The Ramsey Show - No One Gets Peace From Disorganized Chaos

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

💵 Sign-up for EveryDollar today - The simplest way to budget for your life! Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman answer your questions and discuss: "How can I help my girlfriend deal with her ex-husband," "What do we need to know to sell our business?" "Should we pause the Baby Steps to buy a storm shelter?" "How do I budget extra money every month?" "Getting a spouse on board with the Baby Steps," "We disagree about selling our rental," "Is giving excessively the same as over spending?" Support Our Sponsors: BetterHelp Zander Insurance Yrefy Health Trust Financial Next Steps 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET or click here! 📈 Get Dave's personal playbook on investing and real estate. 👕The NEW Ramsey Merch is here! Shop Yetis, sweatshirts, hats and more! These 6 new arrivals are exclusively available only at the Ramsey Store. 💰 Enter the $3,000 Ramsey Cash Giveaway today! Enter daily to increase your chances of winning weekly $500 prizes or the $3,000 grand prize.  Listen to more from Ramsey Network 🎙️ The Ramsey Show   🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 💰 George Kamel 💼 The Ken Coleman Show 📈 EntreLeadership Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

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Dexter is in Philadelphia. Hi, Dexter. How are you? Good. How are you doing today, guys? Better than I deserve. What's up? Good. How are you doing today, guys? Better than I deserve. What's up? Awesome.

Awesome. Very good. Long-time listener here and really appreciate your show and how you guys really help a lot of people and things like that. I have under circumstances, I met a very beautiful woman who I plan to be with for the rest of my life and we're dealing with a situation where she is trying to basically get visitation for her daughter and she has been under a lot of financial stress and apparently I've been you know trying to do a lot to help with the circumstances.

A lot of lawyer fees. The gentleman she had been married to is very hostile. I believe he has a condition or something. I guess it's more of a controlling control person. I'm trying to do a lot of things to help in finance. And I just bought a home myself and I have paid, you know, pretty much for the home and I'm renovating and it's taken a lot of my finances out. Uh, I have four months to try to get moved in, but I've, you know, have a lot of financials to re re re, uh, renovate the place. So I'm kind of doing it on my own. Um, so due to conditions,

my, my, the girl I'm dating is actually trying to see, get visitation to her her daughter and uh he won't allow her to see her daughter and she had the cops come out to try and visitation to have visitation and and she just he won't allow her to see her daughter and he's controlling the daughter by buying gifts and doing a lot of things to control uh the relationship of you you know, of that situation. Gotcha. I gotcha. Okay. So you're dating a hot mess. Yes. Yeah. Yes. No doubt. Okay. How can we help? I'm trying to figure out, um, she, she doesn't want me to help her somewhat financial. She's really like saying,

look, I got this. This is my mess. You, you know, she's she doesn't want me to help her somewhat financially. She's really like saying, look, I got this. This is my mess. You, you know, she's, you know, stating that don't get involved or don't, you know, try not to. And so I'm helping out. She's also helping me write a new place. So then I try to, you know, help her with other things and do things to whatever I can do.

She allowed me to help with. Um, and she's in a situation where all her finances are into a lawyer who is fighting so she can even just get visitation. And she's basically in debt with her family because her family has given her money to help out with the situation. Um, what does she make a year? Uh, family because her family has given her money to help out with the situation. What does she make a year? She makes probably, I want to say, maybe $50,000 a year, $55,000.

Okay. All right. So you've still not asked a question, but I'll just go ahead and give you a comment or two, okay? Okay. a comment or two okay okay um number one do not contribute money to someone's situation that you are not married to yes if you're married it's now your problem if you're not married you can cheer you can uh be a shoulder to cry on uh you can be angry with her you can participate emotionally and relationally in her fight um and so forth but do not transfer money you're going to change the tone of your relationship if you do and you're going to regret it later do not pay her bills when you are not married to her under any circumstances period i've been doing this a long time 100 of the time people do this they wish they didn't for one reason or another it

always bites you later in the butt don't do that okay that's very it's a true statement yes now then on top but but i want you to be supportive for her. She's obviously going through a hard time. You're obviously emotionally invested, and that's cool. I've got no issue with that at all. Have at it. You're supporting somebody you care about, and they're going through a hard time. Do it.

That's what good people do. You're a good man. Okay. As far as your house goes, you just bought a house. You've got to renovate. Okay? And if you didn't have the money to do the renovation, you shouldn't have bought a house you got to renovate okay and um if you didn't have the money to do the renovation you shouldn't have bought a house that needed renovation so you need to step in there and

get that sucker done and get moved into it but again that's got nothing to do with her finances it's as if you told me two different stories you have the story of the house which is completely independent of the story of her except the part where she's helping you sweep and do some of the renovation or whatever she maybe she's swinging you sweep and do some of the renovation or whatever she maybe she's swinging a hammer and hanging drywall i don't know what she's doing but uh but you know that part there's a little bit of overlap but the rest of these are two separate stories and they need to remain two separate stories yes true okay and so and i think what you're what you're struggling with is you've fallen for her,

which is not a bad thing. I'm not saying she's not worthy of that. And so you're starting to want to treat this like a marriage situation before it is. And I'm telling you, when it's a marriage situation, you're all in, buddy. You signed up for the trip. You take the trip. But until then, you're just a supportive boyfriend.

Yeah, and I'll just add, Dexter, Dave's 100% right. So don't think that the out here is to go ahead and make the marriage happen, because I can hear it all over yourself, your voice. She said she didn't need help. It's my mess. But I can hear the but coming, and I think you need to wait. This thing needs to resolve itself before you guys get married. That's just my opinion, but don't think all of a sudden that what Dave said is, well, the asterisk is,

if I marry her now, now I can jump into this. And I think you've got financial troubles. You're not clear as you need to be financially with some margins, so you're just going to have to wait this thing out. Yeah, get the house renovated, get the visitation settled, and then you're both dealing from strength, not weakness, to build a quality relationship. And I think Dr. John Deloney, where he's sitting here, will just channel our own inner Dr. Deloney. I like channeling any inner doctor stuff because I don't have a doctor,

so there you go. I have a doctor, but I am not a doctor. Does that mean we have to take the same medication he does? I hope not. I wouldn't want to have those. I don't have any tattoos or I wouldn't want to have that twitch. If I do this, I look silly. He looks cool when he does it. But I think you're right. I mean, I think we got to be careful here. Let's get through this time. Yeah. Deal in relationships from strength. And you don't make yourself better when you're hurting by marrying someone. That just brought your hurt into the marriage is all it does. Or your battle or your, God help you, a house renovation.

I'm not sure which one I'd rather have. This is The Ramsey Show. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. This is the season for Halloween. It's October. We're wearing costumes and we're wearing masks. If you haven't started planning your costume yet, get on it. And while you're thinking about it, I want you to be honest.

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so glad you are here. Well, graduation season is here, and so the goods are here for the graduates. Ken's a brand-new bestseller, Find the Work, You're Wired to Do, which includes the famous Get Clear assessment. And you get an assessment code built into it. Almost 100,000 folks have bought the assessment and taken it online at ramseysolutions.com. Now you get the book that tells you how to read and go through the results and how to apply the results. That's a great gift for a graduate.

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Hi, Jeff. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How's it going? Better than I deserve, sir. What's up in your world? Not a whole lot. I have a unique situation right now. Me and my wife, we created and started a spray foam business. And we have the opportunity right now to actually sell out our business.

Quick background on us is my wife, she's a stay at home mom. She's a home school teacher. Um, we live out in the middle of nowhere and kind of out in the middle of nowhere where there's no phone reception. Yeah. Just as you said that your phone cut out. That's so perfect. Yeah. Are you back? Are you back with me? Yeah, I'm here. Are you there?

