The Ramsey Show - App - "You're Like, an Adult and Stuff..."

Episode Date: April 21, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman discuss: Growing up and making money decisions independent of your parents, Avoiding false narratives and fatalistic decisions around buying a house, The wisdom of paying off your house early (vs. investing that money), How to fix an account in collections, Fear of quitting a job. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the 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. Ramsey personality, best-selling author, and host of The Ken Coleman Show. Ken Coleman is my guest today. We help people do work that they love. We help them build wealth and create amazing relationships. And we're taking your calls about all of those things right now.

The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Simone is going to start off this hour in Buffalo, New York. Hi, Simone. How are you? Thank you so much for having me today. Sure. What's up?

So basically, I'm really blessed, and I'm in a new college. I'm going to graduate college in May of 2022, and I'm kind of blessed to be making $100,000 after graduation with a $10,000 signing bonus. So I kind of got two. Sweet! What's your degree in? Computer science. Way to go, kiddo.

You killed it. Yes. A college student with an actual career. I love it. Yes. A college student with an actual career. I love it. Yeah. So I guess one thing, how do we, like, properly make sure I use this amazing salary to set myself up for the future? And secondly, how do I convince my parents that I shouldn't take out a loan for a car? Because I kind of wanted to drive, like, a cheaper car that cheaper car that's like ten thousand dollars using a sign-on bonus but they kind of wanted

to take out like a massive car loan to get like a nice thirty thousand dollar car something like that okay um I think you've reached a point kind of a gone over the edge of the cliff now in that you graduated, you're 22 years old, you make $100,000 a year, you don't have to convince your parents of anything, honey. You're like an adult and stuff. I guess you're right. Do what? I guess you're right. I never really thought about it that way.

You don't need their permission no it's your life it's your money by the way too so i mean just you know you just smile and say mom and dad this is what i decided to do and thanks for your input and by the way i may not go to the same church you go to and by the way i might buy a dress that's a different color than one that you like because i'm like an adult and stuff you don't have to say that to them but that goes through your mind right yeah now this is the part where they start to understand that having grown children who are grown is the hardest stage of parenting because you don't get to tell them what to do anymore no that makes sense because like they like they wanted me to like

kind of do the whole i guess stay at home mom thing and stuff and um like kind of be like an english major who like doesn't make a lot of. And you decide to go like be a computer genius and stuff. You're amazing. So, I mean, listen, I don't want you to be unkind to your mom and dad, but the point is you have reached the point in your life where you no longer have to have their permission to do anything. It would be nice to have their approval, but sometimes they may choose to withhold that approval. Okay. I mean, let me just tell you how bad it gets sometimes.

Like, Rachel ordered a Tesla. This is how bad it is. And I can't do anything about it. Now, you need to explain to the audience why that bothers you so much. I can't stand those cars. They're not real cars. They're a battery with four wheels. Dave likes to smell gasoline.

I want a loud muffler. I'm a redneck, and I don't know how I possibly raised a daughter that wants a battery. But she did. Oh, that's great. It's a big joke around our house. So the point, I mean, and if Rachel were sitting here, she would love this discussion, too. But the point is that she did not buy the car to get her father's approval otherwise she would have bought a four-wheel drive truck with loud

mufflers so um but you see what i'm saying so you you know and i love her and it's fine if she gets a tesla i don't give a crap george bought one too i mean i don't care everybody's got one so i don't i don't well i know ken because you're like a real man and stuff but the uh even i laughed at that one uh dave i want to say this is a real quick here because i simone here's here's something and dave i want you to weigh in on this i think this is a situation where like a lot of the advice we give on money it's like make the decision now like don't wait and then you overthink because what happens is the the the sway that parents have over their children is tremendous and rightfully so and i don't want her to wait to tell mom and

dad hey listen i'm gonna buy a ten thousand dollar car i want her to just do it and then she informs them later buy the car yes yeah and pay cash for whatever you buy yeah and then move up in car later you're making a hundred thousand you don't have to drive a $10,000 car. You can get a better car with cash later as you go along. And we're going to give you a graduation present. I want you to go through Financial Peace University as my gift. So we'll teach you how to handle money. You asked another question in the call of what is the best process. The best process is to stay away from debt.

