The Ramsey Show - App - Your Resumé Needs to Have a Real Connection (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 13, 2019

Ken Coleman, Career, Savings, Home Buying, Home Selling   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, your money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225.

John is with us in Arizona. Hey, John, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Dave, thanks so much for taking my call. Sure, what's up? Thanks to you. I paid off about $65,000 in debt in about three years. I'm now on step four, putting 15% away to retirement, and I'm just trying to get an idea of what to do with the rest.

Way to go. Thanks. Appreciate it. My financial advisor and I don't totally agree with this. That's why I wanted to ask you. So I'm in the military. I've got about 17 years left until I retire. Throughout that time, I decided I don't want to purchase a home

because I don't want to end up in a long-distance landlord situation. So I'd like to still save for a home in the meantime. And what I'm curious about is if you think I should put it away in a savings account like a money market or if I should invest in things like growth stocks stocks stock on mutual funds instead i would invest because you have longer than five years okay that was my thought um and the pushback was kind of we don't know what the market will look like and uh it'd be safer to put it in something like a money market we don't know what the market will look like in 17 years right yeah that's that's kind of what i said um that's absurd well why would you be putting your retirement into mutual funds then that that would be that

would be my argument there too yeah so yeah uh you know the thing about financial advisors is they you know they need to be able to explain their advice, have a logical reason for disagreement that does not contradict themselves on turning around and causing you to invest your kids' college funds for 18 years in mutual funds or your retirement funds for 25 years. If you don't think the market is going to go up for 17 years, what are you doing in the financial advising business? I mean, that doesn't make sense.

So, yeah, I think you need to find an advisor that you can either get logical, good, solid explanations for their reasoning that does align. But if you have a financial advisor who says, I don't believe the market is going to go up for 17 years, I would change financial advisors. If that's the net result of the discussion after you're done talking this through but because i am not having an estate planner that i argue with i'm not having an insurance person that i argue with i'm not having a and you shouldn't either by the way I do not mind them challenging and saying, I wouldn't do that, Dave.

I would do this instead. And here's why. That's why they're there is to teach me and to advise me, but I'm not going to have an argument with these guys. So, um, if they think I'm crazy, you know, I had a CPA one time said, well, you know, we don't have to agree on all your money stuff in order for me to be your cpa and i went yeah you kind of do you kind of do uh kevin is with us kevin is in ohio hi kevin welcome to the dave ramsey show hi david how are you doing better than i deserve what's up um i'm 26 years old, and I was just kind of wondering what should I keep doing as of right now, saving while staying at home with my parents, renting, or buying a house. What do you make a year?

So I make $47,000 a year right now. What do you do for a living? I actually just graduated from Hiram College, and I'm an accounting and financial management major. Right now, I work at DFAS, and I'm an accountant over there. Okay, cool. So are you going to sit for your CPA? It is definitely a possibility. Right now, I'm in a leadership program. It's called LIM. And within the next two years, I get $10,000 each year.

So in two years, I should make around $70,000. And once I'm done with that program, my work said they'll pay for my CPA. So I'm going to be prepping for the test. Sweet. I love it. A lot is going on. Very cool. to be prepping for the test so wait i love it going on very cool well i i think you uh if i'm in your shoes i uh i celebrate graduation by moving out

okay getting my own place and uh being my own man and having my own uh electric bill and you might have a roommate or something if you want to to cut costs but i i would go ahead and do that and then i would just begin to pile up cash and, you know, work the baby steps. Do you have any debt? So I paid off all my student loans. I don't have any of those. I paid off my car. That's all paid for.

No credit card debt. The only thing when I used credit cards for was to possibly get a mortgage because of the credit score. I paid all those off. I don't have any debt at all now. Excellent. And then I have the $1,000 in the bank. I have the down payment for a house.

If I was to do that, my parents advised me instead of renting to actually just buy a house since I have the finances for it and I don't have any debt. But I just wanted your professional opinion. That's fine. It's okay to buy. How much of a down payment do you have saved? Right now it's going to be $25,000.