Yeah, sort of. Okay, so you've got a spray foam business. Somebody's offering to buy it. Tell me about it. Yeah, so it generates about $175,000 to $400,000 a year. We run on about a 58% to 60% profit margin, and we're just trying to figure out we're not, you know, a business kind of people, so we're just trying to figure out what we need to do. We're trying to figure out the're not you know a business kind of people so we're just trying to figure out what we need to do we're trying to figure out the value of the business how to structure the sale of the business and what to do with the money after we get the money okay who's offering to buy it

um another guy another contractor who actually just recently purchased another spray foam business so he kind of wants to uh i guess control the market and keep his employees um busy five days a week non-stop so that's kind of what his objectives are okay when you say you made when you say you made a 60 margin on 200 000 that's 120 000 uh profit but that does that include paying you uh so we generally don't really take a salary. We kind of like pay our bills. Yeah, are you working in the business? Yeah, we kind of just hold on to it.

Okay, so if I were going to buy the business, I'd have to hire somebody to do what you do because I'm not going to spray the phone. Easy. Right, so I'm trying to put a value on the business. So the value of the business is the net profit after every piece of labor has been paid, and you haven't paid yourself labor out of that $120,000. So if I hired someone to do what you do for your business, I might have to pay them $60,000, right?

Yep. About that. Yep. Okay. Which means we might make $50,000 or $60,000 net profit on your business. Does that sound about right? Yep. Sounds about right? Yep. Sounds about right. And what's the guy offering you for your spray foam business? We're figuring right around $135,000. Little low. Little low.

Yeah. So if you net $50,000 on it, okay, and I want to make 25% rate of return on my money, I would pay $200,000 for the business. Really? And I would make 25% on my money. Interesting. Invest $200,000, make 50%. That's 25%.

You follow me? That's pretty. Right. It's like kind of playing the stock market. If you had 25. That's 25%. You follow me? That's pretty. Right. It's like kind of playing the stock market. If you had 25%. Yeah, 25%. It's a good rate of return on a small business, which is higher risk than the stock market. Right.

Exactly. So your business, if you only wanted to make 20% on your money, then your business is worth 250,000. Right. I see what you're saying. So your business is worth more250,000. Right. I see what you're saying. So your business is worth more than $135,000. Interesting. Okay.

Well, that's good to know. So then how would that be structured? Cash. Like I said, we're not into the cash. Yeah. Okay. Just straight up, no loans or anything like that. So if you can get $135,000 can get 135 to 150 cash and walk away and you're smiling

and you're happy and you're glad you did it that's probably okay that's probably okay it's a little low but it's cash on the barrel head the guy has to go scratch the money together from somewhere then you you know you may have sold it a little cheap but you got your money all up front you're done no questions asked everything's over okay all right and then so with that money um you know we do have some bills that we like to pay is there anything specific that you would suggest that we should do pay our bills off first and then worry about saving for the future yes what do you think yeah we recommend getting out of debt which is baby step two how much debt do you have not counting your house? Well, that's kind of the interesting thing. So we own 92 acres, and we built a house.

So we bought some property, I want to say, in 2018, and we paid about $3,500 an acre. Right now the value of that land is probably around our area is about 8 500 bucks an acre so the uh that's your that's where you live yeah okay how much debt do you have not counting where you live okay um then we would probably be sitting at about 72 000 okay first thing we do is clear all that and then you raise your right hand and never borrow money again what are you gonna do what are you gonna do for a living after you sell this Okay, first thing we do is clear all that, and then you raise your right hand and never borrow money again. Exactly. What are you going to do for a living after you sell this?

So that's the other side of our business. We run a trucking company as well. A what company? I'm going to hop a trucking company. Oh, okay. All right. So I'm going to hop back and do that as well. Did you say hop back in the truck? i'm gonna start driving again okay so what are you going to be making um the gross on that is usually about 215 before before everything okay all right so you're gonna walk our baby steps out baby step three is the

three to six months of expenses after you pay that debt off. So if you clear 150, all of that is basically, not all of it, but most of it's spoken for, right? Yeah, you're going to pay taxes on it. You're going to pay taxes on it. You're going to set that aside. And then you've got to clear up the 70 and you put some money aside for an emergency fund. And a lot of that money is gone then. Okay. And then after that, we take the fact that we don't have any payments anymore.

You now have control of your most powerful wealth-building tool, which is your income, and you use that to invest for your future, to invest for retirement and a kid's college and start talking about paying off that piece of land that you were beginning to tell me about. And that's the direction that you go so good question dave i was going to follow up i think this would be interesting for small business people that are thinking about selling a business i was running through the numbers as you were walking uh was this was it jeff jeff through that were you working

out about a three to five times net profit is Is that what you were working on? Well, 25% is four times. Right. That's what I was thinking. 20% is five times. Five times, yeah. It's somewhere in that range for a small business, or is that across the board? Yeah, a small business. I mean, because you've got a high risk.

The thing that people in a business of that size that's making under a million dollars a year, they very seldom take their cost out. So you always have to remove that to get to a true net and you treat it like an absentee investor like if i was going to buy that spray foam business i live in nashville i gotta hire somebody to run it in madison wisconsin right now that tells me what the business is truly netting net net net what and then that tells me what my return on investment, my cash on cash return is. And that's a good general rule of thumb. Dave, nobody gets 25% on their money. In small business, you do every day, honey. But you work your butt off and there's a lot of risk involved that you don't have buying a mutual fund. Okay. It's a

completely different setup than a mutual fund. So yeah, I make 25% of my money all the time at Ramsey. If I don't, I'm probably not going to stay in business. This is the Ramsey show. These days, it's not if your identity gets stolen, it's when, and the only ID theft protection plan I have ever recommended is from Zander Insurance. It helps real people with real life situations. Like the call we got on the show recently where a woman's abusive ex opened a credit card in her name and racked up over $8,000 in debt. Then the bank sued her even though the charges weren't hers. What a mess. With Zander's help, she was able to get the entire nightmare cleared up and now her family is officially debt free. Listen, Zander's help, she was able to get the entire nightmare cleared up, and now her family is officially debt-free. Listen, Xander's Identity Theft Protection is the best option out there.

They have all the cyber tools and monitoring services you need. They cover all types of ID theft, and they even include up to $2 million in stolen funds protection. In the end, though, you need an ally, someone on your side to take over the work and fix the problem. That's what Zander is all about. Go to Zander.com to learn more. Call 800-356-4282. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author, is my co-host today. If you like what you're hearing, we could use your help. We would appreciate you clicking the follow button and following the show or subscribe button, subscribing to the show, depending on the format you're in.

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You are our best marketing, and we appreciate you very, very much doing that. So please, and leave those nice five-star reviews. They're very helpful. Zach is in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Hi, Zach. How are you? I'm doing good. How are you all? Better than we deserve, sir. How can we help? Well, my wife and i were talking last night and we are wondering if we should pause baby step two uh to purchase a storm shelter since we do live in oklahoma how long have you lived in oklahoma uh myself uh 31 years and my wife about four years

okay and so why all of a sudden last night are we afraid about tornadoes? They've been there the whole time. They have and it wasn't something that happened last night but I'm an ag teacher and spring is my busy season and you know I've got a wife and year and a half old daughter now and one night I was gone had kids at a speech contest and a storm starts headed right for the house. A tornado gets put on the ground and my wife and kids only real option was to drive five miles into town to her classroom, which is a storm shelter. So I guess that kind of got me, kind of screwed the daylights out of me and got me thinking about it. Okay. How much would a storm shelter be? About $4,000.

And what's your household income? After taxes, $70,000. Okay. So how long does it take you to save up and build a storm shelter if you push pause and do this? Two, possibly three months. Two. Okay. two possibly three months two okay um well it's you know the principle that we use is if you are if your car broke down okay then and you don't have the money to fix it because

you would have paid down everything down to a thousand dollars and you need't have the money to fix it because you would have paid down everything down to $1,000, and you need $2,000 or $4,000 to fix a car or replace a car, you would have to push pause because you're in the middle of an emergency. Okay? Yeah. Emotionally, after the scare with a one-and-a-half-year-old, your brain is in an emergency. And I can understand that. If that had been my little kid, that would have done it.

But you and I both know that statistically you've lived there 31 years and haven't been hit by a tornado. They're all around you. You can see them out there dancing in oklahoma i know i understand and they put on quite a show sometimes and sometimes they hurt people and tear up jack i'm not questioning that okay but statistically tornadoes are way different than hurricanes because it's one finger it's one finger on the ground versus the entire city gets wiped out okay and i'm just talking about the actual data not the emotion and the fear around

it okay and so statistically you're probably okay to get out of debt and then do this but um but i don't know if psychologically you're going to be so you got it in order to stop your baby step two, you have to declare this an emergency. Yeah. Emotionally, I could probably do that. Statistically, I can't. Yeah.

