The Ramsey Show - Don’t Let Your Present Circumstances Define Your Future

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships Ken Coleman Ramsey personality number one bestselling author and host of the Ken Coleman show is my co-host today open phones at triple 8 8 2 5 5 2 2 5 you jump in we'll talk Adeline is with us in youngstown ohio by atlanta rio hi i'm doing good that what's up well i'm a twenty one-year-old girl not planning to go to college

anytime here and i recently started getting all my money uh... my dad to get my money before because you know, take care of expenses and stuff. And I thought I knew how to manage money pretty good, but it turns out I don't. Um, so basically my question is what should I as 20,

21 year old be doing to build wealth at this point? I have about $6,000 saved and yeah. And you're working. I have a car. Yes, I work four days a week, 15 hour a day job. What do you do? I work for my brother at his Apple orchard. So what do you make? Yeah, $15 an hour. It's not steady income. Like in the wintertime I make maybe $1,500 a month. And then in the busier times a year I make maybe $2,500 a month. What specifically are you doing for him? I run his market and I

work for him. Yeah, do a bunch of random stuff. Prune trees. Yeah. Are you living on your own or with your mom and dad? I'm living at home. With mom and dad? Yeah. Okay. Cool. So what's your plan? Where are you gonna be and where you were you headed? What's the 31 year old version of you gonna be doing? Hard question to ask at this point I

Would like to either be married and if I'm not married be doing something in the medical field Okay, well I'd start taking some steps towards that and figuring out what that looks like in terms of the medical field part. I'm not in charge of the marriage part but the it's not my department but but yeah you know I start saying okay what do I want to be four years from now that's on my way to being another thing 10 years from now and what classes do I need to be taking or certifications do I need to get, what experience do I need to move because I'm usually you don't go from the apple orchard to the medical field, you usually go into the medical field

at some kind of entry level thing. And so maybe you start talking about taking some early steps towards that, because your career is part of managing your money, in other words. Right. That's why we're asking you all about your income, and then you moving out and having your own place. That's part of managing your money as you go with. As far as managing your money goes, and I'll let Ken speak further to your career, you've got to just make the money

that you have behave and go where you want it to go. And you do that simply by having a plan before the month begins of where every dollar is going to go, and that's called a budget. And there's a budgeting app that we have called every dollar and I will give you the premium version of that to get you started on that and But basically you're gonna sit down before the month goes enter your numbers into this app and go this is what I'm going to do I'm going to tell this money what to do instead of looking up at the end of every month and going I have no idea What happened and? I'm going to tell this money what to do instead of looking up at the end of every month and going I have no idea what happened. And then that will lead you away from debt towards savings, towards investing, towards investing into yourself and some possible education moves.

Yeah, what I would add, Adeline, is the best thing you can do right now to move forward is to get as much knowledge as you can about the potential directions you could choose. The reason people don't move forward and they stay in the apple orchard, if you will, is because they're intimidated, they're scared. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to think about, I want you to write down tonight before you go to bed all the different medical professions that you might be interested in. Everything from a 10 level interest, 201. So she could get visually what's out there. So that's a doctor, a surgeon, that's a nurse practitioner, it might be a nurse, it might be somebody who does radiology scans. Pediatrician.

Pediatrician, could be anything. So look at that. And so then I want you to begin to identify people in your area who are in those fields. We call this the proximity principle. Get around those people, take them to lunch, take them to coffee, and be like a student doing a book report on their job.

And what's gonna happen is you're gonna begin to understand what it takes to get there, that's the education piece, and the experience piece. As Dave said, what is the lowest rung of the ladder require and look like to move into the medical position that you want? And so hang on the line, I want to give you two things. I want to give you the get clear assessment. It's about a 20 minute assessment. It's gonna give you real clarity on professional direction. And then I want to give you the book, The Proximity Principle, because this is a

deep dive in what I'm describing for you. But if you do that, you're gonna have real clear direction. One other thing I want to tell her, Dave, is for seasonal people, we get this call a lot. When you're in a seasonal job like this, you need to take that experience and skill set from the apple orchard to another job or two so that there's not this dip in income. There should not be a dip in the wintertime for you because you should be doing something else in a part-time capacity or two part-time jobs or another seasonal job that is hot during the downtime of the orchard.

That's the mindset to keep your income level at the same level or create increase for yourself. It's very important. And so Adeline, don't miss that the answer to your how do I manage money question for us was the income side. There's two sides to the equation, the income side and the out go side, and immediately both of us honed in on the income side for you. So managing your career and your income

is part of managing your money. And so when you're looking at picking up the extra jobs in the down season so when you're looking at picking up the extra jobs in the down season when you're looking at making the first steps into the medical profession all that's part of managing your money in terms of the actual tactical what do I how do I keep the money that we have and make it behave well that's the budget so we're gonna give you all three things to help you they get clear assessment from Ken. His Book the Proximity Principle. And we'll also give you the premium version of the app Every Dollar, which will help everyone get

dialed in on it here. So very good stuff. Good question. Thanks for joining us. Open Phones here at 888- two five five two two five Ken is You know you coming on as a Ramsey personality several years ago and Opening up the whole career side of things even further Because we had noticed for the years that Sometimes when people are looking at money situations, they just need to make more money That's exactly right and we also realize that a lot of career problems cause money problems.

There's no question. And a lot of career awesomeness can cause money awesomeness. That's exactly right. You know, it works the other way too. So all of these things do fit together folks. And the number of times that we have a debt-free scream and during their debt-free journey,

they added income part-time and or got promotions and better jobs Almost 90% of them did one of the two or both Happens all the time because once people start paying attention They're paying attention This is the Ramsey show This is the Ramsey Show. One of the questions I get all the time is, which life insurance company should I use for my term life policy? A valid question since there are hundreds of companies out there with rates all over

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them at 800-356-4282 or visit xander.com for instant online quotes and common ramsey personality is my co-host today number one best-selling author of the book paycheck to purpose amber is in dallas high amber welcome to the ramsey show hi dave hi what's up and some even has been worth thirty four and with thirty five Hi, what's up? So me and my husband we're 34 and we're 35 We don't have much of a retirement. He's got 13,000. I just started mine last paycheck. So I have $400 in there

We have about 49,600 dollars worth of debt and that includes everything except for our mortgage Which is one hundred and twenty eight thousand dollars left our mortgage, which is $128,000 left. Not terrible, but it's at 6.125%. I'm an RN, so I'm able to work extra and I've been working extra since August. And we've been able to pay off just under $5,000 worth of debt, which is great. Um, but I can't do this forever. I'm, you know, I miss my kids. I miss my husband. Um, so that 49,600 that I'm kind of laser focused on to get rid of.

And we've dialed back or I feel like we've dialed back everything that we can, um, as far as financially or, you know, monthly, I'm just not sure how to get ahead because our goals are obviously to get out of that. But I also am really concerned about retirement age, which I know is in roughly 30 years, but I don't want my daughter to ever have to worry about What you know worry about me whenever I'm older I want her to be able to live her life the best way to be able to retire with dignities to get the debt cleared

So you need to stop putting money in retirement temporarily? Okay, and use all that money to help clear this debt That's a temporary thing because I I want you to clear the debt fast so you can get back to breathing again a normal life. What's your household income? While I'm working extra, we bring home about 8,500 to 8,800, it kind of depends. Or in, it's just, you know,

funny hour shift differential. What's your husband do? When I, huh? What's your husband do? Huh? Oh, he is in, um, he's in like a investigator HR position. He doesn't have a degree or anything, but he makes $73K a year. But he also has to pay $12,000 a year in child support. So, whatever that is. So, $73,000 minus $12,000 is what we're making. And so you're making about the same. You're making about $70,000 or so. Well when I'm working just normal and I'm not working extra, I bring home about $4,000 a month.