Okay, excellent. Well, we just tell folks never take out more than a 15-year mortgage where the payment is more than a fourth of your take-home pay, and if you're doing that, then I'm fine if you want to go ahead and buy. That's up to you. The thing I would caution you on uh moving from your parents house to a purchased home is um you know your life may go through some changes in the next three years and you may end up you know changing that house so uh buy something that is uh generic enough that

it'll be easy to resell if you uh you know like for instance if your income goes from 47 to 77 that may prompt you to think i maybe would have a different house you know so um it's okay to rent for a year and think this through and see you know get get the new career stabilized and all that kind of a thing um but if you want to go ahead and purchase i'm okay with that as well open phones at 888-825-5225. Coming up at the bottom of the hour is Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality and the host of The Ken Coleman Show, author of the number one best-selling book, The Proximity Principle.

So he'll be with us to answer your questions for this half hour about career, and we hope you can join us. If you've got a career question for Ken, something about what you're doing for a living, and he's going to hang out with us for a half hour beginning in about 15 minutes. And we're going to open up some phone lines right now for you to jump in with career questions. The phone number is 888-825-5225, and he'll come by and help us with that. That book, The Proximity Principle, has just gone zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom.

It is just selling like crazy. And it's the proven process, of course, to get into the job you love, the proven strategy that will lead you to the career you love. That's what we'll be talking about is his process on that. It has been very cool. And if you didn't know, the Ken Coleman show is heard on XM radio, Sirius XM. We have a, the Ramsey network on Sirius XM, and you can hear it live weekdays from one to three Eastern time. Check it out there. And of course you can, uh, also hear it on about 40 radio stations around america so you can learn about all of that at ken coleman.com or ken coleman show.com

and of course at dave ramsey.com this is the dave ramsey show I got a call the other day, and I thought it was worth talking about again. It was from a wife looking for life insurance for her family. She asked why I only recommend term life insurance instead of cash value plans like Whole Life. I usually explain how you overpay for coverage, earn a horrible rate of interest, and don't get your cash value when you die. But this time, I just had her go straight to Zander.com and get a rate. And then we compared that rate to the Whole Life plan plan and she immediately saw the huge savings. She realized all the things she could do with that money like paying down debt, investing in a smarter way. That made it real for her. It makes no sense to buy or keep a cash value plan when there are smarter,

less expensive ways to protect your family. That's why I suggest that everyone go to zander.com or call them at 800-356-4282 and get a free quote that's zander.com or 800-356-4282 joining us at the bottom of the hour, Ken Coleman, The Ken Coleman Show. Talking careers. Your questions about your career, your direction, your job. Do you feel stuck in your job? Are you trying to make a decision on a change? Ken will be here to help you walk through that. Phone number is 888-825-5225.

Amanda is with us in New Jersey. Hi, Amanda. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm actually from Tennessee, not New Jersey. Oh, okay. How can I help? So question regarding in-laws and debt.

We are $33,000 in debt, all in cars. They bought us two of those cars. They are in maybe step seven. They wanted to help us out, so they paid for the cars in cash and then wanted us to make payments to them. Yeah. Such a blessing. Oh, yes. So they made the decision on the cars for you or you guys picked the car out and they just bought them for you and financed them for we picked the cars out they went shopping with us because i want to make sure we made the right decision

so they bought them in cash uh and now they're having us pay $600 a month for both of the cars. So what do you owe your in-laws for these cars? In total, we owe them $25,000. And what is your household income? $85,000. Okay, and so how much other debt do you have other than this and other than your mortgage? My husband also bought himself a car, and we owe $7,000 on that. I'm sorry.

So you have three cars? Well, we bought the first car. His parents paid for it in cash. And then we decided we got pregnant with our third baby, and we needed a minivan. We bought the first car. His parents paid for it in cash. And then we decided we got pregnant with our third baby, and we needed a minivan. So we traded that car in. We took about a $12,000 loss on it. And we got our van.

