Everyone feels that way. No one wants to fail.

Do you want to fail? No. I don't want to fail. No one gets excited about this idea. And I think there's this myth that successful people aren't afraid. They're fearless. They're 100% confident. No, they're just willing to fail.

Yes. They're just willing to. You know, Michael Jordan documentary. Yes. So fantastic. So good. I mean, you could take away a million leadership lessons from this in many different ways. One of his famous quotes is, in my life, I have missed 9,000 shots.

Yes. I have lost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. And so I think if we understand that failure doesn't have to keep us paralyzed and stuck, we can just accept that if we fail, it's not actually a failure. It's an experiment. We learned, we dust ourself off and try again. Then it doesn't have to be the thing that keeps us from trying because successful people, it's not that they're immune to failure. They're just

willing to fail. And another example, Babe Ruth, he was the home run king. He was the strikeout king. These two go together, but you're willing to put yourself out there and try again. So what I would say, Allison, is nothing will silence your fear of doing the thing like doing the thing. So go do the thing. Start your business. Tell some friends. Get a storefront or get a Facebook page. Just take tiny baby steps. And with every tiny baby step, you'll build your confidence. Your fear will lessen and you'll realize you'll look up one day and realize, Oh, I'm actually doing this thing. I love the quote by Vincent Van Gogh, where he says, if you have a voice inside your head that says you cannot paint, then by all means paint. And that voice will be silenced. Just do it scared. That's that's the

trick as simple as it is. You know, one of my mentors said, Anthony, you will only go as far as your faith goes. If you really want to start a business, if you really want to step out, maybe your faith needs to grow. So that way you can go as far as that faith. That's good.

Christy Wright, Anthony O'Neill, we're here taking your phone calls. 888-825-5225. Give us a call. We'll be right back. Families all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs, whether they're anticipated or completely unexpected. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas. Jeff and Carice had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy. Shortly after, they had another expensive medical issue come up. They could have faced a huge financial setback.

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Going out to the beautiful city of Miami, Florida, we're going to have a conversation with Armand. Armand, how can I help you? Hey, I'm 20 years old. I did one year and a half in college, and I dropped out right before taking any debt. I just recently got a $9 part-time job, and I don't want to be doing a non-degree job forever. I want to go back to college, but I don't know where to study and what to study. And I don't want to go into debt. I like history and I like political science, but I don't know if those are particularly lucrative degrees to get.

Man, you know, that's a great place to start. Let's go there. I think, Armand, that the world teaches the same backwards. And so follow me here. The very first thing I think that we're teaching our young people that's wrong is, okay, what degree do you want to have? What degree do you want to get? And I think that's the wrong question to ask. I think we need to ask ourselves, what do we want to be doing at 40, at your age? What do you want to be doing at 40 years old? That's the question.

Then when we have that question answered, then let's backtrace it. Okay, what do I need to do to get there? Do I need a degree? Do I have to, can I go to a trade school? Can I What career? Do you want to start a business? Do you want to be an accountant? I mean, what do you want to do at 40 years old? You know, that's a really tough question. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe something academic, something with my mind.

Okay. So you love your mind. So you're real good with thinking, thinking through things, processing things. Would you say that's So you're real good with thinking through things, processing things. Would you say that's what you're really good at? Yeah, I guess, yeah. So would you say you're good at teaching as far as maybe a school teacher, maybe counseling people? Would you say you're good in that area?

Yeah. Which one? Counseling, school teaching, coaching? What do you think both my parents are teachers but uh i both of them sound good to me okay actually okay cool so now that we know that okay we and this is not the answer um at the end of this call chrissy i'm going to have him hold on and kelly we're going to give him a copy of king coleman's book and the proximity principle uh to really help him figure out what's his sweet spot. Because Armand, right now you need to figure out what is your sweet spot at 40. But let's just say for an example, it was teaching.

All right. So now we know exactly what we need to go to school for. Yeah. We know that you need to go to school so you can become and go the route of, so you can become a school teacher. Okay. But I think sometimes some people, oh oh man i want to get a degree in business well what are you going to do with it i don't know well i think the problem that we need to stop that what do you want to do at 40 what where do you see yourself at 30 40 so armand that's what i want to recommend to you is instead of worrying about the degree right now i want you to spend some time maybe go ahead and finish out this year, not going back to school and start testing out different things. See what you're passionate about. See what you really have a heart for.