Yeah, I'm not talking about bring home. I'm talking about your total household income is probably about $150,000 to get home home with 8,500. Does that sound right? Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah, around 880. What's the 50,000 in debt on? We have I have a $5,600 personal loan. That's at 13.95%. That was like a loan to pay off an ugly credit card from my 20s. And that behavior is fixed. Like I'm not going to run up any debt. In fact, I've used credit cards to repair my credit. What else?

We have a $20,000 car that has 13.95% interest, 12,000 left on my car that has 8%. And then I have about $7,000 in school loans and it has varying but they're all around 4%. And then our home of course, 128. Your old credit is bad and you got screwed when you bought that $20,000 car. Yeah, yeah at that time I had not repaired my credit doesn't matter you got screwed you have a high interest rate and half of your debt is one car yeah that's true yeah sell it I don't know if we can't he has a about a 30-minute commute Monday through Friday. It doesn't require a $20,000 car to do a 30 minute commute. It requires a $5,000 car.

Okay. If you had rid of that 14% interest rate, 1385, on a car you couldn't afford and shouldn't have bought, and it's half of your debt, and you quit putting money into retirement you're gonna see these numbers start to flip for you kiddo it's gonna start to work and he's not looking at this with you you're doing it by yourself right oh no no no we are both very involved I think we both just like that kind of deep financial literacy good good okay yeah if you sell the car and you stop the other retirement temporarily and you get detailed on your every dollar budget and

both of you are looking at that every dollar budget and beating the snot out of it, I'm making every, we're not going out to eat, we're not going on vacation, don't see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there as your second job, and does he need a second job? Probably you're working one. And temporarily let's get this stuff knocked out and let's see how fast I can pay off $30,000 or $25,000 worth of debt making $150,000 a year really fast.

Yeah, I don't know if he could get a second job. $250,000 a year really fast. Yeah, I don't know if he could get a second job. He's he doesn't get home till 6 PM most days and on the weekends he has his son and his special needs. Um, but I, but that's the beauty and the blessing of the career I chose is I'm able to. Yeah, Amber, I want to make sure you're grasping the numbers that Dave is giving you, okay? If you remove the car payment plus the actual debt on the car, just what you guys have paid off since August It's roughly four months. You've paid off $5,000

You got to listen to what Dave said and put real pen to paper Right now like sit down right now before you do anything else today and run those numbers if we sold the car and right now before you do anything else today and run those numbers. If we sold the car and we bought a $5,000 car, what is that monthly raise we just got to put towards debt? I don't think those numbers have clicked for you and that's okay. I would run those numbers in a real budget. I think you're going to be shocked how quickly you're going to pay that debt off and then you're back to retirement. Here's what's interesting is you're tired and you find all these reasons things can't happen because you don't see how you're gonna get there. That's exactly once you see how you're gonna get there

You're gonna be energized and there'll be no stopping you. That's called hope Power of hope it's very powerful and sometimes hope is literally the result of a mathematical equation what Ken's telling you and So let's do that hang on I'm going to put you and your husband through financial peace university and put you into every dollar and get you guys going because you guys need to sit down it sounds like you're like 80% of the way there you're both on board which is excellent really glad to hear that he's carrying this with you that's amazing yeah that's that that's very good your boat you're willing to work extra that's amazing you've identified

that I want to get rid of the debt more that's amazing so you you've got all the parts there all I'm doing is helping you polish the rough edges off of what you were looking at and I think that's gonna cause the ball to roll and then the hopes going to kick in and weird stuff starts happening when you start seeing away then you just push your foot their eye down on that accelerator and you bust it you bust it we're gonna make it we're gonna make it we're gonna make it we're gonna do this we're gonna do this get it get it get it Rob is with us in Tampa Florida hey Rob what's up's up they've got a lawyer i can't really hope that we have a purpose of my call on them

i'm calling i want to know why i know i want to achieve i just don't know how to achieve it but you can't go quick background sixty seven on the board some retired i have an i a r a uh... i'm pulling that free of an ira with nine hundred eighty five thousand and i have a brokerage account about one 15 minutes and I have one son, my sole beneficiary.

And what I'm trying to achieve, uh, like I said, I'm in good health. I think I have 20 years left in me possibly more. It's, you know, if God's willing, uh, I want to know how I can, you know, move some money now where upon my death, my son isn't hit with the mandatory, required mandatory distribution. Well, they're not, they're not technically RMDs, but under the Secure Act that Biden passed, he'll have 10 years to empty a traditional IRA. So he's going to empty a hundred grand a year and be taxed on it the way you're sitting today. The way to avoid that is to begin to move

some of it towards Roth. And so as you make a pile of money, move a chunk to Roth and write a check. Because Roth is required to be distributed over the same ten years, but you can't leave it in there in inherited IRA but there's zero tax on it because you will have already paid the tax. So develop like a 10-year plan to move 900k plus whatever the growth is towards Roth a little bit at a time to where when you leave him with nothing but Roth instead of traditional he's not gonna have any problems with taxes at all because there's not any taxes. I did that started that on that process myself about ten years ago, and I have zero traditional anything. It's all Roth

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Eagle Housing Lender, 1749 Mallory Lane, Suite 100, Brentwood, Tennessee, 37027. So since we turned on the microphone today, I think all we've done is give stuff away, which is great because we're helping people with it. if you heard us give away Ken's get clear assessment on figuring out what it is you're passionate about what it is you're gifted at and give you some insight into some directions you can go to enhance or even change your career that's awesome the total money makeover book you know

10 million plus copies now sold. The Baby Steps Millionaires book, all about the Baby Steps Millionaires. And Ken's book, the Paycheck to Purpose. All this stuff is on sale right now at the Black Friday Extended Event at RamseySolutions.com slash store. Like $12 books. These assessments assessments are half so this is like the best deals of the year so have at it that's the thing do it right now RamseySolutions.com slash store or you can click the link in the notes show notes on the podcaster on YouTube so Derek is in Charlotte North Carolina hey

Derek what's up? Hey, how are you? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Yeah, I just need help. I feel like I'm drowning in debt right now. Okay. Tell me about it. So I have around 10,000 in a personal loan because I recently consolidated my credit cards. I was in a abuse relationship and after I got out,

I found out that they probably racked up close to six or $7,000 in credit card debt in my name without me knowing about it. And you paid that off? After contacting the banks and all that, they said there's nothing they can do about it. Well of course there's something they can do about it. And so, basically... Wait a minute, let me stop, let me stop.