So it's kind of a big screw-up. So you owe $7,000 on the van plus? The van we owe $13,000. Okay. So what's the $7,000 car? That's my husband's car. How many cars do you own? We have two cars. Okay.

Okay. And on the two cars you owe your in-laws $25,000? Right. Plus? Plus $12,000 on a different car that we traded in. Okay. So you have $37,000 in debt, not counting your mortgage. Yes, that's right.

Do you have student loans or credit cards no no credit cards no student loans okay and again your household income was what 85,000 okay so how fast are you going to pay off 37,000 in debt uh we're hoping to pay it off by next year, Christmas. 18 months? Yes. Or 14 months or whatever. Okay. And is that a problem? It's becoming a problem between the in-laws,

kind of monitoring everything that we do with our money and making sure that we still pay them, which is not a problem, but every little expense that we pay for ourselves, it's like, why do you pay that much money? Remember, you still have a car coming to us. So we kind of feel like slaves to them. Yeah, you are, because this is a really stupid arrangement. And they're obviously very controlling and have very bad boundaries.

And you're really disgusted with them, I can tell by the whole conversation. All right. Yes. And so the problem is if you sell both cars, I don't think you'd get $25,000, would you? No. Okay. Do you have good enough credit to go borrow $25,000 and pay them off? Yes.

Okay. Let's just go do that and get them out of your life. Okay. Just go down the credit union. Never would have thought of that. Yeah, just go down the credit never would have thought of that yeah just go down the credit union borrow twenty five thousand dollars um matter of fact you could borrow just 37 on the two cars right and then you know just put it on a 36 month payment and pay it off uh by next christmas right same amount of time to get out of debt except you get them out

of your life instantaneously. Except that would kind of break the relationship. Why would it break the relationship? The way they have a relationship with you is they demand you're in debt to them? They're helping us. No, they're not helping you. They're a pain in the butt. Yeah.

The way it sounds is this. Mom and Dad, listen, we tried to do a good thing here. You were trying to be kind to us, but it's actually putting a strain on our relationship. And so in order for us to be free from that and you guys not have to worry about our finances anymore, we're just going to go ahead and take out a loan and pay you guys off. We appreciate what you tried to do. It just didn't work out. It's not working for us. And, you know, we appreciate what you tried to do it just didn't work out it's not working for us and you know we love you and thanks for trying thanks for playing but we're not going to do this if they get pissed off at that uh these people have other issues

which i suspect they do by the way but you need to pay them off and do it as kindly and gently as you can but if your relationship with them is dependent on them fiddling around in your checkbook all the time, it's time to draw that line. And this is a beautiful way to do it. And then just get about the business of paying it off. Tell them your financial coach advised that they don't owe family money. I'm your financial coach, and I just advised you that. Because I tell everybody that, by the way uh all right liza is

next liza's in oh where is liza florida hey liza how are you i'm good how are you dave better than i deserve how can i help um okay so i'm i just this past weekend finished Baby Step 2, so the car is paid off, all the debt is paid off, and I'm very excited working on the house. I have a great condo that I love, and I owe about $50,000 left on that. My mom and I have decided that as she has more needs physically and financially, you know, because she's getting much older, that we're going to kind of merge our lives. So I'm actually building a little mother-in-law suite into her home, which is much larger. And I guess my question is, should I keep my house and rent it out as an investment property, even though it's not paid off yet, or should I sell it?

How old is your mom? She's 77. And how's her health it's been pretty good um however um it's been it's been relatively good however um she has um had a couple of falls definitely just in in a situation that we'd like to keep a closer eye on her. How old are you? I'm 53. Okay. And you're single? I am. Okay.