Does that make sense to you? Yeah, it does. And I think I'm just thinking about it more of a peace of mind. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. The safety side compared to the debt side. So, Zach, let me challenge you. If I were you. How long would it take you to get out of it? How much debt you got left? I'm sorry, that's exactly what it is. Compared to the debt side. So Zach, let me challenge you. If I were you, how long would it take you to get out? How much debt you got left? I'm sorry, Ken. That's all right. We've got $14,600 left on a car and that is it besides the house.

All right. So Zach, if I were you, I would not pause the baby steps. I would find a way to come up with the four grand as quick as I possibly could work in extra hours uh selling anything and everything you know four grand you you can find a way is my guess pretty quick what does your wife do for a living she's also a teacher okay so I think both of you pick up some tutoring. And here's the thing. What we're talking about here is we're not talking about whether or not to do a storm shelter. What we're talking about is if you're paying off debt at the rate of $2,000 a month, you're done in seven months, and in two more months, nine months from today, you're 100% debt-free and you have a storm shelter.

Okay? Yeah. Or you do the storm shelter first, and nine months from today, you're 100% debt-free and you have a storm shelter. So the only thing we're discussing is whether we put it on the front or the back of the debt snowball. Yeah. And in the middle of that discussion, we might change those number of months by increasing your income. Yeah. So that's really the discussion.

So do you want to mess with, you know, can you deal with the emotions of this for seven months and so forth? And I've got a bad track record on this, so I really am uncomfortable telling you to do something i'm going to say you know if i'm in your shoes the principle is in order to put it in front of getting out of debt you have to declare this an emergency and after getting the crud scared out of you with a one and a half year old i'm not gonna be mad at you if you declare an emergency okay but i'm gonna put with that the actual statistical discussion but i'm'm the guy who, what, 2020 March, remember that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm on the air.

They canceled schools in our county tomorrow, the next day, because a storm might be coming that might have tornadoes in it. And they canceled schools. And the sun is shining outside. and they canceled school and there's not it's not the sun is shining outside and they cancel schools the next day i'm the guy that went on the radio and made fun of that and the next day a tornado tore the hell out of nashville i mean hurt people and everything and so like people are ripping me to shreds on the internet going well that didn't age well dave i'm like no it didn't so i don't make fun of tornadoes anymore after that that was my last time and nobody you know we had people in the workforce we had three people work for us our house got

blown down and i mean it was it was a bad tornado came through here and and that was right but right as the pandemic was opening up so it was a great march you know march of 20 was just an amazing month but yeah so it didn't age well but i still i still you know i still have the generation that go you cancel school because it might snow you are a bunch of wusses you are totally wussed out and so i just i don't get it but i do get it i get the guy i would be scared if my wife and one and a half year old had run to a had run five miles away to get away from it i would be scared too i get that absolutely that actually happened that was not a might happen tomorrow

thing and then i stepped in it up to my knees but there you go so oh well and this is very doable and he's being responsible about it you know he, he's asking the question, should I do it? He's pretty cool-headed. Yeah, I think so. Not in drama queen mode. If I lived in Oklahoma, I think they call it Tornado Alley. I could be wrong on that. It's definitely.

When is tornado season? Chill out. You know, I think they have an unfair advantage, though, over Nashville. Oh, boy. Because we can't see them. We got hills. In Oklahoma, you can see it coming for 25 miles because it's so flat you can just sit and watch it and then go oh crap it is actually coming here you know i mean but here

you just it just i don't think anybody in oklahoma sees that as a distinct advantage but i get your point well we get a lot of tornadoes in in tennessee but um we do actually we don't get any hurricanes and we do have some loud mouth talk radio people so there's that i don't know any of those people, personally. None. There's a lot of wind involved in this discussion, I'm just saying. This is The Ramsey Show. You know, it doesn't take a degree in statistics to realize this one stinks. Ninety-three percent of undergraduate private student loans are co-signed.

So when you're delinquent and drowning, mom or papa or uncle Joe is stuck in that financial stress along with you. But there is a way out. Y-Refi. Y-Refi offers a custom refinancing option with a fixed rate loan based on your ability to pay. And the average interest rate Y-Refi offers is 3.9%, which can significantly reduce your monthly payment and decrease your total cost. Contact Y-Refi at 844-2-RAMSI or go to Y-Refi.com slash Ramsi. That's 844-2-RAMSI or the letter Y, then R-E-F-Y.com slash Ramsi. Y-Refi is not licensed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Y-Refi is not authorized by the New York State Department of Financial Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. Kevin is in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Hi, Kevin. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I was just wondering, looking for a suggestion or a recommendation. I'm able to save after taxes and 401k contributions about $2,800 per month. And I was wondering what percentage of that remaining amount I should be investing in the market or stockpiling cash. And I have no other debts. My home's paid off. Good for you. I'm just not sure. I'm just not sure what to pay. Well, you're 100% debt free. You have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses, I assume. I do. Okay. And then you're putting, you're maxing out all your retirement to keep the government's hands off of as much of it as you can. If you're not, you should be. Yes, I'm maxing out. Okay. Excellent job. Yes, I'm maxing out my Roth 401k and IRA and HSA, all the letters,

you know. Wonderful. You're doing everything right, brother. Well, at this stage, we call it baby step seven. There's nothing left to do but build wealth and give. Basically, there are three things, Kevin, and you know this, but I'm going to say it out loud, that we can do with money. We can have fun with it. That's called lifestyle spending. We can invest it, which is what you're asking about, and we can be generous with it. You should always do all three. And so to the extent your monthly budget before it nets out $2,800 does not do those things,

I'm going to increase one of those categories a little bit. So if you're not having enough fun, are you married? I am not. Okay. No, I'm single. Okay. What's something really cool that you've been hesitating to do because you're a tightwad?

Well, I kind of went against your rule, and I ended up buying a brand-new car, even though I'm not quite at a million, but I did do that. Okay. What'd you buy? A hybrid Camry. Okay. Ooh, you went all out.

A Camry. Wow. I know. Well, but it was a hybrid because you had to save money on gas. Way to go. That's right. I can hear it. If I can save $20 a month.

Yeah. It only cost me 50 grand to save 20 a month this will work out yeah it was cheaper than that don't worry i shopped around yeah not much all right but yeah that's fun okay i'm with you so seriously try to challenge yourself on your generosity bone and on your fun bone and you know build up those muscles those two muscles uh because you're you're investing muscles really strong already okay so i'm investing enough yeah well no you can invest more but i but i i'm not the guy that says okay put all 2800 into a good mutual fund put all 2800 into a uh into a fund until you build up enough to pay cash for a piece of real estate.

If that's what you want to do, that's okay. But I challenge people that have gotten to the level that you're at. You're almost a millionaire. How old are you? 35. Way to go. You've done really good, man. I mean, you just really have done a great job.

So I just challenge folks to make sure we have, in the actual mathematics, some balance between fun and generosity so i have that formula so last week i got a check from one of my publishers on one of my books okay it's usually i get a big check from them every so often these books keep selling thank you lord and so thank you people that you're buying them. Yeah, so I got a big royalty check. That check is already spent in those three buckets. Okay. Additional giving, additional fund, and additional investing by percentage. I just apply those percentages to that check.

It's already gone. And so then when I go do something fun with the fun bucket i have zero guilt zero question if i'm wise zero question if i've lost my christian spirituality although some moron on tiktok will have a have their opinion about that but just the same of course they will you know you see my point is i'm not taking a poll on that anyway but the point is is i i know that i've been wise in that i've touched these three main areas of life and sharon and i are going on a really great trip here in a couple of weeks we spent a lot of money on it but it's a very small percentage of our world overall and it came out of the fun bucket shut up you know i mean that's what we're doing so it you know we're 63 we're gonna have some fun

so there you go that's why we work and and simultaneously there are some ministries got some really nice checks because we got a big check-in and that generosity piece goes out right so you it just keeps things flowing if you've got some kind of a a way to already allocate the money yeah and i just had that it's really fun to give that money too. Not just the fun bucket, but the give bucket is really, really fun. And Dave's been talking about that for a long time, and he's absolutely right. There's a real chemical reaction, a real healthy dose of endorphins. When you have worked hard for your money, you've been disciplined,

and now you give it to help somebody else. Lewis is in Fort Lauderdale. Hi, Lewis. How are you? Hey, Dave. How are you doing? Better than somebody else. Lewis is in Fort Lauderdale. Hi, Lewis. How are you? Hey, Dave. Hey, Ken. How are you doing? Better than we deserve.