Let's find out where we are today. Did you take, because you believe those lying, thieving bankers, did you borrow money to pay off debt that was not yours because it was done with identity theft basically yeah because they said basically honey that's what you did you went borrowed ten thousand dollars and paid off debt that this criminal you fraudulently using your name opened up without your permission and you paid that debt off? yeah, yes I paid $2,000 of it off I'm talking about the $10,000 you borrowed, that's what you used it for, you paid off the credit cards with it

yeah, I paid off the credit cards and then um... is there any debt outstanding that the criminal did that you haven't paid yet? no and then um... Is there any debt outstanding that the criminal did that you haven't paid yet? No. Dad, come it son. You got screwed twice. Um, basically... You don't owe that money. ...my fiance.

You didn't owe that money. When someone fraudulently... If I take your name and go open up a credit card in your name, you don't owe the money. That's called a criminal act It's fraud What identity theft is I had the credit cards? since so I mean I Followed your show and I thought you said they opened up the card in your name without your permission

Yeah, basically what happened was I? had him as like the emergency fund, never used them and then without really knowing... That's different than opening up a card. They took your card that you opened up and used it without your permission. That's different. You understand? Yeah. If you hand Ken Coleman your card and say go use it, you're liable for that.

If Ken Coleman goes and opens up a card in your name without your permission fraudulently signing your signature, that's identity theft. You're not liable for that. You understand the difference? Yes. for that you understand the difference yes so you to hand it the fiance your card and they went bonkers with your card so I didn't even give them the card that was that's the biggest thing is honey they used a card that is open in your name that's the point right yeah okay yeah all right so you owe ten thousand dollars and what do you make hun? So right now I make 45 and then in five months I'll be making 55. What do you do?

So I am a child abuse investigator for the state. That's an irony. Okay. Yeah. Um and then I have around seven thousand student loans through a but I'm in the government program right now for if I work for the state long enough They fully pay those off. You know you need to pay them off. You know it's only seven thousand dollars It takes ten years to do this so seventeen thousand dollars makes you debt-free hun. Is that right? Yeah, oh lord go get six extra jobs and be debt-free by like spring You're not working for 40 hours. So I work around, so with my job now it's a lot of on-call and so most days I'm home around 9, 10 o'clock. Just because of the nature of the job.

So you're working 50 hours a week for, you're working 50, 60 hours a week for 55 grand? Yeah. No you're not. You're on call. When you're on call you can drive Uber. So when I'm on call, if we have to initiate a report, we have to immediately drop everything, drive to initiate that report. And there's a lot of times I'm spending 12 hours in a hospital on my on-call days with a kid

waiting for a reliever social worker to come and refill it. And the other side is... All right, so you, what you got to do is you got to increase your income. You only need $17,000. This should not be overwhelming. Yeah. Sell something. It's not that much money. You gotta have, I bet you got two grand worth of stuff you could sell.

Easy. You could work on the weekends, you're on call days, whatever those are, you're not working seven days a week. So this is a season where you gotta come up with- You clean up the mess. 17 grand is very doable. But you're not a victim, okay? You handed her the card.

You knew this was going on. The only thing you're a victim of is being engaged to an idiot. And you're not the first one that's ever happened to. So you know, roll up your sleeves, hon. Get on a detailed, tight budget and get as many extra hours as you can, as much extra income. Don't go out to eat. Don't talk about vacations. Talk to your supervisor about, I'm not working 80 hours.

You're going to have to have some kind of a different plan here because 80 hours for 55 grand, don't cut it. The work you're doing is very important work and it's very good work. You're taking care of kids who have been messed up. Thank you for doing that. You've got a good heart. But also you cannot sit and be a victim of 17,000 bucks man. I mean seriously. Let me help you with this. $2,000 a month and you are done in eight months. That's all you need and you make 55. So this is very doable. You should be done with this in six months and then have zero debt. But this debt represents all this pain in your

life and so it's like feels bigger than it is. Mathematically it's tiny, emotionally it's huge. And that's why you're, you know, you act like it's some kind of big monster. It's 17 grand And you know no I'm not staying in student loan debt for ten freaking years for $7,000 worth of forgiveness that probably isn't gonna actually come because you're probably not gonna cross every T and dot every eye A high percentage of people that run that game don't end up with the forgiveness at the end So you don't want to get in that game. You want to get in the game of, I'm going to knock this out, put it all in the rear view mirror, move forward in health

and with enthusiasm. Yeah, I can feel the stupid attacks. We've all done stupid, every one of us. And that's what you're feeling. This is a breakup. She took your card. And so you've created this narrative. The way you led the call is that you have been victimized, and in all reality you haven't.

And I think Dave is absolutely right. The more you can quickly go, I've got to get a victory, and if I were you, I would go sell something today, if I could sell it for 500 bucks, or if I could sell five things for 1,000, get a quick win and put a thousand dollars down on this debt. You need something to get those shoulders back a little bit. And there's nothing wrong with you. You aren't, you aren't drowning in this. This is all a mindset because of what's happened to you and the way it happened.

Learn from it, but get a quick victory. Like happen to this. Don't let life happen to you anymore. So quick lesson folks, you need to have Zander Insurance's identity theft in place. I do, because they will take over an account that is actually identity theft. His wasn't. But actually is identity theft. They'll take it over and they'll deal with the banks.

The banks will lie to you and tell you you're responsible for identity theft. You're not. When someone else misuses your name, that is criminal fraud. And you are not liable for a debt when a thief uses your name to open up an account. Don't let some banker tell you that. That's bull crap. And you need somebody in your corner with identity theft protection like Zander Insurance. And that's why we've endorsed them for God, a decade plus since this identity theft thing became a thing. forgot a decade plus since this identity theft thing became a thing. Hey you guys I'm not a fan of the big banks and you probably already know which ones I mean.

But I do like credit unions because they're nonprofit organizations that focus on their members and I'm proud to endorse Fairwinds Credit Union because they share the Ramsey mission of helping people get out of debt and live generously. In fact, they design products to help keep you from going into debt in the first place. Fairwinds has been in business for over 75 years, and they serve hundreds of thousands of members worldwide. You can feel secure because your deposits are federally insured by the NCUA up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It's easy to join and FairWinds partners

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bundle they created just for Ramsey fans to help you take control of your finances that's fair winds fa I our W IN DS org slash Ramsey if you live like no one else later you can live and give like no one else. Ah, this is the season for giving. Generosity, man. We love talking about generosity. We love encouraging generosity. And one of your favorite shows we do of the year is the annual giving show around Christmas time. And we're going to be doing that. So we want to hear stories from you about a time that you were able to bless someone or a time that someone blessed you with generosity.

You know, the good stories that make your eyes leak and inspire the rest of us to want to be more generous and be better human beings and all that. Yeah, we're going to do an entire show of generosity. It's called The giving show that we do go to Ramsey solutions.com slash ask put giving in the subject line and tell us a little bit about your story we'll make you one of the stories we use that day and that's coming up December the 18th so you need to get this in you just got a couple days Ramsey solutions.com slash ask put giving in the subject line Philip is in Houston hi Philip welcome to the Ramsey show. Hi, thank you. Thank you, Michael.

Sure. What's up? So my question is, I am debating if I should buy a house. I currently own a little home that I was given to me for my family and I had it on family land. After my divorce I kind of had to restart over and after a long battle I was finally awarded so custody of my kids. So my kids are with me full-time but I live on this in a mobile home right now that I mean but it's fully paid for its mine but I feel kind of a little bit of shame of it because I know because I make good money and I feel like I eat. What do you make? I make about 86,000 a year.