Then from there, then let's work backwards and see, OK, what are the steps that I need to be taking now to get to that point? Yeah, I would. The only thing I would add, and I guess this is coming from personal experience, AO, is, you know, I think a lot of times when you're in college, when you're 20 years old, you don't know what you want to do and you're not sure. So you only have a little bit of information, but Armand, I just want to encourage you, you can make decisions today about what degree you want or what your next step is based on just the information you have. So maybe just today, all the information you have is you kind of like doing stuff with political science or with teaching. And so we're gonna move forward

based on the information you have. But in three years, you'll have more information. In five years, you'll have more. I will give you some encouragement. It can be easy to feel that paralysis analysis when you're in college of, I've gotta have my whole life figured out. And I wanna encourage you,

you can end up where you wanna be, but where you wanna be will likely change. And each step can be a step towards getting you there. So I want to encourage you, you can end up where you want to be, but where you want to be will likely change. And each step can be a step towards getting you there. So I'll give you an example. I went to college for business, just like you said, my mom had a business, my parents own businesses. Midway through college, I'm like, it's not business, it's advertising. I want to work at an ad agency in New York, I'm going to be an art director. And then through that discovered that I didn't want to do that. But I was able to use that degree for working in nonprofit that then set me up to do what I'm doing today. But if you would ask 28 year old Christy, Christy, do you know that you'll be a speaker and author?

She would have been like, I don't know what you're talking about, but you can still get to where you want to be. You just make the best decision you can with the information you have. And as your information expands, it can inform those decisions changing and adapting. But each stepping stone can get you to where you want to be, even if you don't see the perfect path today. Yeah, that's it. Thank you so much for calling in. Yeah, I want you to hold on. Kelly's going to give you a copy of King Coleman's book, The Proximity Principle. And I want you to actually start listening more to his show. His show is every single day on series radio. You can go on YouTube, check it out.

But in that book, you're going to really learn more about how to find that sweet spot that Christy and I are talking about right now. So we're going to give you a copy of that and you'll love it. So, but thanks so much for calling in. Yeah. And follow you. I mean, you talk about helping people get their degree debt free. Like you're talking about this all the time.

So he said that. He said, I don't want to go into debt. Right. And you're right about that. So be sure to stay connected with everything you're doing because that's exactly what you teach people. Smart man. You know, Chrissy, and we're going to go to another phone call, but I got to ask this question. Let me ask you this question.

Do you feel, because a lot of people say, you know, just go and start a little bit because you're too young. You don't know. You don't know what your life will be but then when i look at like other kids i see them and their parents are like teaching them earlier on i met a 15 year old and she told me exactly what she wanted to do at 40 then i met another 15 year old and she doesn't know what she wants to do but then i step back and i'm asking you this because you're a parent like it's part of that because of parents when a kid say i don't know what i want to do because are the parents not really stretching their mind at an early age because over here this parent she she took her

on college campus tours at in in elementary school you know she was having conversation and exposing her to different career opportunities so at 15 16 she says I know I want to do ABC and it's not what her mom or dad are doing but she's like I've been exposed to so much more so I know so and I'm asking this as a parent do you feel as if parents sometimes we do slip up by not giving the proper exposure and education at an early age. Yeah, I think it's interesting. Dave and I took a call last week and the caller was a parent. He had a 15-year-old and we asked if she worked and he said, no, I don't want her to worry about that right now.

And I think so often we want to protect our children at any age, insulate them from the worries of the world that they will have to face someday. But to your point, whether it's working at a lemonade stand when they're five or at a, you know, mowing lawns when they're 13 or at a restaurant when they're 16, or if it's college campuses or just having the conversation about identifying what makes them light up. And Ken talks about this a lot. What makes them light up and come alive? Like, like I can tell you, and you've, you've even met my boys. My oldest son, Carter is night and day different from Conley. And Carter is, he can deconstruct something with his mind.

And he's a builder and engineering and detail. You can see those skills. And so you start to think like, wow, God is going to have something for him that uses those skills. Conley, maybe the next American Ninja Warrior. I don't know if that's a profession. He could make it one. But you start to see just how uniquely they're wired. And I think if you do lean into that, encourage that versus trying to diminish it or downplay it until later in life, then it does take a little bit longer to identify what they're

good at. I heard a sermon one time at my church where he said, one of the things I've noticed about the best parents I've ever met is they identify what their children's unique qualities are and they just fan that flame. They don't try to change them. Like, why can't you be more like this or that? They just actually pour fuel in that fire. And so it allows that child to grow up into who God made him to him or her to be. So, yes, I think it's definitely part of the parents, but I think if we could understand, we're not harming them by exposing them to things they enjoy, their strengths, working, whatever those things are at an early age.