What's up? Good. So my question for you is I used to have a problem with some credit card debt, but I have completely cleared up. Good. Thank God. My question is now that I have no credit card debt, I'm working on baby step three, building up my emergency fund. I'm planning on purchasing a house once I get done with saving up and have my emergency fund.

Is it a bad idea to close the credit cards that I don't use? It's a bad idea to close them later. The sooner you can close them, the better. Because it takes about six months from having all accounts closed at zero activity for your credit score to disappear. And if you're going to buy a house, you either need a good credit score or a zero credit score. You don't need one in the middle. Understood.

So, yeah, I was worried about if I i closed them it would have a negative impact on my credit it will temporarily but but over about a six month period of time and you're six months away from buying yes but if you wait four months and then you close them and then you're trying to buy and there's stuff still showing up it's going to drag your credit score down into the 600s maybe you know and you don't want to do that that That's pushing this no man's land. So you want a zero indeterminable, they call it credit score. And that comes from having no accounts open and no activity on no accounts open at all of any kind for six months. Then you'll qualify for a loan with a good company like a Churchill mortgage that we endorse with a zero credit score. That's what George Camel and his wife did. They bought a

home, same interest rate that some goober with an 800 credit score would get exact same interest rate. And so, but you got to have a zero. I mean, you can't be in the middle. So you want to close them as fast as possible and be done with them forever and ever, which is your plan. The only reason you hadn't is you were worried about the house deal. And this thing, this is the mythology, Ken. This guy's not falling toward, but overall people out there that believe the mythology about debt.

And what you guys have got to stop and think about is is that debt is we live today at this moment this moment today in 2024 in the united states of america we live in the most marketed to human race any time in history. More dollars and more sophistication are spent selling you stuff right now than at any time in history. And in the United States, we are the best at selling you stuff. You are impacted by marketing, sales, advertising. Every time you take a breath, and the most marketed product in frequency and in dollars spent is debt. It's a product.

That's how those banks have towers and you have a little bitty house. Their house is bigger than your house because you've been giving them money, yours. It's the most marketed product in the history of the world at this moment. So you guys are told so many lies about debt. You can't get a house without a credit score. Oh, that debit card, it's not got the same fraud protections as a credit card. Yes, it does. The exact same.

Look at their website. Stupid. Wow. See, people believe these lies left and right. I'm going to get rich on airline miles, Dave. You believe these stupid mythology lies. This is The Ramsey Show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show.

We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, and my co-host today. We're glad to have you. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Felix is in Bangor, Maine. Hi, Felix. How are you? I'm doing good. How are you doing?

Better than I deserve. What's up? So, I am 19 turning 20 this year. I am debt-free, and I have a six-month emergency fund saved up, and I'm looking to change my living situation. Good for you. Currently, I live with my fiancée and her grandparents, exchanging work as well as pretty small amounts of living expenses for help. And in exchange, I get to live here practically rent-free.

So I have absolutely no free time, and when I'm out of work, I'm into chores. It's not sustainable. It's taking a toll on my mental health, and I'm just trying to get better. I currently have a tiny home that I am building on the land out back. I purchased the building and refurbished it so far to the point where I can start building. My family are all in the trades and have agreed to help me with some knowledge on building that home to make it better. However, I'm still stuck on the idea of whether or not it's a good idea to have this tiny home and move it onto some land or... Oh, so you're like building it portable right now? Yes.

You're building it on a trailer or something so that you can move it and set it somewhere? Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Out back, and then I'm buying land. I wanted to make sure I understood what was going on. Okay. Yeah.

All right, cool. Yes. All right. So what do you do for a living? I'm currently a CNA. I'm also in college. All expenses paid for computer engineering. Okay.

Good for you. Well done. So your question at 19 years old and you're engaged to be married when? The following summer. Good. Okay. Your question is whether to finish the tiny home and buy some land and plop it on that or buy a house. Yes, sir.

Buy a house. Let's answer the question. I hate owing money. Let's answer the question. Huh? The thing is, I hate owing money. Let's answer the question. Huh? The thing is, I hate owing money. I really do. Okay.

And all the houses in the area are just awfully expensive. Seeing those six numbers and thinking, I'm going to have to owe that, kills me, you know? Mm-hmm. That's fair. And, you know, renting is an option, too. But the, so here's the thing. The tiny house, the problem with the tiny house movement is that it's tiny. There's not a lot of people doing this, okay?

There's a lot of discussion. There's a few loudmouths on the Internet. But 98%, 99% of the public are not interested in a tiny house when you get ready to sell it. Consequently, basic supply-demand economics tells us that where there is very little demand, there is very little demand, there is very little price increase.

So the tiny house is not going to appreciate dollar for dollar as much as a traditional property will. Now, the dirt that's under it might, and it might fool you into thinking that the tiny house idea was a good idea, but the tiny house in and of itself there's not a lot of demand and so there's not going to be a lot of appreciation the only thing it does do is it provides shelter very little but a shelter do you have enough cash to buy this land you're talking about since you hate debt so much um no sir i was planning on getting a loan and so what's the difference in a land loan and a house loan no sir five years

the amount yeah five years in the amount yes sir okay also the credit required okay all right well it is not going to ruin the rest of your life to do any of these three options rent do the tiny house with some land or buy a home the thing that i think that will first that will fastest advance you to where when you're 39, which one of these three choices will get you the furthest ahead, renting for three years inexpensively and piling up cash will get you to where you want to go faster at 19 years old than buying a piece of land and putting a tiny house on it or buying a house when dying a piece of land and putting a tiny house on it or buying a house

when you're you know just when you're in college still when you haven't started your career still you're just getting to the game too early and um if i were you i i would just be caught be content and and just rent something and start your life off with your fiancee and work your tail end off you're not afraid of work. You're a good thinker. You're thinking about ideas all the time. That's good. The only thing I would add to your equation to make you prosperous is patience.

Yes, sir. Yeah, Felix. You're a go-getter, man. If you could rent, like, a garage apartment somewhere and keep your cost really, really low. That's what he's doing now, except he has to work to do it. Well, he's an indentured servant, essentially, is what's really happening here. Look that up, Felix. You'll understand that.

But the point is that Dave's right. Something super, super cheap because you've got the income and you've got the discipline. I would go that route, too, and just wait until you get out of school, get big job and get on the ladder and climb and i think you're going to be better off yeah the only appeal for you of the tiny house is price that's the only thing that's drawing you to it now you've already got it under construction i would think you finish it up and sell it and load it on a trailer load it on your little trailer and take it over to somebody's little place and and set that little thing down there and sell it and make you a little money on it. And if you want to go do that again, that would be okay with me.

That sounds like a good side hustle, building tiny houses and selling them to people if you want to. But in terms of is a tiny house an equivalent investment to buying a home, not even close, not even close, because the demand for them is very low in reality. There's a lot of discussion and a lot of hot air around it, but that's a lot different than putting it on the market with a little for sale sign and having six people run up to buy it. And let's not forget here for a moment, Felix.

Dave and I have been married a long time each. We haven't been married to each other. Let's be clear on that one. But married a long time to our wives. And here's the deal. What I can tell you, the first year of marriage, and the data will tell you, it's really hard. And I can't imagine the first year of marriage in a teeny tiny house. Sounds like a bad Aesop's fable.

It does. I just need some space from each other. And there's no space in those things. Yeah, you would, by definition, they're tiny. Sheesh. Have you seen any of these reality shows where people are actually living in these things? It all seems really cool until the cameras go away. The only thing I'm sure about reality shows is there's nothing to do with reality.