Okay, all right. And the land that it's on is not yours? It's my parents' land. They have multiple properties in the area. And someone gave you the mobile home? Yes, my parents. Oh, they did. So they had a mobile home sitting on their land

and they said, hey, while you're going through a hard time, move into it. Yes, they gave it to me and through a hard time, move into it. Yes, they gave it to me and gave me the title for it and everything. But they did not give you the title for the land? Not for the land, just the mobile home. Right, okay.

All right. How old are you? I am 35. Okay, all right. Hey, you've been through hell and you needed a soft spot to land on. You found a soft spot to land. That's not a bad landing spot.

That doesn't mean we want to stay there, but it's a nice thing that you're landed there, okay? And I spent a lot of time, I don't really pay anything. I pay here the light bill. Again, it's a soft landing spot. That's kind of nice. However, it does not take you where you want to be ten years from now. Ten years from now you don't want to be owning an ancient rotting down mobile home on someone else's land. So this doesn't

project well into the future even though it's a very nice gift into the present. Does that make sense? Yes. so we can be very grateful to mom and dad I'm grateful to them I think what they do is very nice but it is not your 10-year plan okay okay you want to buy something that goes up in value and you own the dirt yeah that's a long-term plan there's no reason to be ashamed there's nothing to be ashamed about no I can feel that on you and you don't need to feel that way you've been through a fight. Yeah. So throw your shoulders back here and figure out what do we got to do to move forward. But your kids don't care about the mobile home.

No, I'm out my Roth RA. I was able to save about $22,000 in my savings account. The only debt I have is just a truck that I owe about $15,000 on. Write a check and pay it off today. Okay. Now save up a good emergency fund of three to six months of expenses and then stop your 401k temporarily and start saving up for a good strong down payment on a house that's going to go up in value. Okay. Alright, now how much land does your mom and dad have total?

I would say about 15, the one I'm on right now is two acres, but they have two acres in different properties here and there. They own a property management company. Is this property that you're on adjacent to their home? No. It's a standalone property? Yes. Okay. Well, I mean just talk to them about if they're in property management,

they know that this is not going up in value and that you don't own the dirt and so mom and dad I'm going to start saving for a down payment on a home Which means I'm gonna be selling off the mobile home or giving it back to you one of the two. What's it worth? Do you think I? Don't know about 4000. It's not okay. Let's give it back. Let's give it back to him when you get ready to leave Because they were renting it out before weren't they? Yes, yeah, that you don't mess up their rental property by dragging that thing off So just just when you get ready to leave just say hey, I'm gonna save up money and I'm gonna go buy a house

But thank you so much For letting me land here on your rental property for a little bit and I'm gonna give you the title of this back when I leave Okay, but thank y'all so much and just be very grateful because you should be it was a very nice thing they did yeah but it's not your long-term plan that it can be both things it can be a nice thing and not the long-term plan and no shame is in either thing is that okay yes appreciate that you're a good guy man you're making good money you fought for your kids you landed in it you got good family they helped you land on a soft spot that's nice man there's a lot of You're making good money, you fought for your kids, you landed in it, you got good family

that helped you land in a soft spot. That's nice man, there's a lot of good in this story, Phillip. Thank you, I've been blessed. But you have been, in the middle of a dad gum tragedy, you know, you did, it's good. And he saved up $22,000 and he's giving himself a huge raise today. So he's paying attention. That's right. And now he's going to get a massive raise when he pays the truck off today.

Exactly. Oh, I forgot about that little detail. We want that. It's a big deal. Dave, we've got a lot of new people all the time joining in. I think this would be a good refresher here of why we tell people if they're not familiar with the baby steps or they've just joined us in his situation, it's going to change his life if he actually gets in

order and does them the right way. That's why we're telling him to cut it today, cut the payment today. Write a check, get rid of the truck. Well, I mean, all that money that you're wasting on that truck payment goes to build up savings really fast. And this guy's a natural born saver, partly because he's been through hell and he's real careful, right? But I mean, just accentuated his nature is what it did and so just lean into that and go okay

now I don't have a truck payment I don't have a mobile home payment cuz my dad gave it to me I'm living here all I gots utilities and I'm making 85k I gotta feed some kids and other than that let's go to town baby boom boom boom boom as fast as he saved 22 he's gonna save 52 that's right and that's where he gets the house yeah that's the magic of the baby steps. Big time. And listen there is nothing snobbish about a couple of guys in Tennessee being telling you not to do mobile homes okay. It's nothing about that at all. It's not it's not a class warfare thing. It's not anything. It's a simple math thing. They go down in value. When you put your money in things that go down in value,

it makes you poorer. Why is this hard? So a mobile home is like a car you sleep in. It goes down in value. And so you don't go buy a $ five thousand dollar mobile home and then look up ten years later and it's worth ten thousand dollars and wonder why you're broke people. Don't do that. Buy something that goes up in value. You're better off to rent, at least you're not losing while you're paying payments. When you pay payments on a mobile home, you're paying the payment and you're not losing while you're paying payments. When you pay payments on a mobile home you're paying the payment and you're losing the value. It's like when you're paying payments on a car and it's going down in value. So you know I got a friend that's in the mobile home business, dude would you quit trashing

mobile homes? I said, I don't trash mobile homes. It's not a personal thing dude. It's simple. When you start making one that goes up in value, I'll advertise for you. But until then, we're not going to talk about it. I'm going to tell people to put money. It goes up. You know, my grandpa said, I'll put money. I was bragging about my car when I was in college, and he's like, what's that? And I said, well, it's kind of like an investment. He goes, honey, my investments go up. You know, well, duh, right? And that's the the thing so you really want to have investments like your personal residence going up in value and the problem of

stinking mobile home is they set it on a piece of dirt and the piece of dirt goes up in value faster than the mobile home goes down so it gives you the illusion you made money you didn't the dirt just saved you from your stupidity. So don't buy mobile homes. Now he didn't buy one. Mom and daddy gave him a whole $4,000 one. This is not a, you know, this is not, they didn't give him the Taj Mahal of mobile homes for sure. But, but that, that's the deal guys. It's real simple. That's why we

tell people to do that. Go buy things that go up in value. This is what rich people do. That's how they become rich people and that's how they get rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is The Ramsey Show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show. We help people build wealth wealth do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships open phones at triple 8 8 2 5 5 2 2 5 Ken Coleman number one best-selling author of the book paycheck to purpose host of the Ken Coleman show here on the Ramsey networks

he's my co-host today you You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. The phone number is 888-825-5225. The call is free and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. James is with us in San Diego. Hi James, what's up? Hi Ramsey, it's a pleasure to be here. I really, really love what you do for people. Well, thank you. I'm super nervous right now. We haven't lost a patient. You'll be okay.

What's up? So, it's not, this call isn't for me. I have a buddy that's very financially literate and they've made some very poor financial decisions over the last few years. And I guess to start with, I guess where to begin is they have right now currently $37,837 of debt. Their minimum monthly payments for those debts is $1,743. Their gross monthly income approximately is about 100k a year plus or minus a couple thousand. They have a mortgage right now they're behind one month on their mortgage. So they're currently at $1,500 a month. That's what

they're behind normally it's $1,250. With all their basic household bills, they're looking at around, I think, $4,000 a month, or $4,500 a month. So my thing for them is they have two kids they've recently had over the last two years, and they find a struggle to be motivated to go to their job. Well, they go to work, but they allow overtime, and he could work more than he is now.