It sounds like you have. Get out of debt. Stay away from debt. Have an emergency fund and begin to invest long-term in your retirement account. Honey, if you are very careful, if you're reasonably wise,

you're going to be unbelievably wealthy. But if you go spend $110,000 while you make $100,000 like you're in Congress or something, then you're going to have all kinds of issues. And lots of people do that. So, no, I don't you're going to have all kinds of issues. And lots of people do that. So, no, I don't want you to have a car payment.

And if I were in your shoes, if I woke up in your shoes, I would not advise you to buy a brand-new car. And I would advise you to be kind to your mom and dad and grateful to them for what they've done for you and all those kinds of things, but they no longer have a vote. That's how it works and um you know if you need their advice on something you can ask their advice and they can give advice but they don't have to be convinced for you to do anything you do and you could sense that she knew that they weren't right yeah and she's kind of going, how do I? This was a respect question. She's a respectful young lady.

It shows the power that parents have. And, Dave, I just wonder, at what point culturally, you know, did it become a thing where it's a reasonable decision to take out a loan for the dependability of a new car? 1967. I made that up. But somewhere around there. Yeah, I was curious. Because car payments became a thing in the 60s. That's what I was wondering, when that became a new car. 1967. I made that up. But somewhere around there. Yeah, I was curious. Because car payments became a thing in the 60s. That's what I was wondering.

When that became a normality. In the 50s and 40s, there were no car payments. Henry Ford detested debt. Huh. He hated debt. I did not know that. If he understood that Ford Motor Company made more money than Ford does, or Ford Motor Credit makes more money than ford does he would have been just spinning in his grave you know i mean uh and so you know that generation jc penny

was nicknamed james cash penny he was tight he hated debt and their credit cards on the jc penny at one point made more money than the stores made and so so it's a change in the way debt has been marketed so aggressively that it's become the norm. And this idea that a newer car with a payment is less dangerous than a payment. Right. That's an interesting shift that has occurred. But, you know, if you're the parent of a college student, you're younger than me. Because my kids are all older than that.

So there you go. Or you could be likely younger than me. This is The Ramsey Show. I just saw a study that really made me sad. It showed that families owning life insurance in the U.S. was at its lowest point since the 1970s. After what we've been through the past few years, I'm just lost on how people don't make this more of a priority. How are you going to make sure your family needs are met if something happens to you? This is why getting term life is an absolute necessity. Rates have never been cheaper, and the whole process to apply is pretty simple,

with many companies not even requiring an exam anymore. This is why I send you to Zander Insurance, and I have for almost 25 years. They'll make sure you get the right protection at the lowest cost possible, and they're there for you and your family every day. I challenge all of you to make sure your families are protected. It needs to be a top priority. Call Zander at 800-356-4282 or visit zander.com. That's 800-356-4282 or zander.com. Well, guys, if you're wondering whether to buy or sell a home this year, we've got some answers.

You can expect the market to be a lot like last year with prices still on the rise. But interest rates are headed up, too. So what does that mean for you? If you're buying a home, you might be up against some heavy competition, hefty price tags, higher interest rates, higher mortgage payments. You'll need to stick to your budget. If you want to sell your home, chances are it'll sell quickly and for top dollar. And, of course, it'll depend on where you are because every market's different.

But to win in any kind of market, you've got to have people in your corner that really know what they're doing. If you have experienced real estate agents at your fingertips through our endorsed local provider program, as Ramsey Trusted Pros that care about your values, check out RamseySolutions.com slash agent and connect with Ramsey Trusted Pro. Not the type of real estate market, boys and girls, that is amateur hour. Bad idea to do this yourself or to get someone who's been in the business 20 minutes

to be dealing with a transaction in this crazy world we live in right this second. Amy is with us. Amy is in Seattle. Hi, Amy. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Good afternoon, Mr. Ramsey and Mr. Coleman. Thank you for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? I'm a little nervous. English is not my first language, but I hope I can communicate today. You're doing good so far. I'm a 42-year-old single mom of a 10-year-old son living in Seattle, Washington. And I started on a good paying job about five years ago only after moving from Florida to Washington. And since then, I have been,

I think I've been doing everything right financially following on your baby steps. And I'm a baby step five, actually. I don't have any debt. But at some point, I do want to buy a home for myself and my son. But I just cannot catch up with the price increase. Every time I think I can get to the 20% down payment, the market just beats me. And I can never, you know, I feel like I'm at a dead end. And this year, my rent has also gone up 21%.