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Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Our question of the day comes from Adam in Wisconsin. My 24-year-old son has a mentor that wants to hire him while he builds a new business. He will teach my son e-commerce, sales, and ways to start a business. The mentor is quite successful and is excited about teaching him how to be successful in this field. Because the business is so new, my son will not be getting paid for six months to a year, hopefully sooner, but no guarantee. Should my son quit his current job where he makes close to $45,000 a year to join this adventure for the potential of a six-figure income and

future opportunities from what he will learn? He currently lives with us and he has no bills except for covering his car insurance. Well, Adam, I'm going to tell you what I would tell my son. If my son came home and asked me if he should do this, I'd say absolutely not. I don't understand why this mentor, who is supposedly very successful and excited about teaching a young man, is going to ask him to come on for free. Something doesn't add up. The successful people that I know smells like a scam. Free labor. And I think this is silly.

And so I would call the guy's bluff and i think you're probably going to find out that it is just in fact that it's a bluff and i would tell him no you're not doing that um yeah i don't have much more to add to that i just it doesn't make any sense to me if if i took on the role of a 24 year old and I was the mentor, I could not ask them to work for free. I agree. That would turn my stomach up into my throat. Now, if you want to offer him a job making what he's making now, which is not much,

45 while you're a startup and you'll mentor him and teach him stuff, fine. But so I think you not only don't take the job, you disengage from the, in air quotes, mentor. Because I'm not sure he's a real one. Well, he's the way you and i define it for sure yeah i mean uh i would never mentor someone with the point of making them my indentured servant yeah yeah that's what this is for real yeah yeah um that's not the idea um it would be kind of the other way. As an act of honor, I would want to overpay someone I was mentoring, not underpay them. Or give them a real opportunity through a commission structure where they get what they make. You know, they get a big portion of what they make. So that's different than this.

This is a weird, weird wacky feels very manipulative gross and i'm just not buying the quite successful part no no i just don't i don't i could be wrong i mean maybe maybe he just has a different way of looking at the world than we do and he's maybe he's worth millions of dollars and and he is quite successful but um he just wants to teach those young people a lesson i don't know i don't know what the deal is there but um yeah i'm with you the way we answer questions on this show is if this was my son what would i tell him run yeah from the opportunity and the man that's what i would tell him i'd actually probably knowing me i'd probably say hey uh why don't you tell a successful mentor guy to have coffee with me?

I got questions. That's probably what I'd say. Successful mentor guy. He has a new title. Successful mentor guy. That's what I would actually do. It's like a Saturday Night Live skit. What do you do?

I'm a successful mentor guy. That's what I am. I got questions, and I'd like to ask, and let's see how he answers them, but that's just me. I'd do it for sheer sport. Tim's in Pensacola, Florida. Hi, Tim. How are you?

Hey, sir. I'm well. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? So quick and to the point, I'm debt-free. I tithe from my church. The remaining money

that I have left over at the end of every month causes me more anxiety, more stress. I don't know what to do with it, and I just watch it disappear. I don't know if it's bad spending habits. I can put money in my TSP, my retirement every month, too, but that leftover money,

I don't know what to do with it. Inevitably, what I do is just spend it. Yeah. Well, of course you do. That's what everybody does. Yeah. It's not horrible. It's just not efficient.

And the lack of efficiency is bothering you and giving you regret-itis. Yes, sir. Yeah. So it's a very simple fix. Start doing a detailed budget using the every dollar app i will give you the every dollar app premium version that for free that ties into your bank and so every time you spend on your debit card you have to drag it into a category in your budget now the trick here is this john maxwell ken and i have a good friend says that a budget is people telling their money what to do instead of wondering where it went.

That sounds just like you. Yeah. Okay. I would agree with that. So you need to tell your money what to do before the month begins. Give every dollar an assignment. That's why we named the app EveryDollar. EveryDollar has a mission. EveryDollar has a mission.

EveryDollar has a name on it, however you want to call this. But EveryDollar is allocated on the app, has an assignment before it comes in. And if the assignment is blow this $50, then blow the $50. If the assignment is put more money in an investment, then put more money in an investment. If the assignment is find someone and do a random act of charity and give somebody $50 at a gas pump or leave a $50 tip at the Waffle House, then do that. Okay? But write it down ahead of time, and whatever you're doing, do it on purpose. And then if you actually follow the plan that you made for yourself then you will not feel regret does

that make sense it does um you've got a plan for most of your money it's the little things the little foxes spoil the vine proverb Proverbs says. Yes, sir. I hear what you're saying. You're being very responsible and detailed with a whole lot of your money. You told me where it's going. It's going to TSP. It's going to this. You've got it laid out.

But I just want you to add a level of project management, a level of detail to your planning of your money. And when you do that, you're going to get a sense of relief. You're going to feel like you got a raise and you're going to be able to achieve some goals with that money. Cause I really don't care what people do with money as long as they do it on purpose. As soon as they start doing it on purpose, then they come back and ask me, okay, what do I do next? And that's where we came up with the baby steps.

Yeah. You could just feel a little angst on him still. And it's because I don't know if he's feeling like he's doing enough good with it or what's going on. But regardless of that, to your point. He has no confidence. That's right. That's where the angst comes from. That's right.

You will get confidence when you start telling your money what to do. You'll start to be going, I'm a money stud. I got this going, man. Right. You just, I got this. Because all you're gonna yeah you just i got this because you're gonna because all this is is you feel out of control you feel chaotic you feel like a failure yeah and when you start putting it down on paper and then you live to the paper start putting in the app and you live to the app ding ding you know successful it's called

self-discipline uh and it's amazing what that does to people's dignity self-confidence power everything their swagger comes everything you're just gonna feel a whole lot better about tim tim so have at it kaylin is in sacramento kaylin i'm gonna hold you till after the break because i'm looking at this number here and i don't want to have to yeah i wanted to go back to to go back to that tim thing because you said something really great earlier in the show about those buckets of when you've done everything that you're supposed to do and you got this extra money it's that give some of it you know save some of it have some fun with it and again by going through that budget exercise and using every dollar it's the intentionality that i think he's craving to where he can go okay at least i have a plan for

it feels like he doesn't have a plan right now which the budget that I think he's craving to where he can go, okay, at least I have a plan for it. It feels like he doesn't have a plan right now, which the budget addresses, and therefore he's just kind of like, ugh. The inefficiency, I think, is eating away at him. Listen, there is no, even if you're the most free-spirited person in the world, there is no one who gets peace from disorganized chaos. No one. Oh, that's chaos. No one. Oh, that's fine. No, it's not. You know you wake up feeling like you got a financial hangover.

You look over and you go, Oh, God, I did it again. I overspent. Oh, God. I shouldn't have ordered those 73 extra things at the restaurant. Oh, I did it again. No one. That's not fun for anyone. I don't care.

You don't have to be a nerd or a tightwad to have that experience. No one gets peace from disorganized chaos. This is the Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today thank you for joining us open phones at 888-825-5225 Christian's in Lexington Kentucky hi Christian how are you better than we deserve what's up um so I just recently lost my job a couple months ago. The job I was making $80,000 at. My new job I only make at a max $24,000, $25,000 a year. You went from $80,000 to $24,000?

Yes. Why? I was a truck driver. I was on the road a lot, and my daughter just turned a year old, and I'd rather be at home with her and my wife than be on the road 80 hours a week. Yeah, but what's the $24,000 job you just took? It's at an automotive collision repair. Yeah, you can drive in town, CDL, and make a whole lot more than that.

Yeah. What's going on? You just acknowledged that. You know that. Drivers are in huge demand. You've got incredible qualifications. You just said, yeah. What's going on?

It's not something that I love to do. I was miserable. Doesn't matter, brother. Right now, you can't take that big of a hit. What's that going to do to your income? $24,000 a year, man. You just moved to poverty level. That's right.

Have you run the numbers on what that's going to actually mean? No. You're starving to death. That's why you're calling. Yeah. Yeah. You have an income problem. Okay.