But I guess the problem with them is they're just kind of stuck in this hole. They're about negative $700 a month. So do you have any advice for them? I know right now they're doing 8% on their 401ks because the company matches 8. I'm just trying to help them out if they anyway can't figure that you'd be the first person to call but I Recommended maybe you're very sweet. I don't know if you can help them because I don't think they're gonna do it No, I agree. I know I agree But so I'm gonna give you just I'm gonna burn a few calories and try to help you help them because you're a good guy But I think you're probably wasting your dad gum time. I

but I think you're probably wasting your dad gum time. I understand and it's worth it for me to try. Well, I mean, yeah, a little bit, but it's not worth it for you to care more than they do about their own life. So, that's a boundary you need to set. You need to walk and give us a little drive-by. If they pick up a couple pieces of information and run with it, then you can help them a little more. But if they sit back and go, well, you know know I just don't feel like working I'm sorry that one right there just kills me okay I'm broke I have two little kids I can't make my bills but I'm really don't want I don't want to miss Yellowstone on the dad gum

television I got to be home you know I mean come on yeah get up off your butt it's 12 hour shifts so I kind of understand. Oh you're killing me here. I know, I know. Waaah, call the Waaah ambulance. Alright, so here's the deal. Alright, here's the deal. Stop the 401Ks, get on a written budget, stay out of the restaurant, take all the overtime you can and sell the expensive car that's in these numbers somewhere. Yeah, so they have two car loans, one is at $7,000 and the other is at $15,000 other that's 15 Tada! Yeah almost like I've done this before, yeah.

So the expensive car, stop the 401ks, get on a detailed budget, pick up all the overtime you can pick up. They really there's nothing wrong with any numbers here. Oh and before you start before you start paying any extra on your debt, buy food, pay the light bill, and pay the stinking house payment. How in the world you're not paying your house payment of 1,500 when you make 100,000 a year? These people are mentally lazy too.

Yeah, it's tough to hear, because me and my wife are pretty, we're comfortable, and it's hard to hear and they make more than they make honestly more than us Yeah, I mean we live in San Diego their house is not their problem But dude, you don't get behind on your house payment when you make a hundred K and you have two little babies Yeah, this is just are they doing drugs? No, you sure no drugs now hundred percent This sounds like there's addiction in the house. Maybe it's three. It's three hundred sixty dollars a month for cigarettes That's an addiction for sure. No, but I mean really that there because I don't they're smoking weed

I don't want to work much and I didn't pay my house payment. You sure they're not smoking weed Well, the wife has the white. Okay. All right. I thought so. All right, yeah, because THC is like it's called an ambition killer okay yeah just completely destroys ambition they don't smoke there are no ambitious potheads okay yeah there are no potheads with extreme work ethic they don't exist so this is the problem all right this so yeah I would just say but we got there you're very nice James I think we got the best thing you could do is a come to Jesus meeting with this dude I just think it's a dude man time for you to grow up Though the cigarettes in the pot in the dead gum ditch you and your wife start acting like grown-ups

You got babies you're responsible for come on man adult up man up You're making excuses for him. I hear it. Yeah, well he likes him. He thinks they're sweet They're probably sweet a lot of potheads are but it's just you know, yeah Lee you've got to be kidding me. This is just I know this that this call went sideways when he said have this much ill Logical stuff going on without right getting down there. I've done this too long. All right He doesn't want to go in it. Here Here's the deal. Larry Burkett used to say financial problems, including when Dave Ramsey went bankrupt because he was stupid, the guy I'm talking about right here, financial problems are not the problem, they're the symptom. What are they the symptom of? In my case, it was

arrogance and the need to look cool and drive a car I couldn't afford and buy crap I couldn't afford with money I didn't have and build a big real estate portfolio and I got rich quick instead of getting rich slow because I'm smarter than everybody else and I was a stupid little snot nose and I got the tar knocked out of me because I was an idiot. But the problems were not the problem they were the symptom these people's problems are not their problem they're the symptom of what's going on in their house the dysfunction in the household

and that's what you're facing so you know another example of that is we've sadly with thirty years or forty years now of working with people with financial problems we end up spending a lot and you do with careers to end up spending years now of working with people with financial problems, we end up spending a lot, and you do with careers too, end up spending a lot of time with people that are recovering from addictions. And so we don't, we're not addiction counselors. We don't know anything about it, technically speaking. We've only got 30 years of dealing with addicts because a hundred percent of addicts have financial problems.

A hundred percent. You're addicted to porn a hundred percent of the time. 100% of addicts have financial problems. 100%. You're addicted to porn, 100% of the time. You're gonna end up in our office with your stupid house in foreclosure if you don't break that. You're addicted to gambling, oh, that one'll get you there real fast because that's like money stupid, right?

It goes straight to the heart of the thing. You know, you're doing drugs, you're doing cocaine, you're doing alcohol. 100% of these people. And I was with a buddy of mine the other day, he's been driving for two years, he was doing cocaine, he was doing mountains of cocaine. He's been off it two years, I'm real proud of him.

I said, why'd you quit? He goes, realize there's no old cocaine addicts. There you go. Wow. Yeah. But the addiction is the problem. The symptom ends up being the financial issue. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey guys, I've never done this before, but I'm partnering with a nutrition company,

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$12 or audio books for just eight bucks now's your chance to give something that'll help your friends and family build Wealth transform their relationships and find work. They. Visit ramsysolutions.com slash store today. ramsysolutions.com slash store. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Ben is with us in Dayton, Ohio. Hi Ben, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you Dave, glad to be here. Good to have you sir, what's up? Yeah, so I have a question regarding life insurance. So I'm looking at a policy through Zander at 10 times my income and the last variable my wife and I need to nail down is the duration of the term life insurance. Now I've taken FPU before before no you normally recommend 15 to 20 years

But my question if that's what is if that's right for our situation So I have other context to give there, but I'll let you go ahead and ask why would you think it's not? What is the content? Yeah, so Basically over the next 10 or so years My wife and I intend to have more kids So there's a lot of life coming at us in the next 10 or so years, my wife and I intend to have more kids. So there's a lot of life coming at us in the next 10 years. And I've heard you mention on the show before that, again, life comes in stages.

It's not all at once. And you want your insurance to reflect that. So my thought is, does it make more sense if we keep having kids over the next 10 years to get a policy that's 10 years and then at the end of that get one that's 20. Because if I get a policy now that's 20 years, our child that's on the way, she'll be out of the house hopefully at that point. But if we have kids in 10 years, I would need to take out another one. So does it make more sense to take a shorter policy and then take out a 20 or maybe 25

year policy at the end of that rather than just taking out a 20 year policy now that I know I will probably end up changing in 10 years. Does that make sense? So your first baby's on the way. Correct. Congratulations. Thank you. Appreciate that. And you're a good dad because you're thinking about how to make sure your kids and your

wife are taken care of. Way to go, Ben. Good man. That's the goal. Well done, sir. Well done. So you're not going to mess up. You're doing fine. You can do your plan or you can do whatever. The only thing I'm positive of is you're a bit of a nerd and that's a wonderful thing.