I really do not have an option to relocate at this point. So I just wanted to get your advice. I don't have family here in the States, so I don't know what can I do. What should I do at this point? Okay. What do you make? I'm making $145,000 a year. Okay. How much have you saved for a down payment?

Well, I can put in at least $150,000. Go buy a house. If I catch it, $150,000. Go buy a house. So the houses over here, the houses that I look around over here are like $1.2 to $1.3 million. Well, you're not buying that house. You can't afford that. And that's not the median house price in Seattle, by the way. That is not the median house price.

This is a fact I'm giving you. $1.2 is not the median house price. This is a fact I'm giving you. 1.2 is not the median house price in Seattle, Washington. Right, but the location that I've been looking for... You can't afford. Yes, exactly. So buy in a location you can afford in. That's true. There is one catch to it, Mr. Ramsey.

I think that I should tell you is, since I'm a single mom and I have no family, school district is very important $700 to $800 around a decent school district. So, you know, if the prices are around $800K, then the HOA is around $700 to $800K a month. Otherwise, if I buy a standalone without an HOA, it is, you know, it goes past $1.2, $1.3 million. What do you do for a living? I work as a content strategy with a company. I thought so. You have paralysis of the analysis, girl. You have narrowed this decision down to where you have no movement,

and there is no way on the planet that $1.2 million makes sense in your budget. You don't get a pass on math because you have a certain school district that you have locked your eyes in on. And, you know, I do not know the school districts in Seattle, but it is hard for me to believe that 100% of the school districts in a $600,000 neighborhood, which is the median house price, by the way, half of what you're looking at, are all horrible. So your decision-making paradigm is what your problem is.

It's not the real estate market, and it's not your income. You've narrowed down, you've created a fatalistic situation where you think you have to live in this one neighborhood that you can't afford to live in. And so it's like the only possible car is a Bentley, and you can't afford a Bentley. Yeah. Well, and I think also you heard in there, because I'm a single mother, I have no family. There's some false narrative stuff in there that's saying that if you don't put your kid in the absolute best school district or two,

if you're ranking the top five, you've got this idea that you're not a good mom. You're not doing for your son what you should be doing. And that, that again is a false narrative um and so once we can destroy that look at what's behind that false narrative dave it's fear fear that i'm not being a good mother by putting him in this school district and now that's where we get to the well we're trying to rationalize i'm paying this much for a house because i gotta be a good mom so that's where it gets off. Amy, the language that you're using is as if you make $45,000 a year, not $145,000, which you would not have choices in Seattle, Washington, to buy in a lot of areas, most areas, at that income. If your household income is $45,000, very difficult to live in the Metroplex.

In Seattle, it's an expensive market, or Denver, or Manhattan, or San Francisco. You know, you just can't. The math, you don't get a pass on math. But you make $145,000, and you talk like you make no money. And so, I mean, you're not rich. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying you don't have problems. I'm not saying the budget isn't tight.

But you've managed to save 150 000 not buying is going to continue to watch those house prices go up faster than your savings goes up and so i would start looking for a house that i can afford and um that's what i would do and you're not a mom. So I had a young lady do a debt-free scream not long ago. Grew up with a single mom, subsidized housing in the hood. And, you know, she makes really, really good money now. She managed to survive all of that. And, you know, her mom was a warrior princess that fought through and took care of those kids and did it on almost nothing

and made almost no money. And they weren't in a great neighborhood and weren't great schools, I'm sure. And yet she comes out here and she's making six figures, and her life is great because, you know, her mom modeled warrior for her. And, you know, that's what we're challenging her to do, Miss Amy. I think you can do this. Evan is in Denver. Hi, Evan.

Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my wife and I are 24 years old, and we are on baby step six. Go ahead. Baby step five doesn't apply to us just because we don't have kids. So in the meantime, I'm trying to decide, well, do I want to pay off my home early or

do I want to invest more? Um, and my, when I do the math on it, um, it just, to me at the interest rate I have, uh, does not make any sense to pay off my home early. The opportunity costs of not investing is much greater than paying off the home early. Okay. And so I'd just be wondering, you know, when I'm trying to build wealth, why should I focus on... I'm wondering why I taught this this way for 30 years and you figured out I was wrong.

Somewhat, yeah. Okay. Well, the latest piece of data that has confirmed that this teaching is correct is that we studied the largest number of millionaires ever studied in North America, 10,167 of them. Them being millionaires primarily consisted mathematically of two things. A large, beefy 401k Roth IRA retirement plan and good mutual funds and a paid-for house. And a lot of them did that, by the way, in their 30s, which you could probably still do.

But if your theory is that by not paying off your house, thus borrowing on a house to become wealthy, works, why don't you borrow as much as you possibly can on the house? I mean, borrow more than it's worth on the house at the low interest rate and invest it if your theory works. But see, when I ask you that question, you suddenly experienced in your heart risk, which your question did not give me, told me that you don't have an understanding of risk. You get your house paid off, son, your life is going to move a lot faster. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Best-selling author. Open phones this hour.

888-825-5225. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Ben and Erica are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Doing well. How are you? Better than I deserve. Where do you guys live? Visayas, California.

Whoa, a bit of a haul to Tennessee. A little bit. Well, welcome. Good to have you. And all the way over here to do a debt-free scream, how much did you pay off? We paid off $429,000 in seven years. Yeah to have you. And all the way over here to do a debt-free scream. How much did you pay off? We paid off $429,000 in seven years. Yeah, like this. And your range of income during those seven years? We started at $65,000 and last year had our biggest year. We went over $300,000.

Whoa. What do you all do for a living? We're both veterinarians. Oh, wonderful. Yeah. Good year to be a veterinarian. Yeah, thanks, sir. Lots of people looking at their puppies during pandemic and going, help. Absolutely. Wow, crazy. So $429,000 over seven years.

That's a small amount for a mortgage in California, but was that your mortgage? It was not. That was all student loans. Of course, two veterinarians, two DVMs. Yeah, okay. All right. It was like a mortgage. It was.

Wow. What a nice house we could have had. All right. It was like a mortgage. It was. Wow. What a nice house we could have had. Yeah, for real. Well, you got a great career instead. Absolutely. So there we go. Seven years. What started this journey?

I grew up in a Ramsey household. I didn't realize it until later. So I knew from the moment that I got a student loan, I didn't feel like I had any other option, but I knew from the moment that I got it that I wanted it gone. So I listened to the Dave Ramsey Show constantly, brought him along for the ride, introduced him to the name. He was familiar with the principles. And then the moment we got married, we decided to go for it.

So you've been married seven years? We have. All right, just like that. Knock it out. Yep. And that is a long time to get rid of a large student loan, but it is a large student loan. Yes. So you crunched your way through it.

How does it feel to be free? Oh, it's so amazing. Yeah. You've got to know some other docs out there that are still struggling. Oh, yeah. We had a lot of colleagues tell us, why are you bothering with this? Just keep it around and just pay the payments on it and live your life but the joke is i always say keep it around like it's a pet

haha for a vet right it's ironic yeah that's the irony of that yeah but yeah the joke is the vets keep it around like it's a pet yeah that's a that's even worse not you guys uh you you got rid of old sally may You gave her eviction notice. So what is the key to paying off $429,000 in seven years? I think the biggest thing for us is just recognizing that it's not our money. We're just stewards of what we've been graced with, and being able to just recognize that and holding money with an open hand and trusting just the whole process. We've seen that just being faithful has been so beneficial to us and to the people around us.