Yeah. You have an income problem. Okay. So you, first you said you lost your job. Yes. Did you get fired? I did get fired. Why? The company that I was at has a point system, and you have so many collisions or drop trailers uh one was a mechanical problem but it still wouldn't win two points and the other one was a collision

okay so is that going to keep you from getting another cdl position no did you get hurt in the collision or did someone get hurt in the collision no sir it was in the parking lot a parked car okay so i'm trying to figure out was your confidence rattled uh my confidence was not that rattled. It was a freak accident, honestly. Yeah, I mean, that's why they call them accidents. I'm fine with that. I got no issue with that.

So you're not afraid to drive a truck. No. And you think you're capable of driving a truck. And you could make $60,000 in town, and instead you're making 24 schlepping parts. And be home every night. You do know that, right? Yes, sir. I mean, you do know that's what CDL drivers make with in-town routes, right?

It is. Okay. I upgraded from one of those at that company so christian let me let me tell you why i think you've got to take this this option well it's a viable option this is not long term but it will it will it will stabilize you while you figure out what the next is well let me ask you this too let's stop a second let me back pan back three more steps how old are you uh 28 okay so what do you want to be doing when you're 38 that makes a hundred thousand a year um what i'm doing right now that what you're doing right now and it doesn't make a hundred thousand dollars a year dude you make 24 there is no path to 100. I'm detailing cars, and I would like to start my own business. And that's where I would like to get to.

Okay. Now, I thought you said you worked at an auto parts store. Yes, sir. Not a store, a collision center. Oh, so you detail them once they're done. So you're washing cars in a collision center. Oh, so you detail them once they're done. So you're washing cars in a collision center? Yes, sir.

Okay. All right. Okay, so let's talk that out. So if that's the path to one day owning your own detail business, you have to make more money and get out of debt and get free of all of the junk that comes with the debt, and then we can start taking steps to starting your own business down the line. But you working in this current job in detailing, it's not going to get you.

Do you know how to detail a car now? I'm sorry? Do you know how to detail a car now? Yes, sir. That's what I was doing. If I hired you to come to my house and gave you the equipment, you could detail my car and you could charge me $135, right? You wouldn't have to give me the equipment. I've got the equipment. Okay. Why aren't you doing that then?

I am doing that on the side. But the demand where I live outside of Lexington is not that great, and there are many companies that detail cars in Lexington that people would rather go to. Okay, so we have a bad business idea. The market where you live doesn't support this now or probably in the future, correct? Yes.

All right. So we've got to have some gumption here. We've got to say, okay, what do I love about detailing? What gives you that joy about the detailing process? I love working with the customer and seeing them happy with a completely brand-new looking car. Okay, great. So here's what you've got to do. You've got to start thinking, how can I meet people every day life and do something for

them that makes them really, really happy? That could be in the trades, my friend. And the trades, there is a huge need right now. You've got to start looking at what you can do that still brings you enjoyment. And so this could be plumbing, electrician. You could get into construction. Let me tell you this. There's also manufacturing jobs right now all across this country where you could potentially be working

with customers and doing something for them because you didn't say it was about the car so much as about doing something making it look something good and hand it off to somebody and they get excited about it but you've got to start channeling that and realize what your opportunity is here's what I like about you you want to work for yourself one day. That's great. And I think the trades are where you need to be looking because there's a greater market for you in and around Lexington, Kentucky than this detailing business. Okay. So here's a couple of things I do know, right? I do know you're starving to death. Your current job sucks. I'm a hundred percent sure your family is in jeopardy. You went from 80 K to 24 K and you called us cause you can't pay your bills and you're scared. So we're trying to help you with

that. And dude, you need to go get something else and make some more money on a temporary basis while you get some business idea up and running if it's not this one it's another one but um i can tell you this anytime you're doing something with your hands like car detailing or building decks or working in the trades if you show up on time do what you said you were going to do every single time, you can charge almost anything you want, and there really is no competition because most people can't even seem to get there. Right. Well, we aren't starving to death.

When I had that job, we were living on way less than we made. But what we made went into two vehicles that we can still afford but don't want to. No, you can't afford them. You're broke. You don't make any money. You need to get a different position, son. Your income is your crisis. And it's because if you've got the equipment you either need to get

that equipment and haul your butt over to lexington and get some cars washed and get your income going or you need to go take a job driving cdl inside your family's depending on you you got about 20 minutes ready set go now now your analysis of going from 80 to 24 and i'm going in the pressure washing business the car detailing business but i really can't do much because i live out in the country is bullcrap it's killing you it's killing you you need a new set of eyes on this and you need to get in gear and make some money for the next year and a half to two years and get the wolf away from the door get these stupid cars sold and then you can start making some adjustments long term in your career and you either go one of the directions ken said or you can go beat the competition in

louisville and say well i don't drive over the road 80 hours but i do drive to i mean lexington i do drive to lexington or we load up our butts and we move to Lexington, where the business can prosper. One of the two. We can't make it out in the country. We're moving to town, boys and girls. Here we go. This is what you do.

You make your family work by working. This is The Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thanks for hanging out with us, America. Well, I don't know when you're going to be listening, but today is Tuesday, the 21st of May. For those of you listening live, tonight George Campbell and I will be doing the first installment

of two nights in a row of Dave Ramsey's Investing Essentials. I'm going to get nerdy and go deep down into the nerdville of investing. Stuff I've never taught before, but people have been asking me how to analyze real estate properly, and I'm going to teach you the academic version of it and what I actually personally do on real estate and what I do on mutual funds and what I do on other things and what are the principles I use and what are the principles for investing that I find with wealthy people versus, you know, your broke brother-in-law who lives in his mother's basement and has a TikTok account, which everybody seems to have an idea

about finances that are broke. So we really don't take financial advice from broke people. So we're going to go through this tonight and tomorrow night. It is not two separates. It is a back-to-back. And so you want to be there for both nights. If you're hearing this in time, you can get the tickets for $199. Gosh, Ken, I can't believe it's thousands of people. Yeah, I can. Like 4,000 people have

signed up. It's crazy. Yeah, I'm not surprised. This is what people want to hear from you, you know. Apparently. RamseySolutions.com slash events. They may regret it, though. They may be sleepy by the time I finish my nerd explanation. This is the kind of stuff that I dread somebody doing in a live audience because they nod off right in front of you. You should make George come out every 15 minutes and lead him in jumping jacks just for about a minute and then let you get right back to it. Because George is known for his aerobic activity. No, I just think it'll be funny. No, that would be funny.

George is going to help me and that will make it lighter than if I just crunch the academic crunching. That's right. Gordon is in Tampa, Florida. Hey, Gordon, what's up? Hey, Dave. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve, sir. How are you?

I'm all right. Could be a little better. Cool. How can we help? So I have been having a little bit of trouble getting my wife on board with the Baby Steps and kind of getting started with Financial Peace University, and I'm trying to see what I can do to get her kind of on board with the idea. How old are you?

We already talked about our debt situation. How old are you? We're already 30. And how long have you been married? We've been married for 13 years. And how long have you been discussing Dave Ramsey and Baby Steps and Ken Coleman? We have been discussing it here and there over the last couple weeks. I've been trying to get her on board with it, but she's a little skeptical.

Yeah, I bet. Because you came in and started telling her all the things you were going to do. Well, I tried to ease her into it. You screwed this up. Give her. I know why she's not on board, because you came in and started telling her, here's what we're going to do. This is awesome.