I am too by the way. That's how I recognize it. And so you're overthinking this. It's not going to unfold the way you've got it in your head. So the variable is not the number of kids, the variable is your income. So 10 times your income today is going to be different than 10 times your income five years from now or 12 times your income 10 years from now. And so that's what I ended up doing and you've heard this apparently but I'll repeat it for the everybody else out there because the way you reflected this back I know you heard this I did 15 year policies and then ever so often I bought an ever another five years later about another 15 year And then those would fall off At the appropriate time as the liability for the children go down

So the goal is when the life insurance runs out for you to be debt-free The goal is when the life insurance runs out for you to be debt free and have a large enough nest egg that if you die financially your wife doesn't care. So you got a million dollars in mutual funds and you have no debt and the kids are grown and gone. Those are the three things, right? So they're out of college. They're not on mom's payroll in any way if you're gone. And so that's going to work out, you know, and here's the thing, as long as you keep

your health, you could do your plan or you could do, you know, three different versions of 15-year policies, which is kind of what I ended up doing. And then I ended up adding one because we were building a big building and Sharon goes, I don't want to finish that building with my money. I want to finish it with your life insurance money if you die during the building. So I had to buy one for her just because that's what she wanted. It was SWI. Sharon wants it.

It had nothing to do with financial planning. It was like a Christmas present. And so, but you're going to end up, that's what I mean. Stuff, I had it all nerd figured out, and nothing ever works out the way I've got it figured out when I look back on it 15, 20 years later. So if you do it your way, you're gonna be fine. You're covering your family

for 10 to 12 times your income. If you pass away with one or two babies in the house, your wife will have plenty of money to live off of the principal or live off the the growth of the principal without touching the principal and have replaced your income and she'll be okay and you know and that's not gonna you know if you got a three-year-old and a one-year-old she's probably not gonna just sit there and do nothing and play that out for 17 years exactly that way.

Usually doesn't happen. Her life will change after you're gone too. So that there's all these things that happen that are that are hard to quantify the variables but the good news is if you got a good long policy 10, 15, 20 that's fine. I wouldn't fool with 30s. I don't think they're worth it but I did 15s a series of 15s is what I did. And each time I reassessed as my income went up, I needed more insurance, I just bought another policy. And then as we got out the back end of the story,

and we didn't need insurance, they start falling off in five year increments because I'd bought them in about five year increments. So that's an okay way to do it. What you're talking about similar, and what you really end up looking at is the difference in premium between a 15 and a 20. It's not much difference. And you don't save a lot. And it's not a lot of difference between a 10 and a 15 usually.

Because I mean you're young and the whole stinking thing is just the cost of a pizza. So if you're young and healthy, if you're not obese and you don't smoke and you're in your 20s, this stuff just doesn't cost anything. And um, but those, I mean smoking and obesity will run it up, but uh, if you smoke it's just double. Let me tell you what it is, it's double. And so, you know, that's the thing. But you know, you guys did the similar stuff, you and Stacey. Yeah, absolutely. But we followed the income. This was the key lesson.

The variable is not the kids, it's the income. And so as my income increased, I stayed right on top of that and kept changing based on what you've always taught. This was before I even worked for you. So that's the variable. It keeps it simple. As your income goes up, then look at the policy. Add a little bit more.

And you don't have to cancel the old one and get a new one. That's correct. Just add a smaller one on top of it. That way you've got them phased in and phased out. And that's an easy way to do it. And Xander Insurance can help you with all that. And they do a wonderful job. They shop among a bazillion different companies.

They get you the best price. Guys, when you're buying insurance of any kind, particularly life insurance and P&C homeowners companies that get you the best price. Guys, when you're buying insurance of any kind, particularly life insurance and P&C homeowners and car, always go with an independent broker that will shop among a bunch of different companies and get you the best deal. You don't want one that has a... Listen, if they have a football player on their advertisement, they're more expensive. So let me help you, okay? Mahomes and Peyton Manning, okay?

Two of them. State farms, super expensive, right? Somebody's got to pay for all those dad gum football commercials, and it's you boys and girls. So you state farm people, that's who's paying for it. So you're telling me Jake is not the friend that we think he is? I'm telling you that if I don't, if I see another State Farm commercial like back to back to back to back to back every break till I'm about to throw up.

That's true. Oh my God, you can't even watch football for these people. Right. I wish they'd just get back on the field and play so we didn't have to have that kind of commercials. I agree. That Peyton versus painting, that one drives me nuts. Peyton versus Peyton, it's too much. Well, it's a walk in dad joke. I get it.

And I am a walk in dad joke. Exactly. I don't want to be reminded of my weaknesses. I don't know my homies personally, but I know Peyton and he's a wonderful guy. And he does have a great sense of humor in general. By the way, I want to point this out because we have a lot of people that again brand new coming in our audience is growing that the life insurance zander is so good at what they do. It is such a pain-free process from start to finish from the time you call them to the nurse coming out and taking your blood to the paperwork. I get to tell you it is it I think a lot of people think oh

what do I got to do? You just say the nurse taking my blood was pain-free I heard you say that I did it is they come right to your house. It's simple paperwork is easy I just I want people to know it is such a easy process It is it comparatively to the other stuff in life that you have to take care of and it doesn't get more important But you you know like for instance on PNC if you go to one of the ELPs and you shop it on your homeowners and your car, you're gonna save like 800 bucks probably on average, annually over what you're paying on car and homeowners.

So, and that's simply because, not because they have like the cheapest insurance, it's because in your situation, they're gonna look at five or six different companies or eight different companies, they're gonna find the one company in your situation that is the best deal. That's right. And that's what you want. When you're an insurance agent and you only sell for one company in the business,

we call that a captive agent. So a nationwide agent, that's the guy that wrecks everything, right? Isn't that the commercial? Is that Nationwide? I can't even remember now. No, that's Allstate. See, it didn't work. The ad didn't work, because it's not even memorable. Okay.

The guy's memorable, but I don't, yeah. So, and yeah. That's the only reason I watch those, is because that's kind of fun, to watch him destroy everything. Something, yeah. Over and over and over and over and over and over. Over and over and over and over and over and over

and over. So shop, shop, don't work with the captives. Shop among a bunch of different get an insurance broker. That's a different thing. This is the Ramsey show. This show is sponsored by Better Health. All right, hey, it's that time of year when it's getting a little colder, it's getting dark earlier, and sometimes we just want to stay inside and get cozy. For me, the perfect night at home when I'm trying to be cozy is me and my whole family under a bunch of big blankets watching the TV show or reading a book. Whatever your perfect night in looks like, therapy can feel a bit like that. A time when you can settle in, get cozy, replenish your energy, and take care of yourself.

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That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Deloney. Hey, George Campbell here. So you're thinking about buying or selling your home. It's exciting, but there's a lot to think about. And all of those decisions can feel overwhelming. Well, here's the good news. You don't have to tackle the process alone. Ramsey's Real Estate Home Base is the place to find all of your

free tools and resources for help to get prepared to buy or sell your home with confidence. You'll find calculators, start to finish guides, a podcast and even an in depth video course hosted by yours truly. What's not to love? So if you're ready to take the next steps toward your home goals, go to ramsysolutions.com slash real estate. That's ramsysolutions.com slash real estate. That's ramsysolutions.com slash real estate. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality is my cohost.