So you started this journey after getting married. So this is kind of, hey, we're learning how to be married, and then we're learning how to do this finance stuff the right way. I'm just curious, was there a moment in the seven years where you finally got to a place of, okay, there's some real momentum here despite struggles despite stuff coming your way you're going okay we see the finish line no matter what our colleagues are saying we see this it actually wasn't until the last couple of years so um the first probably five years were drudgery between me being in school and him working.

So he's trying to support us and do this. And then we lived overseas for a period of time and made not very much money, all things considered. And then it wasn't until really the last two or three years where we finally, we had certain loans getting under six digits. And we thought, okay, there's hope here. So you caught another gear then this last half. Thank goodness, yeah. Way to go, guys. Very good.

Way to go, heroes. Man, you took control of your life. How does it feel to be free? Oh, it's the best thing ever. Unbelievable, yeah. We cried when it happened. Oh, my goodness. Now, I assume you guys work together.

Is that a correct assumption or separate businesses? No, we're separate businesses. Really? I primarily do dairy cattle and beef feedlot, and Erica does small animal. Really? So are you in an agricultural area then of California? Yeah. Where is Visalia?

It's south of Fresno, right in the Central Valley. Oh, yeah. You're right in the middle. All the dairy cows all around us. So the best part of this season is that being debt-free has facilitated a transition for Ben out of full-time veterinary work into part-time veterinary work, part-time ministry. Oh, wow. Cool.

Good for you guys. Well, you can do anything you want to do now, right? Absolutely. You're free. You don't have to serve two masters. Exactly. That's good. Good for you guys.

Well done. Well done. And you brought the kiddos. We did. Let's have them come up what are their names and ages so we have adeline she's three george is one and we actually have a third on the way so who were your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you while you walked through this for seven years uh this guy over here this is my dad he's been a massive help and support

and cheerleader for us but really our families were all incredibly supportive through the process, which was really helpful. Very cool. Very cool. So, yeah, if you're a financial peace baby, then dad's definitely proud and definitely cheering you on. That's very good. Good stuff. Well done, you guys. Very well done.

We've got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you. That's the next chapter in your story for sure. How ordinary people built extraordinary wealth. How you can too. And of course getting some help with the microphone. It's too much of a temptation. I love it. That's why we don't put them in the shot until the very end. I blew it. I put them up there too soon.

But anyway, a copy of the Total Money Makeover for you to give away and stir up a ruckus with somewhere. So good stuff. Ben and Erica, Addie and Georgia from California, $429,000. A couple of veterinarians with both their debts cleared in seven years, making $65,000 to $300,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! I love it. That is so fun. Well done, you guys. Absolutely, absolutely incredible.

Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Speaking of California, Debbie's in Riverside. Hi, Debbie, what's up? Hey, how are you guys? Better than we deserve. How can we help? So we live in California, which we hate.

We're moving. But my husband and I, we just sold our home. That's a whole different story for another day. But my husband and I, we just sold our home. That's a whole different story for another day. But my husband and I, we just sold our home, California Dream. We sold it for double for what we paid for it. And now our problem is I've paid, when COVID hit, I lost my job. So our credit cards got behind the big ones. The $2,000, $3,000, $4,000, $7,000 credit cards got behind the big ones. That's, you know, the two, three, four, $7,000 credit lines got behind.

I was still able to pay off the smaller ones that were $20 a month, you know, whatever. So since we just sold the house last week, I've paid off all the current credit cards, which is only like $4,000, maybe $5,000. I still have about $50,000 in student loans. And we have about, because of the credit cards that we stopped paying on because we couldn't afford it, we have probably about $20,000 worth of charge-offs, just stuff on our credit. And we really just want to be able to buy a home again out of state and get our credit fixed and just get back to you know hopefully forever being debt free but i mean where i would love to do the debt free so how much proceeds do you have left from the home um right now we have

about uh before i pay off any other bills probably about 230 000 okay and you know roughly what your balances were before they were written off right yes yeah we get in touch with them get in touch with them and get them to give you a number in writing that is about what those balances were that doesn't have a bunch of added stuff to it and so if you had a card that had ten thousand dollars don't let them try to charge you 15 get,000. Get them to give it in writing that it's $10,000 and you'll pay it off. And then send them a check once you've got it in writing that the payoff is X. And you're actually going to have to argue with them to be able to get that in writing and get it paid off. If you'll give me a balance that is close to the balance that I had when this thing was written off, I will write you a check today.