I'm so excited. We need to do this, this, this, and this, and this. And Dave Ramsey said this, and you've already turned my name into a cuss word in your house. Didn't you not exactly okay then what did you do I've uh why do you think she's not on board why do you think she's not on board you think she has a character deficit I honestly think she's kind of set in her ways of doing things her way yeah to be honest yeah i've tried to you know just simply you've been married how long did you say 10 years uh we've actually been together for 13 years we've been married for eight okay and who handles the money in your house

before all this happened she does because i'm at work for 16 hours out of the day. Can you imagine that you coming in with bright money ideas might be a little bit insulting to her? Yeah. Yeah, I can, and I've also tried to talk to her about that. What's the part she's most hung up on? Well, she has a plan as far as going through the snowball effect, and she feels like it's going to work but it's also the same plan that she talked about several times prior and it didn't work so i that's why i tried to suggest you know the baby steps and try and get her to at least look at it that

way we can talk about it together and as soon as I bring it up to her, she completely shoots it down. So what's her version? She's telling me it's more, I have to be a little more faithful as far as, you know, looking for faith. If I want to word it correctly. She's been on more of a spiritual journey lately, and she's telling me that I need to be a little more optimistic to that kind of thing and have a little more faith on my side instead of just, you know, kind of being distraught about the whole situation, which I told her I can understand. But the thing is, it's all real happening right now. And it's very frustrating mentally because I am the only one working at the moment. Why does she not work? Well,

she was working, but the daycare service was so expensive that I just said, it's almost easier for you to just be a stay at home mom. and we can save the $500 a month that we were paying and put it towards the stuff that we were paying off. And we agreed on that. And she just recently started working about a week ago, but it's only Saturday to kind of help with the debt. And pretty much everything since inflation started, just like everybody else has pretty much where the downfall you know what do you make uh as of my last job prior to being laid off it was 60 grand a year okay um i just started a new job last week so i don't even have my first paycheck until this friday but i'm just gonna rough plus or minus around $60,000. Okay. And where does 16 hours a day come from?

Well, that was at my previous job. Okay, good. So now you're not. Yeah, now it's anywhere between 10 to 12. You know, it's kind of depending on how much work is available. I'm a construction surveyor. Okay. All right. depending on what do you do i'm a construction surveyor okay all right um okay there's uh uh i don't know if you can hear this or not but what i think i hear going on

is a version of what i thought was going on at the start of the call. A, she's handling the money and is on a faith walk as a part of that. And you come in with a bunch of new ideas that is insulting to her. And you just saying that out loud once doesn't change her emotion on that. That is a valid emotion as a response to you coming in. She's been handling everything. You said, I'm working 16 hours. I don't have time to do it. You do it. And then you come in. She's been handling everything. You, you said, I'm working 16 hours. I don't have time to do it. You do it. And then you come in and go,

Oh, wait a minute. I don't like the way you're doing it. And that generally doesn't go well in relationships, dude. It's pretty simple. Uh, then secondly, uh, you came at her with a bunch of ideas rather than a dream. So I would pan back if I were in your shoes and you called and asked what to do and this is what I would tell you to do um and sit sit down with her turn off all the tvs make sure the kids are in bed and sit down and say I need to talk to you about this and I need you to hear me clearly first I'm sorry I came at you wrong on. I came at you with a bunch of things I think we need to do, and I came at you in a way that insulted what you were doing. I am glad you've been doing what you're doing,

and I'm with you on this faith walk. I'm with you on what you're doing. I am learning some things about this money stuff that I've never known before, and it's exciting to me. And the reason, here's the key, right here, the reason I'm excited is here's where I think it can take us. I want us to sit and talk for a few minutes about where we could be if we were out of debt. What would you want to do if we didn't have any debt and we had some money, what would you want to do with generosity, with travel?

What kind of car would you like to have someday? If somebody walked in and handed us a million dollars, what's your dream? What would you want to do? And then let's together figure out the best way to get there. And it would mean a lot. And then talk that through. Have a dream date in high definition,

and shut up and listen to her when she's talking, okay? And when you're doing that, then let that all get out there, and then go, okay, let's now agree on how we can get there after it's all out there. And I'll give you Financial Peace University for the two of you to go find a local church and go go, okay, let's now agree on how we can get there after it's all out there. And I'll give you Financial Peace University for the two of you to go find a local church and go together. And that is a faith walk, by the way, to learn God's ways of handling money. That's what Financial Peace University is. And then you say, it would mean a lot to me if you would consider looking at this.

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 personality is my co-host. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jerry starts this hour in Austin, Texas. Hi, Jerry. How are you? Doing all right, Dave. I screwed up. Uh-oh. So I am driving a 2021 Nissan that I bought during the chip shortage. I am about 11 grand upside down on it, not in a position to get a loan, and the transmission on it just completely failed. Nissan is quoting me right at $5,000 dollars for a transmission and i don't have that um i don't know what direction i need to go in because this car is kind of my source of

income at the moment i'm between jobs so i just i i run delivery services How old are you? 36. Single? Yes, sir. Okay. What do you owe on the car? Today's payoff would be right at $23,000. The dealership offered me $11,000 last week. I could probably get $13,000 private sale if the transmission wasn't messed up. They offered you $11, 11 with the messed up transmission no that was right before the transmission failed on it uh they they hadn't

test driven it or anything so it was sight unseen the transmission went out while I was on a delivery a couple days ago this last weekend. Yeah. Do you have any money? At the moment, no. I just paid off all of my credit cards and everything. I started following baby steps probably right after I got this car. So you have $1,000? Yeah, about that, but I don't know. Yeah, that's not enough to even put it in. I didn't ask that. I asked what you got.

Yeah, I have my $1,000 emergency fund, and that's pretty much it. Okay. Pretty much. that's pretty much it. Okay. Pretty much. What's pretty much mean? I mean, I could probably scrape together another couple hundred bucks just from, like, side work and friends that I have and stuff like that. Okay. All right. All right.

I'm digging deep here on this idea, Jerry. Do you have any friends at all that are very mechanical, they work on their own cars, or a friend of a friend? I am a mechanic by trade, but the car is so new. Like, no transmission shop in town offers a rebuild service for it. It's a dealer-only item. So the price that the Nissan dealership

gave me, that's about as cheap as I would be able to get it. Yeah, but that includes labor, or is that just the transmission itself? Just parts is $4,500 before tax. Wow. Okay. Well, that kills the idea I had there.

You said it's a 2021? Yes. Okay, that's four years old, three years old. I don't know why you wouldn't have a rebuild out there. There's rebuilds out there on a four-, three-year-old transmission. Yeah, the part that they're quoting me for is a remanufactured transmission because they no longer sell the new one they discontinued it because there are so many issues with it that's helpful okay yeah a lot of joy a lot of joy in this car um okay well you know the and the obvious other answer then is a salvage uh from a salvage yard

uh a used one and you go pick that up for a couple grand and you roll up under there and stick it up under there that's what you're gonna have to do um and i don't the problem is i don't know while you do all this uh what you're doing for money for food because you don't have any money and i'm trying to figure out how to get you a little bit of income coming in while you're doing that. Yeah, I mean, I was probably making $700 to $800 a week running DoorDash and delivery services, and that got knocked down to zero real quick.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I guess I'm looking for a buddy that's working construction that will pick me up and take me to the job and let me make $20 an hour, or you're walking down to Target and making $20 an hour for the next few weeks while you go find a salvage transmission from a junkyard, a salvage yard. I don't call them junkyards anymore. I do have a bicycle

so i can get around but i also live 20 miles from town because it's cheaper yeah okay i mean you may have to do some temporary things that um involve some temporary help from friends uh do you have any family in the area no sir i was a ward of the state when i turned 18 okay all right i tell you here's here's the only thing i could think to do to help you um is yeah that that's how i would solve it if i were in your shoes okay i'm gonna try to create some income uh that that is legal hook or crook with a friend taking me to a job site or you know getting wherever um and then i'm going to scratch together a salvage yard used transmission i'm going to roll up under there since you know how that's good news and bolt that thing on um and

then uh i think you need family in your life and so I'm going to introduce you to some. We're acquainted with several churches in Austin, Texas that love helping people with no obligation and no weird requirements on your part. They just love helping people. And I'm going to hook you up with a couple of different folks there through our team and see if we can't get somebody to give you some rides to work, some work, maybe a little bit of cash to get through this little tight spot here. I'm going to throw an idea out, Jerry. I'm tacking on to what Dave said. If any of these churches, Dave, have a program like our church that we go to locally where

they have local mechanics that go to the church that fix up cars for single moms, I wonder if we've got a church friend where cars are being donated. He trades some work, some extra hours, and he fixes up a clunker that he can use for this season until he can get through this. Because we've got to get you a set of wheels, or you're going to have to bicycle to a mechanic shop. Because if you're a mechanic by trade and you told us that, that's your best money-making opportunity right now. And they're hiring like crazy. All the time.