The Ramsey show question of the day is brought to you by why refi. We trust why refi because they help people who have defaulted private student loans. They refinance with a low fixed interest rate you can't get anywhere else and it'll get you a payment. With Chris for instance they got his payment down 40%. Wow! Go to yrefi.com slash Ramsey if you have defaulted private student loans. The letter Y, R-E-F-Y dot com, Slice Ramsey, might not be in all states. Today's question comes from Vanessa in Indiana. I'm a 21-year-old who will graduate college in the spring with my bachelor's degree. How am I supposed to

go about getting an entry-level job when they all want full-time experience? I had part-time jobs while in school but they don't really relate to my career path. Well, I appreciate the question, Vance. I've, I've answered this question thousands of times. Um, the answer is, um, it's not entry level if it's requiring a bunch of experience. So what it just can't be. So, uh, what you do is, is you, you recalibrate and you go, I'm trying to get on rat lung, a rung of the ladder two three, or four, and I need to drop down to

the lowest rung on the ladder. And so if it is by definition an entry-level job, then they're not going to require a bunch of experience. And what happens most of the time is people have their eyes on something a little bit bigger, and they go for that, and they actually are requiring experience. So how did someone get into that job? Look lower, I can promise you, there is in fact entry-level jobs where you do not require any experience. So this is all about reality and patience would be the two words so that you see the right things and I appreciate that you want to get something a little higher up the ladder.

We all do. And Ken, I think it matters more I'm thinking about from an employer position when we're hiring it matters more if her degree is in a technical field then all they want to know is she can accomplish the technical task. That's correct. If it is in a broader soft skill field, let's say communications, okay, and she wanted to go to work in PR, all right, that's not a technical tactical thing. There's soft skills involved there. I would be more concerned with experience there than I would someone as a developer. That's a technical skill.

That's exactly right. Okay so if you got a certification as a developer we might put on the job offering but we prefer experience, but we're not going to require that as harshly as we would in something where soft skills are involved. Does that make sense? It's exactly right. Yeah. So it depends on the field she's in.

It depends on the field. So let's take that example. Let's say that you've got a degree in accounting or PR or something and you're going for something and whatever it is and they're saying, okay, you don't have any experience even in classes or in summer work, you've not interned, you've not done this, it's not the sky is falling.

Then you simply go, okay, great, so I need to go get that and so I might need to go do, go get two part-time jobs or a part-time job and I've got to get some intern experience and I get that basic level experience and so now all of a sudden I have checked that box. And the other thing that comes into play is that's just something an employer sometimes will put on there as almost a screen. Yes. Would they necessarily never hire someone

with zero experience? That's not true. They would in certain circumstances. That's right. Because all they're trying to figure is can you do the job? Yes, and you point out something. And so the proximity principle could help that. It can, and I think you also, yeah,

and so the proximity principle is where I've got people that are in that industry who I've spent some time with and now they're going to open up some doors, but I want to go back to what you just said, and that's gumption. I think you're absolutely right. Here's what I would say to someone coming around out of college. If they say, you need experience in communications or you need experience with problem solving, you know what I would do? Instead of saying like this young lady said, and I'm not knocking her,

my part-time jobs didn't have that experience. You know what I would do? I would look back into my high school and college experience and I would say, you know what, I was in charge of the yearbook my senior year at a large public high school and as the student editor, I had to solve problems all the time.

I'm not saying you're going to get the job because of that answer, but there's the gumption point. They're looking for do you want this? Are you hungry? And can you say realistically, I solve problems? You have to get some point poise. Right. But if you say I solve problems by doing this, we had deadlines. But if you look down and go, well, kick sand. Right. I don't know. I don't know and go, well, kick sand. Right.

I don't know. I apparently don't have any. Well, you just managed to get a four year degree. That was like you pushed through something. There you go. There's just more transferable experience than people realize when you're sitting in these job interviews.

They wanna see that you can think on your feet that you've got some gumption to say, I believe I can do this job. That's what they're looking for. Because they're going to train you. You're making a sale, baby. And you're the product. Damon is with us in Des Moines, Iowa.

Hi, Damon. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Oh, I just had a question. My employer has offered me to buy into 10% of our company. I'm an electrician with a small company just outside of Des Moines, Iowa. I'm on baby step two about 110,000 together. We, let's see, I just didn't know if I should continue the

baby steps which, like I said, I'm on baby step two or if I should direct my focus on to trying to get this 10% for $100,000 is what is how I would get that ten percent and I wasn't for sure if I should put my focus towards getting some ownership into the company to where I can know you should look at your boss and say thank you for your kind and generous offer but I'm in the middle of getting out of debt right now and so my wife and I have to focus on that I'm so sorry I can't do it and let me tell you why okay a hundred thousand dollars for ten percent of that company is you said it's a small company and yet you let you just valued it at a million dollars yes and I don't I guess that I don't have all I don't have all the all

the numbers on the company and He just kind of gave me. I don't either. How many employees does it have? We have 10 employees. I know this year, he had told me that we're on track to 1.4 million. And last year, we did 1.7 million. How old are you?

My wife andiner, 25. Okay, do you want to work for him for the next 10, 15 years? Yes sir, I do. I actually used to live in the city. I've worked with companies that have 300, 400 employees, and I really enjoy the rural life. So here's the deal. That opportunity will come back around if it is a good opportunity, I'm not sure it is, but it'll come back around later. Number one, I think it's overpriced. Number two, let me teach you something

about small business purchases, okay? What you are purchasing there is called a minority interest, meaning you do not have at least 51%, meaning you don't have control, will you follow me? Yes, sir. Okay, and so you don't have control. You follow me? Yes sir. Okay and so you have absolutely zero power with your stock. Zero. So boss man can decide to run this thing in the ditch and suddenly your 10% is worth nothing and there's not a stinking thing you can do about it. So you do not buy minority interests in small businesses, period.

And number one, for any price, if he wants to give it to you, fine, as a bonus, that's okay. But no, we're not going to give him $100,000 and you have zero control over anything in the company. Your vote means nothing because he oh he holds all the cards you follow me he can he can go he can go deeply in debt he can develop a cocaine problem he can do whatever and they're in squat you can do about it and your hundred thousand is gonna become worth zero if any of those bad things happen and sometimes those bad things happen not all the time but sometimes they do so don't do minority interests in small businesses period and I

think this one's overpriced and Damon you're in debt so just be kind and generous to him and say thank you for your kind offer I'm honored to be working here I'm going to continue to work and plow the field like I'm supposed to and we'll revisit this discussion later when I'll just buy the whole thing from you or something but for right now I'm getting out of debt and my wife and I are gonna have to focus on that that's what you should do sir this is the Ramsey show. It's Cyber Monday week and if you're looking for Christmas gifts that actually make a difference we've got. Get best-selling books like Breaking Free from Broke, Baby Step Millionaires and more for just $12 or audiobooks for just $8. Now's your chance to give something that'll

help your friends and family build wealth, transform their relationships and find work they love. Visit ramsysolutions.com slash store today. ramsysolutions.com slash store. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us America. It's a free call, a triple eight, eight two five, five two two five. Folks, 100% of the people that do anything successful

do it as an act of intentionality. Success is not an accident. It's not random. It's not a lightning strike and it's not a DNA issue. He's a born leader. No he's not. I've been to the hospital. They always say, it's a boy, it's a girl. They never say, it's a leader. Leaders are developed.