And you're going to have to have that conversation 63 times. It's going to be unbelievably aggravating. And then you'll be debt-free when you make the move. You're going to have to rent for a year. Your credit is seriously damaged. You're not going to get a mortgage. You're not going to get a mortgage except at a ridiculous subprime rate, and I would not do that.

So go rent for a year. Let your credit heal. You're 100% debt-free. With your rent paid on rent for a year, let your credit heal. You're a hundred percent debt free with your rent paid on time for a year. Your credit score will start to disappear, start to heal, and you can work your way through into a good mortgage at that point. So, but you're not going to make a move into a mortgage, not with what you've done to your credit. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us, America. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Kaylee is with us in Fort Worth, Texas.

Hey, Kaylee, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi there. How are y'all doing? Better than we deserve. How can we help? Well, y'all, I'm tired. I have a bachelor's and a master's degree in biology and I'll tell y'all right now that master's in biology is the biggest mistake I ever made um I am currently working as at a non-profit uh as a supervisor I've been here for about three years and I am I really want to quit my job um I'm not enjoying my work anymore.

I feel like I've been sidelined. I don't feel appreciated. But I'm too afraid to quit. I've got my husband who he wouldn't be able to take care of all of us if I were to quit. And then I've got a 10-month-old baby boy. And so I'm not really sure where to go from here. Well, let's first deal with the fear. There's nothing for you to be afraid of because you're not going to quit without something to walk into. Okay. So let's just go ahead and let's remove all of that because you're not going to do that. You have responsibilities. And while you're burned out, let's be grateful in this next season,

whatever that length of time is going to be. Let's on being grateful that's how you hang on i'm grateful for the check i'm going to be a good steward of the time there because i've got to be so stability is the thing we're grateful for for 30 to 60 days while you land something that's it all right so let me ask you for ken goes on let me ask you this okay what do you make i make fifteen dollars an hour okay so you find a job that pays the equivalent of thirty dollars an hour doing something that as you look at it makes you excited and makes you smile and you take that job and you accept the position that they offer you, there is no fear if that happens in quitting, is there? No. There would be like a celebration, not fear.

Right, absolutely. Confetti, dancing out, the whole thing, right? Right. Okay. Ken? Yeah. So I think you have some ideas, and I think you're a little bit concerned about what that looks like to step into that.

So let's suspend all doubt and all fear of stepping into something else. I mean, we've got two degrees. You have a lot of experience, and you have a lot of talent. True or false? True. I believe that's true. Yes, you do. Okay.

So what have you thought about that you're just not sure of how you would get there, but you wonder about it? You let your mind wander to say, you know what, what would that be like to do this kind of work? I think you have some ideas. Give me one or two. Um, you know, I think the main thing is I feel like I need to go outside of what I put my education into. And that's okay. So tell me the idea. It's possible. Yeah. Well, I love to be a stay-at-home mom. I love to do at-home tutoring.

I love to. I've had this slight inclination of going into ministry. Okay. Why? Tell me the why. Think about the people and the problem that you want to solve for those people. I want you to just tell me that type of work. If I could pay you $30 an hour today and you're doing this type of work, what is it? Don't overthink this.

It's right there. You've already let it run through your head about three times while we've been talking. Just say it. What would you do? Because you have to work right now. So what would you do? What would you really enjoy doing if you knew the money was there? Say it. I love to write. Okay. Okay. And you love to create. You love to create content to help people. So what we've got to figure out here is what's the central problem that you're writing for or you might be in ministry for? There's a pattern here. When you say ministry, when you say tutoring, when you say writing,

there's a thread that connects all of those ideas. Do you believe that? I believe so, yeah. I absolutely know so. So what is it? What is that writing, the ministry, the instructing? Because at home, tutoring is a form of coaching or instructing. So there's an equipping side of you.