It's actually really getting them to start to develop those muscles and skills that will be great for the rest of their life. Absolutely. Because I get tired of seeing parents expose them to dancing videos and rap songs and songs and they're singing and dancing everything but we're not they're learning it yeah but they're not learning that they're not exposing them correctly so I just want to challenge all the parents out there you guys

expose your kids expose them at a young age help them start developing things so they can know by 16 17 18 years old where they want to go this is today Dave Ramsey Show. We've gone through some tough times recently. Many of you are hurting right now. Let's just be honest. You might have lost some jobs.

Some of you all may be living paycheck to paycheck. You might be struggling to put food on the table. John Maxwell says change is inevitable. Inevitable growth is optional. If you have said to yourself never again during this COVID shutdown, you have already taken the first step towards winning with money. You've chosen to grow as a result of this season. If you want to take the next step so you can sleep easy and join the group of Americans who are hunted by their finances, we can help you. Listen, we have a brand new thing we wrote out called Ramsey Plus.

It is simply amazing. This thing actually helped me out. Financial Peace University, the EveryDollar app, everything in this amazing program, Christy, has helped me out. This is the all access membership that gives you our best money products. You can learn with all nine lessons of Financial Peace University, our proven plan to win with the money and budget with the premier features of every dollar and here's what i love i haven't used this because i haven't been in debt since we wrote this out but to track your progress with the new baby steps app start right now for free um where's the thing yeah i'm gonna go straight there i want you to text trial t-r-I-A-L-2-3-3-7-8-9. Trial 233789.

You know, Chrissy, when I was, I remember sitting at the beach one day with my friends. And that's right when I got out of the back of my car, got my life right with my parents. And I said, you know what? I'm going to, I'm going to get, I'm going to attack my dad. And my never again moment wasn't me being homeless in the back of my car my never again moment was when i'm sitting at the beach with my peers and all of my guys come in and i'm sure you remember these days i don't know if they did that up here though but on the west coast we had spinners on our cars back in the days these are spinner wheels and all my guys will pull into

the beach have these spinner wheels on, driving Mercedes, driving Lexuses, driving Range Rovers, driving these big expensive cars. But every one that got out of the car, I knew he lived with his mom and dad. He lived in a room with like five different people. Like no one was really financially healthy. Right.

But we looked like we had a lot of money. Yeah. And I was like, that's not the life that I desire. Yeah. That's not the life that I want for myself. And I told my friend that day, take me home. And that was my never again moment.

I said, I'm never going to live paycheck to paycheck again. I'm never going to get into debt again. I got on the Dave Ramsey budget for it. And my dad had gave me about a month prior to that never again moment. I eventually found Financial Peace University, took the class to really learn how to be a good steward with my money. And since that time, I have not looked at debt. I have not been stressful over money. Have I made all the right decisions with money? Absolutely not. But Financial Peace University at Ramsey Plus has just really been a huge, huge asset to my life. And because of what Ramsey Plus offers my family

lives, whenever I get a wife and some kids, y'all pray for me, their life will be different because of that. So again, I want y'all to text you guys trial T-R-I-A-L to 33789, 33789. And I promise you your life will change and you'll start building generational wealth and that's what I'm focused on right now you know it's so interesting because the idea of getting out of debt or living anything other than paycheck to paycheck for some people just seems like this

insurmountable goal now Ayo you know that I love to run I love to run marathons half marathons but you know what you think about 26.2 miles I can never run that 13.1 miles I love to run. I love to run marathons, half marathons. But you know what? You think about 26.2 miles. I can never run that. 13.1 miles. I can never run that. You download a plan.

And then that first week, your long run is three miles. And the next week, your long run is four miles. And one step at a time, one week at a time, you look up, you're like, wow, I'm going to do this. And then you do it. And that insurmountable goal isn't so overwhelming when you have a plan. And that's what this is. It's a plan for your money. When you can see it, you can do it.