It's a series of intentional acts. You learn the character qualities and processes of leadership if you want to be a leader, a successful one. He was born a great husband. No, he wasn't. Ask any wife ever. There's no such thing as a born great husband they have to be developed I'm not sure if you ask me why they'll say there's such thing as a great husband yeah there is my wife's got one

so there you go. Self-described I love that. Because of the humility and all yeah but the so anyway the so the thing is this, winning with money is an intentional act. You have to tell your money what to do because broke people always wonder where it went. Rich people tell their money what to do and they have a plan. Broke people, thank God it's Friday, oh God it's's Monday I sure hope it all works out I sure hope Trump will fix my life because Biden didn't Trump in gonna fix your life honey he's gonna do a bunch of crap but fixing your life in any of it

I can tell you that it's not his job by the way it wasn't the guy before him's job the guy before him's job the guy before him's job, the guy before him. It's your job. So on paper, on purpose, you tell your money what to do, that's called a budget. If you want help doing that, the world's best budgeting app is called Every Dollar. It's in the app store for free or the Google Play store. Get it and download it, put it on your phone and start making your money behave. It's an intentional act, boys and girls.

Brian is with us in San Antonio, Texas Brian welcome to the Ramsey show hello Ramsey team it's a pleasure pleasure sir how can we help well I just wanted y'all's take on making sure I'm not crazy and considering an $80,000 new car, a Tesla Model S. Cool, nice car. Yes sir. All right, so what do you make? Well, I make $360,000 a year. Cool, what's your net worth? I've got, without the house included.

No, house is part of your net worth. What's your net worth? Okay, about 1.2 million. Okay, all right. You got the cash to pay cash for it? I do. How's this part of your net worth? What's your net worth? Okay about 1.2 million. All right, you got the cash to pay cash for it? I do. Okay, buy it. Okay. Let me tell you what I'm gonna tell you that the rule of thumb I use on this okay. Yeah the reason I ask you those questions we tell people not to buy a brand new car unless they've got at least a million dollar net worth. Ding. Check box. Okay. Because new cars go down in value including Teslas. Right.

They don't go up. They go down. And you can't afford a depreciating asset that's brand new. When you drive it off the lot that sound blump blump when you go over the curb was ten thousand bucks. Okay. That's what it is. You got to be able to you got to be able to choke that down and you can choke it down and you don't buy new unless you got a million dollar net worth. You do. Okay. Second thing is don't buy depreciating assets. Things with motors and wheels, in your case wheels, all added together that equal more than half your annual income you make three sixty were buying eighty that's less than a few in your income i'm assuming the other car if there is one is not you know not a two hundred thousand dollar car so you're probably okay yes sir

so because you don't want too much of too much as a percentage of your income invested in things that are going down in value again same thing so like i got a friend that made 15 million last year and he bought a $428,000 car. That kind of blows my redneck mind. I have a hard time getting my head around that, but it's a very small percentage of his income. It's

like most people buying a biscuit, right? And so yeah, it's not going to hurt his finances at all even though, you know, we, you know, jealous people say stuff like, well, no one should ever write. That's what jealous people say, no one should ever. So you got, if you made 15 million last year, you can afford a $400,000 car. It's that simple. You made 360, you can afford a $80,000 car.

You got a million dollar plus net worth. You can afford to buy a brand new car. That's how I just, and you're paying cash. You're not gonna borrow money. That's the three things. I was looking for you Did you checked all three boxes? Yeah, hey, he's done it the right way and so this is he's he's had to wait That's the other thing that when when when Dave walks through the just glad George and Rachel aren't in the air with their little test Yes, yeah, because I would have had to put up with the Tesla stuff, telling a guy to buy a Tesla. Cause there's no chance I'm doing that.

But those two, both are Tesla drivers. So you just, batteries. Even if they came out with a really cool looking one. They're, they actually are a cool car. I just, I need, I need like an app for it that makes some muffler sound. Right. Cause redneck needs a loud muffler

and that's just all there is to it. They do that, you know they have these cars. Do they really? Yes, absolutely, but I don't think it's enough for you. No, it's not. I think you wanna smell. I still know I'm sitting on a battery. You like the hint of petrol in the air.

That's it. You wanna smell that you're driving. Actually, I'm trying to help the planet. Well, I mean, the planet gets destroyed by making those batteries more than me driving my Raptor. I can tell you that. Oh, so you're green. Is that what I'm hearing?

That's it, man. I'm totally. Okay. I'm down with the green. Right. Not at all. But yeah, it's very exciting. It's funny.

I don't care what you say. Open phones at triple 8 8 2 5 5 2 2 5. Fabian is with us in Los Angeles. Hi Fabian, how are you? Hi, doing good sir. I just want to say first, proud to have you, my future in life. And I binge watch your show, we bought your books, and I'm currently on Baby Step 2 and we appreciate you very much. Well thank you sir. How can we help you today? Alright, so I need you to do that thing that you do where you pretend like I'm your son and if I'm making an overall good career choice, I want to be able to switch careers.

I feel like I was in my twenties going on ventures. What are you doing now? What do you want to switch to? So the last two years I did project management and construction, um, blueprints. And I really like that. I've been doing restaurants for 10 years. I went back to it because it was a venture for the startup company that went downhill. So now I backtracked. I went back to what I was good at.

So yeah, doing restaurant for 10 plus years and construction Blueprints to permit for two years, the past two years. So you want to go from restaurant management to this construction blueprint stuff? Yes, sir. Okay, so what's the question? You think the construction industry is a good career path?

Absolutely. Yes. How do I make this switch over because I never went to school or but I learned how to like work with... Does it require, does it require, if I were to hand it to you today, does it require a college degree to do what you want to do? The answer is no. Project managing arena blueprint, most people doing it don't have a college degree. There's a few people have a construction management degree but almost none in the business sounds like you've already got enough experience to get in the industry

so the question is can you get back in it and make the kind of money you need to make yeah and then do it I guess, so my advice is this keep working in the restaurant business until you land the job Doing what you want to do and so there's no interruption of income This is not scary if we do it methodically and we're patient And we don't stop working and that's that's the guy you used to work at the startup the construction business startup before where are they working it was a remote company it was uh were any of them local yes some of the projects were local yeah find out where those guys are working they may talk they may talk nice about you and help you get a job there

oh you mean like the guys you used to work with in the construction business find out where they are. That company was a startup and went down you said. Now go find those guys and run that to ground and they'll get the door open for you and you can get going. But you don't yeah you need to go do this man. Absolutely. You've already done it so you know where to look. Start looking. You got this. Walk out there on the job site, start talking to people. Who's hiring?

I know how to do this, I'll help you. And just walk in there and start reading blueprints and project managing, you know how to do it. It can be done. You already know you don't have to have a degree because you've already done it. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey, you're still here? What are you doing?

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Enjoy, we'll see you on the app.