And what happens to her house when you die, when she dies? So I have siblings. I have three other siblings, and we assume that we would dispose of it, and that would be our inheritance and in what way have you merged with your mom then we haven't well i guess just residents i really meant to say that okay so you're just going to be a roommate with her you're going to have your own separate financial life she's going to have her own separate financial life. She's going to have her own separate financial life. Are you going to live there free? No. I plan to help her financially, so by paying rent and also by paying for some of the repairs that she needs on her home. So it would be a big improvement for her financially, as well as just having somebody to help keep

an eye on her. Okay. And, okay, so if she lives 10 years, she's 87, you're 63 and you're moving out and going to buy a house when she dies. Mm-hmm. Yes, that's the plan. Or come back here, which I love this place. Yeah. Okay.

Well, if that place is around the corner and you want to keep it as a rental while you do this, that would be okay with me. And let's get about the business of paying it off with the idea you're probably going to renovate it after having rented it before you move back into it when your mom passes. That's fine. Don't overpay for the rent and the repairs at mom's Place. If you're giving her extra money, your siblings need to participate in that because they're going to benefit from the value of the house going up. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. So how would you like to have a career you love?

Well, the proven strategy that will lead to that is a book called The Proximity Principle. It's the number one best-selling book by Ramsey personality Ken Coleman. And he is also the host of The Ken Coleman Show, now broadcast on almost 40 radio stations, as well as our SiriusXM network. You can join him there. If you want to talk to him, though, you can actually get through right now. The phone numbers are 888-825-5225. We're going to take career questions for Ken this half hour, 888-825-5225.

So now you're a guest, but you've done two hours of hosting already today. Yes, sir. So, I mean, we just took a little quick break. And come on over here. I'm about 15 feet away from your door, one of the gorgeous studios here at the lobby. And I've got to tell you, Dave, it's hard to stop the show because it's just so much fun. These gorgeous studios, there's a lot of energy. Our team's getting ready for all these amazing folks

that are going to come visit us here at Ramsey Solutions World Headquarters. It's going to be buzzing, and it's so much fun to get to do what you love every day. Amen. Good times. Yeah. Good times. All right, let's jump in with William in Arizona. William, your question for Ken Coleman.

Yes, so I've been applying for Career change, and I haven't been getting any interviews, and I'm thinking it's my resume. So I need to know how far back do I need to go? I've been working since, what, 97? No, after high school. So how far back do I need to post my other jobs that I've had on my resume. Well, I appreciate this question, William. But before we dive into your resume, I'm just curious, of all of these jobs that you've applied for, how many of them did you have a personal relationship that was recommending you to somebody in that company? So it could have been a mutual relationship with that hiring manager. It could be somebody that worked at that company that would vouch for you and walk your resume

into that person saying, hey, William applied online, but let me tell you about William. I've known William for X amount of years. I think William's a great culture fit. I think he's worth giving an interview. How many times did that happen? None, because all these jobs that I've been applying, I don't know anybody in these careers. Except for the last one that I just applied for, I do have someone that knows the hiring manager, and he texted him my information, so that's about it. Okay, and so have you heard back on that one?

No, I haven't. How long ago was that? This was maybe a week ago okay but again we don't want him texting well now that's nice that's a very nice personal connection but we really want that person to vouch for you and and if they can have a nice face-to-face could be just a five second hey i'm bringing my friend williams resume to you he's applied online i texted you about it i think it'd be a great fit are you interested because this way we get some closure but again let me address what you said because i get this call every day dave on the ken coleman show well

i don't know anybody there well that's what you think and maybe you don't know somebody in a one to one connection meaning if you think about all of your relationships, William, you don't know somebody personally in those companies. But my question is, how many people do you know in your area? Think about your zip code, your city. How many people would you say that you know on an acquaintance level or on a very close personal level? How many people? Ballpark? I would say maybe 20, 25 people. How many people, Ballpark, do you think those 20 to 25 people know in your area? How many? It's about the same.