You want to help people move from A to B. Is that still true? Am I still on the track here with you? Yes, sir. Okay, so I won't put you on the spot anymore because I know you're live and everything, but here's what I want you to hear. There is a clear connection between those three ideas, and it's about a certain group of people. And here's the questions you've got to answer. I'm going to give you the homework assignment, and then I'm going to give you

an assessment that's going to fast forward the homework. Here's the homework. I want you to think about those three ideas that you named, and I want you to think, who do I really want to help? Well, now with the at-home tutoring or tutoring students, that's a pretty clear answer. Ministry, there's an answer there. And then, of course, writing. When you write something, it's to write to entertain, or it's to write to inform, or it's to write to equip, like the kind of writing that Ramsey personalities do. So you always look at who are the people that I really want to help? What problem do they have or desire do they have that draws me into that group of people?

And then the solutions to that problem or desire, therein lies the ideas for the type of work, the specific job or specific career path. Does that make sense? Right, yeah. Okay, so that's your homework assignment. Here's what I know. If I continually am asking, who are the people I want to help, problem I want to solve, solution I want to provide, ideas are going to present themselves and I'm going to see things that I may not have seen before. And so what happens next is I get clear there. Now I'm looking at, what do I want to do? And I choose,

okay, I want to do this more than I want to do this. This is a season of life. I've got to work. When I decide that I can go home part-time and the husband and I are on the same page financially, then we can go, what's a part-time version of that same set of answers? And so that's your progression. So right now we want to get you clear on the types of jobs that you would be fulfilled in. And then we go, what do I need to do to get qualified? All right. And in those three things, you have to specifically look into it. What do I need to do? Learn how much is that going to cost? How long will that take? And now we can see here's a path forward and we're not so overwhelmed. Once you identify all of that, then that's going to take you all the way through the process to actually identify jobs that do those things and then go get one of those jobs and then quit.

And it'll be more than $15 an hour. No question. And, you know, you've just got to work through the process so you don't land back in something else that's frustrating and, quote, burn out and all that kind of a thing. And so, yeah, hang on. Kelly's going to pick up. We're going to give you a copy of Ken's assessment process, and it's a $30 process to take the test, but we're giving it to you. And you can take this assessment.

You take it in just a few minutes, and it'll give you a real clear. The takeaways from that assessment, Ken, are really important. Yeah, what happens is you get a full report on what you do best. We're talking about skills here. And then the type of work you love, and then what motivates you. In other words, the results that when your work produces this result at Ramsey Solutions, all of us, everybody in the building, our work produces hope, transformational content that people can use to practically change their life. And so when you get that report, then we put it in a purpose statement. And what we love about the purpose statement, Dave, is what we're hearing from people that use the assessment is that it becomes a 30,000 foot view. Think of in an airplane, I'm looking down and i can see multiple specific jobs and

those descriptions and i look and i say do they match up with my purpose statement and that gives us confidence to say okay i know i can do this now the assessment also even throws out some possible it gives you possibilities we held this very loosely yeah because it's impossible anybody that tells you that they can predict what career you should do with an assessment is lying to you because you can't. No, but they can cause you to predict it. They can allow you to look. Yeah, exactly. And we give you suggestions, and so it's a wonderful tool.

Let's also, Kelly, give her the book From Paycheck to Purpose because this is the companion, if you will. Once you know the mountaintop you want to scale, this will help guide you up the mountain. But I will tell you, Dave, there's one other suggestion here. When I hear that somebody's really burned out, there's a lot of factors going on. And if we know we don't want to stay there, but we're just looking for a bridge, you can go get a better paying job that is temporary day job, meaning I'm not invested in it, but it's going to pay me 25, 30 bucks an hour as a bridge while i'm seeking the ultimate path yeah that's a suggestion you can go do that i probably would give 30 days a job hunt or 45 days a job for the main position first sure but if that doesn't work you know like by the end of

the summer by september i'll just take a 25 an hour job at target yeah because that's stinking what they're paying you there. That's right. So get your 40 hours and feed your family while you land in the big job again. That puts us out of The Ramsey Show in the books. Hey, folks. Ken Coleman here. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world?

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