And so that's what I love about it. It makes it so achievable for people. Well, let's keep it going. Let's help someone else out with a plan. Let's go ahead and go out to Columbus, Ohio, and have a conversation with Brandon. Good afternoon, Brandon. How can Christy and I help?

Hey, Anthony. Hey, Christy. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's going on? I just want to start off by saying the Ramsey Plus is awesome. I'm on a seven-day trial, so I love it.

Cool. I just wanted to start off by saying that. Good to hear. My question is, right now I work full-time at the post office. For a couple years now, I've been doing detailing on the side car detailing, and now it's starting to detailing on the side car detailing. Um, and now it's starting to get to the point where it's starting to pick up a

little bit. Um, and I'm starting to get high end clients like exotic cars and luxury cars, um, which is paying really well. Um, the only thing is with my schedule here at the post office, I'm working after work and on the weekends are all my days off. So I'm just trying to figure out a way and a plan to try and manage that or trying to figure out how I can eventually, you know, maybe go into that full time or, you know, trying to figure out a plan for that. Cause I'm not really, you know, business savvy it started more as a hobby sure and it's starting to turn into a business but I really enjoy doing it yeah for sure well

how many hours a week right now are you working on the car deal detailing business um right now I would say I probably do it maybe three or four times a week um and I usually do it maybe for about five or six hours a day five or six hours a day okay so are we talking like five hours each time so you're saying about 20 hours a week yeah yeah roughly okay uh do you know how much money you're making about let's say you work 20 hours do you know what you're averaging per hour income usually i do about 150 a car um is about how much i'm doing so boy you expensive 150 a car details man i got a luxury car i don't know if i'm paying 150 for a car though

no that's that is that is in line with the market ferrari still ain't paying 150. Brandon, Brandon, Brandon, focus. Hey, let him tell me what he's doing. Brandon, how much are you taking home from this business? It should be a lot. Right now, it's about maybe 500 or 600 a week. Okay.

Here's where I'm going with this, Brandon. I think you can make this side gig, this car detailing business your full-time job, but I want you to run some numbers. We're not going to make

this terrifying leap into the business full-time and just hope it catches us. We're not going to have the Jerry Maguire moment where you're just going to walk out of the post office with the goldfish

and say, who's with me? We're not going to do that. That's not smart or safe and it will take all the fun out of the business, let me tell you. So here's what I want you to do.

I want you to figure out the amount of money that you need to live on it might be the amount of money you're getting paid from the post office it might be less or you know i assume you're living on it now but with the car money coming in extra figure out what your budget is of i need i'm just going to make something up forty thousand dollars a year to live on okay regardless of what you're getting paid i can live live on 40,000. Then what your goal is right now, Brandon is to build up the business to where it can support you completely. So that's not top line revenue from the business. You're going to have some business expenses in there, all your leather seat cleaner, all the things, whatever that is. So actual take home pay needs to equal. We need to build build it up keep working on that business on the

side and evenings on the weekends build it up so much that the business can support you full-time and then when you're at that point you can quit your full-time job at the post office and then it's not this terrifying leap it's the next logical step but for a season you're going to feel like you're working two full-time jobs because you are. And that's going to be a season. I just want you to remember, this is a season. It's not forever. I'm doing this to create a long-term plan to be able to step out of the post office and into this full-time.

But in the interim, it's going to feel like two full-time jobs because you're working so hard in those off hours and on the weekends to build that business up. And that's going to be the safest way for you to make that transition gradually. Thank you so much for calling in, Brent. No problem. Thank you, guys. Thank you. That's a great question. We get that question all the time, Anthony. And the mistake a lot of people make is they do what I call assumptive math. So they work on the business 10 hours, and they think,

well, if I just quit my full-time job and work on it 40 hours, the money's going to magically be there, and it's not. And so what happens is they end up having to go back to a full-time job. So I want you to work on the business when the dollars are there that you can live on, not assume that just because you double your time or quadruple your time that the revenue is going to double because sometimes the demand's not there. It's really not.

But honestly, man, if you're worth $150 an hour, I mean, per car, get your money. I love it. Yeah, that's awesome. I love it. I want to thank our producer, James Childs, and our associate producer, Kelly Daniel, on the phone lines. Remember, you guys, the caliber of our financial future will be determined by the decisions we make today.

This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about an event, product, or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything you've heard about during this episode in the podcast show notes or head to DaveRamsey.com. Thanks for listening.