It's about the same. Yeah, but collectively. A lot of people. Collectively. We're talking about hundreds, correct? If you think about everybody. Yeah, yeah. That is how you go about getting jobs.

There's a guy by the name of Mark Granovetter who did a study several years ago. He's a well-known sociologist, and he said he found, Dave, that most people get jobs through their acquaintances, not the close personal network. So what you've got to be doing practically here, William, is you've got to be talking to everybody that you know in any kind of social circle that you run in and say, Hey, I'm applying at company XYZ. Do you know in any kind of social circle that you run in and say, hey, I'm applying at company XYZ. Do you know anybody that works there? And then it's like turning over rocks. At some point, you're going to get to a yes.

And then it's very simple. Would you be willing to vouch for me and tell them that you know me? And use the Ken Coleman resume. It's free at kencoleman.com. We're hearing every week that people are getting calls because our resume looks different than everybody else's because it starts with who i know and dave we've talked about this a lot to get hired at ramsey solutions you got to know somebody william um your resume is useless it's worthless without a relationship that's right it's not no

one is going to just go oh look at this resume i'm calling this guy it just doesn't happen we had 26 000 applications at ramsey to go to work last year we hired 200 wow not one of them not one of them did we hire because we went would you look at that resume that's right it just doesn't work that way when you're hiring folks and so you can't write a resume that's impressive enough without a relationship what ken's saying you've it's like who you know matters well yeah it does it does and it's not that you have to have politics or good old boy network or something like that it's just a matter of a friendly face.

My favorite story, Catherine, who does social media for me and Anthony O'Neill does a phenomenal job. I remember getting to interview her and the personalities are at the very end. So the team really liked her and they felt it was a really good fit. And so I got to sit down with her and she showed me the Ken Coleman resume template. She showed it to me in the meeting with me and Jeremy Breland. And I smiled because right at the top, under who you know, she said, I have a very good friend who has known Christy Wright for over a decade. Now, let me tell you something. As soon as I read that, I went, oh, so tell me about that relationship with Christy. And guess what? I was able to go talk to Christy, and Christy could vouch for Catherine because of the relationship that

Catherine demonstrated that was a mutual relationship between her and Christy Wright. That's how it works. So the resume template that even we provide is worthless if you don't do the homework and get an endorsement from somebody that is in that company. That's how you get calls back. It's just got to get you out of the pile. That's exactly right. You get a shot.

That's right. And then you've got to go in and do the interview, and you've got to knock that out of the park. And you've got interview guidelines and resume guidelines for free at KingColeman.com. That's right. And then you've got to go in and do the interview, and you've got to knock that out of the park. And you've got interview guidelines and resume guidelines for free at KenColeman.com. That's right. And we just added a third, the touchpoint timeline. How do you follow up after the interview? How do you do it the right way to stay top of mind? All three of those are free, KenColeman.com.

Yeah, it's a fine line between pestering and following up. That's exactly right. And it's attitude and staging and messaging. How about the handwritten note, which has become a thing of the past, but to this day sends much more of a personal brand message than anything else you can do? Yep. Just a handwritten note.

Yep. Two lines. I'm super grateful that you gave me a shot to have an interview with this company. Yep. So listen to this one. Guy walks into our new building with a balloon helium balloon we're not open yet it's a balloonogram but our guys don't know this so security guys are like gonna take this balloon out yeah of course and because there's no telling

right and all it was was some guy trying to get a meeting with me you know what that's cute but sorry balloon guy yeah a balloon without a relationship it's gonna get you an escort it just just gets popped it's so true though i mean you got to give him credit for creativity. It's cute. I did. I gave him. But other than that, it doesn't work. The credit was a nice grin, and we moved on. No credibility. Yeah. High on creativity, low on credibility.

Well, because, you know, it just kind of weirded people out a little bit. Well, yeah. And, yeah. I bet you've never gotten a Blunogram. No. You're right. I didn't even know that that existed until about 37 seconds ago. But, I mean, we should never. That's kind of what your resume, though, is. I mean, it really is that.

It is. Except it doesn't weird people out, hypothetically. Here's what we know from multiple HR studies. Hiring managers spend, on average, Dave, six to 60 seconds scanning a resume. Oh, 60 is really generous. So you think about that. What can they take away from a sheet of paper in 6 to 10 seconds? You are essentially anonymous. They know nothing about you.

And so it just proves the point. There's very few skills that are so unique that they leap off the page and grab the hiring manager by the throat. They're just not. I mean, I'm sorry guys. I wish you were that special. And please don't carry a balloon around. So, KenColemanShow.com.

Is that where they get that stuff? KenColeman.com. KenColeman.com. KenColeman.com. And back with your calls for Ken on your careers. Author of the number one bestselling book, The Proximity Principle. There it is, baby. It's a big deal.

This is The Dave Ramsey personality, Ken Coleman. The book is The Proximity Principle, the proven strategy that will lead to the career you love. We're taking career questions this half hour. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Lashay is with us in Virginia. Hi, Lashay. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi. Hi. How can Ken help? So I have two jobs. One, they're both like $12 an hour. The second one is in car sales. And I'm looking to take that one on full time and let the first one go because there's no extra hours I can get with that one. And I pretty much know the answer, but I kind of just needed confirmation because I don't really talk to anybody about my situation.

Well, I appreciate you calling. So what do you think the answer is? What are you supposed to do? I want to hear you say it. The car sales. Yeah. Are you doing well in that role? Are you selling cars, seeing some growth?

Well, it's been like internet, BDC department, but I think, well, I'm going to do, I think I'm going to get into the actual car sales part. Sorry, I'm getting emotional. That's okay. That's okay. Why are you emotional? What's going on? Because my last time that I was in car sales, I

was not treated right. And that was last year, and I was just afraid, so. Well, let me share something with you. Because of that painful experience, you know what to look out for, don't you? Yes. Yeah. So have you been in this situation, this part-time job, long enough to assess the culture and make sure there's no hurtful people, it's not a toxic environment?

Have you been able to assess that and say, okay, this is not the same kind of place? Yes, I have been able to assess. It's definitely not the same environment. Well, that's great news. So there's nothing for you to be afraid of. Here's the thing. Car sales is not bad. People are.

That's exactly right. Car sales is not the common denominator. Bad people is the common denominator that you're looking for. You can do anything. You can do the most holy, wonderful thing in the world, whatever that thing is, the most righteous thing in the world, and get around toxic people. So people are the common denominator that you've got to watch for. It's not car sales.

That's exactly right. So have confidence and don't put up with that again. And I think you're strong enough to be able to handle that. And I think that you take this thing. My question is, this is a financial play for you. So what are you unsure of that are factual things that you need to get answers to before you decide to take this full-time gig? Well, I have to pay child support.

And I'm just afraid I don't want to get fired, because last time I got fired, and I was unemployed for six months because I was afraid to go into another dealership. And then the whole unemployment thing is just not, and I was just afraid to jump into like a McDonald's or something. So I kind of just, I held on to unemployment as long as I could, and then I got tired, and I finally just started applying. I got these two jobs. Well, here's the deal. Lashay, you are gripped with fear because of the responsibilities that you have,

but you are allowing things that have happened in your past to color your future. And you've got to make some decisions that am I going to learn from the past? You were fired. You had a toxic situation. You need to make sure before you make this move that you have learned what you needed to learn from those things and ask yourself, can I make changes? Have I made the changes? So this isn't going to happen again? And then you understand that, hey, I'm going to go in and do a great job.

And instead of being afraid of being fired, you're going to be motivated by the child support, by the other financial decisions that you're going to be able to make and thrive with because you're selling more cars. That needs to be your focus not fear but looking forward well shay i think what happens is the more experience you have the less pain you're willing to tolerate from people misbehaving my uh my tolerance for that kind of pain is almost zero. If somebody's going to misbehave, I get done really, really, really fast now. And that's because of wisdom, because I've put up with crap off of different situations, and it didn't play well for me. In other words, I tried to tolerate the pain. And so my pain tolerance for BS is just real low.

And so yours is much lower than it was at the last gig. You'll go find another dealer job real fast, and you'll just move on if these people start that same routine. So the good news is I think Ken's right. You've learned, and you're going to be fine. Alan is with us in Georgia. Alan, your question for Ken Coleman. Hi there. Thanks so much for taking my call sure i'm uh i'm in a 100 commission sales job and the money is sort of drying up i've got a one month old baby at home and i've got really

no other skills that are demonstrable outside of sales, but I really don't want to keep being in sales because of these uneven paychecks that are just driving me crazy. You know, I'm on baby step true. I'm trying to budget. I'm trying to, you know, build wealth, but it's just, you know, like last month was great. I made $6,000, but this month I'm like, I don't even think I made two. Well, a couple of things, Alan. First of all, you're lying to yourself, and you need to understand what you just said. You said you have no transferable skills to offer this economy other than selling. And that's just preposterous, and I think that you're feeling defeated. I think you're feeling defeated because of the ups and downs of a 100% commission job, which that's what you signed up for.

That's the price of admission. But I'm just here to inject some confidence into you that you're feeling defeated because of fear. You're so gripped with fear because you're in baby step two. You got that one month old and you've got more responsibility on your head than you've ever felt in your life because of that baby. And the reality is, is that you do have a lot more to offer. So let's at least address that. If you want to get out of that 100% commission job and get something more steady, you do have a lot to offer.

Alan, how long have you been selling? About a year, a little more than a year. So what's been your income for one year? What's your annualized income in this straight commission role? I suppose it was around $40,000. I know from March to December of 2018, I made about $32,000. Okay. And what are you selling?

Insulation. Insulation, like home insulation? That's right. Okay. All right. Cool. All right. And how old are you 21 oh okay cool uh yeah you're just you're overwhelmed as a new dad and a young guy getting started let me tell you uh as an old guy the highest paid profession in america is sales

that's right it is not doctors it is not lawyers it's right. It is not doctors. It is not lawyers. It's not even CEOs. The highest paid profession is sales. You have proven in a straight commission environment at 21 freaking years old. That's right. That you can sell. Now, what you need to do is find another sales job quick. Ding, ding, ding. That has a base to it and gets rid of some of the desperation.

And when some of the desperation leaves, you'll do a lot better because you'll relax a little bit and make sure it is a product line that you're very, very, very proud of. I shared an article today on the Ken Coleman Show, Alan, that said there's 1.4 million jobs above and beyond the amount of people that are unemployed. So we've got a massive, massive surplus. And companies are saying, hey, we'll just take you and train you on the job. But Alan, you're a successful sales guy selling insulation. Your homework assignment today, before you go to bed tonight, I'd come up with five to ten legitimate, they're out there, they're looking for somebody,

products or services that you personally could get excited about and that you believe has a much bigger upside than insulation. And I would be going after those gigs. You can handle it. Your favorite thing that you already know something about. It's a hobby. It's, you know, you're a gun guy. You love guns.

You need to be in the gun business. You're a fisherman. You need to be tying flies and working with the people on the fishing. There is something that you are fired up about and you already know a lot about because you can't stop from reading about it because it's your favorite thing. That's exactly right. You need to be selling that, dude, and you can make a lot of money. Hold on.

We're going to send you a copy of Ken's book, The Proximity Principle. You've got a great future ahead of you because you're a good man. It's a good man that's worried about feeding his one-month-old. I love you, man. You're awesome. Very good stuff. Ken Coleman, thanks for dropping by. Thanks, Dave.

Always a pleasure. The Dave Ramsey Show, that puts this hour in the books. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section. Thanks for listening.