A lot more than you're making with DoorDash. And you don't have to run your car in the dirt. That's right. To go be a mechanic during the day. So, yeah. So those are some ideas. You're definitely in a pinch jerry i feel for you and the only way i know to do is to get family around you and that's the family of god yes and so you hang on and christian's going to pick up get your contact information and when i get to a break a little bit later i'll give you

some names christian to get to him and um we'll plug you in with some good churches there in austin texas and get you some help brother yeah that's the only thing i know to do because you got to have somebody with their arm around you right now you're by yourself and you're stuck and somebody just needs to love you and we'll help you do that okay this is the ramsey show Ken Coleman Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. The best way to take control of your money is to do it on purpose.

The best way to do it on purpose is called a budget. The best way to do that is the world's best budgeting app called EveryDollar. You can keep a pulse on your spending. You can make progress. You can keep a pulse on your spending. You can make progress. You can follow along with the baby steps. You can paycheck plan out where every dollar of every paycheck and every month is going. Download the EveryDollar app for free in the App Store or at Google Play or at EveryDollar.com. Heidi is with us in San Antonio, Texas. Hey, Heidi, how are you? Hi, I am good.

Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? So my husband and I are nearly done Baby Step 2, and we have a rental property in a desirable area of downtown San Antonio. And he would like to hang on to it for a couple more years and build some more equity and have the market be a little stronger. And I feel like I want to sell it now and pay down our primary house mortgage. Okay. Why are you wanting, why do you want to sell now?

Well, I want to sell now because for, I've been running it as an Airbnb for the last year and a half. And I am managing it and cleaning it and doing all the work for it. And we're kind of just breaking even on a good month. Maybe I'm taking home a thousand dollars after all the expenses. Because the payment on it? Yeah, because of our mortgage, hospitality tax um you know supplies and okay so you know that's a completely different thing than we disagree over whether we ought to sell our rental um right now you know you're saying we're not making any money and i ain't cleaning this thing for free anymore so what are you gonna do bubba and he's saying oh i think we should think hypothetically about keeping this rental property for yeah well you ain't got a maid anymore that's free i just quit

um yeah well he thinks that there are like you know maybe we could find somebody that could clean it and um and that's a possibility. Now, you're not making any money on this house. Right. This house is not a blessing. It's a curse. It needs to go. Oh, man.

Okay. What about, like, switching back to long-term renter? Well, you're going to lose money. If you can't make money on Airbnb, you can't make money on long-term. Yeah. Airbnb ought to be cash cowan yeah it's a pain in the butt and it destroys your house and i hate it but it ought to be making money and if you can't barely break even with free freaking labor you know on airbnb you're not gonna make money on it you're gonna be losing you're gonna be writing a check to own this thing every month good lord that sounds awful okay right yeah i mean that's kind of well that's where i've come to um but then when we started we

talked to a real estate agent and i mean the market is just very slow right now. And, you know, I think that's his thinking. Let's give it another year, see if things pick up. Well, yeah, that's great if you're not writing checks. I'm putting it on the market. You know, go to RamseySolutions.com and click on ELP for a trusted real estate agent that we have vetted that knows their stuff and that is high-octane, high-protein, and I'm getting this thing on the market. I'm getting it sold.

Because I've got to tell you, I lost patience with this property, and I don't even own it. I love the house, that's the you know you know it is we do consider but the situation with the house sucks yeah it loses money and it's a pain in your neck you've had it with this thing you're tired of screwing with it by the way a year two years isn't going to make that much difference in the value so just playing out the numbers it, it's just not worth it. Yeah. I mean, you're not going to have people lining up around the block, but I think the house will sell. Houses are selling in San Antonio. The market is not so slow that nothing is moving. It's just not white hot like after the pandemic

where people were lining up around the block, 80 offers over the weekend. But yeah, I'm afraid your real estate agent sounded a little bit like eeyore to me um i think you need to get get some other opinions uh because i think san antonio is a fine city and i think it's thriving um i don't i haven't read anything i haven't i mean we come out there all the time we love the city it's always been good to us i've not read anything that indicates that city's not doing anything but booming unless you're in some kind of junkie butt neighborhood with this house or something then uh that's different but that's a neighborhood thing that's not a marketplace thing um i mean you're not you're in an area that's highly attractive it's a great town and so um

in freaking texas you know i, this is where people are moving, Texas, Tennessee, and Florida. That's where all these people that are escaping these refugees from these other States are coming. So I, I really, I'm, I, I think you can, I go to Ramsey solutions.com and I would interview to Ramsey trusted real estate agents, both of you and your husband interview them and talk to them, and you need to explain to your husband you're tired of doing this, and it doesn't make money. Real estate should make money, and you borrowed too much on it, so it doesn't make money because of the debt.

It is a curse. It is not a blessing. Dump this thing. That's what I would do. I'd be done with it instead of maximizing the debt. It is a curse. It is not a blessing. Dump this thing. That's what I would do. I'd be done with it instead of maximizing the asset. Yuck. You should have resigned from property management and made and make him do it for about a month. I bet he'd get in alignment pretty fast. Just say, I'm done. Yeah. You want it to keep it you have to take care here's the broom i changed the airbnb email to yours i think that's what i would do it's uh let you manage that's not passive hotel that's straight aggressive right there hotel there's a lady in the lobby that

likes that call see if he wants to hang on to it then he has to take care of it so that's that's what i'm hearing he'd last about two weeks that's brutal no i hope just the whole idea of it'll be enough you know that's it right there i'm done wow ben's in greenville south carolina hi ben how are you hey dave thanks for taking my call sure how can i help so me and me and my wife are newlyweds um well it's been a year we just had our celebrated our one year anniversary congratulations um we have so far paid off fifteen thousand dollars of our debt we have thirty thousand left um i just got a full-time job where I'm making around 55 to 60,000 dollars a year. This 30,000 is divided equally between my car, her car, and one credit card. Okay. This is all stuff y'all brought in,

you brought all of this into the marriage, I hope. Her car we did purchase because her old car was a junker and she started getting into child care where she was going to be driving kids around, and she needed something with AC, and we overspent. We overspent and could have gotten something a little cheaper, but thought that we could do it, and I don't think we could. Is she making money now? She's working as a nanny, but we have our first baby on the way. So she's about to be out at least for a little while, for about three months.

We want her to stay home. I have my dad, my grandparents set up two separate 529 college funds that I have not used. Why? And it's about forty thousand dollars be a ten percent uh the student loan wait a minute the student loan none of them are yours no these are 529 college funds i know you don't have a student loan didn't you tell me so she had a student loan two cars one credit card oh i got that wrong okay yeah cash it out you're going to pay a penalty but you don't have any use for it.

You're out of school. You're going to pay a penalty, but you're only paying a penalty on the growth. So, yeah, get with your tax person, cash it out, and pay off your debts. Be debt-free today. Get moving on it. If you want the tax advice to see exactly what it's going to look like, make sure you set the tax money aside. Find a tax person that we endorse at RamseyTrusted at RamseySolutions.com and look for tax ELPs.

Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Julie is with us. Julie is in Detroit, Michigan. Hi, Julie. How are you? Good. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? I have a question. I have a question that I have honestly never heard a caller have, and it is a scary question, and I'll explain why. But my question is, is giving excessively the same as overspending no but they're cousins tell me what's going on well we're very fortunate I grew up really without having virtually anything and so as an adult I just feel very fortunate. I grew up really without having virtually anything. And so as an adult, I just feel very fortunate. I'll get through. And so I am gazelle intense about wanting to give. So I'm

always giving, but my goal is to get rid of the mortgage so that I can give. And we're high earners, but at the end of the year, I will have what i think i need and it's really more of a cash flow issue but um i will you know even this thing is a good example and it just stresses me out but i will use the so we do have a credit line for work how do you how do you define wait you have a credit line what say this again i know yeah we have a credit line for work um just i don't know if that's the technical term, but whatever credit line. For work. You have a business.

Yes, we have a business. So you don't run your business debt-free? I have in the past, but even this year. Like I think I've made it a year and a half or two without, but now I'm back on this year. And it is a cash flow so like right now my receivables are the same as my um credit line because the jobs that we thought we would have going right now don't start until later it's a separate it's a separate issue we'll come back to that all right first let me let's just start with that let's just start with that stop that okay okay you need to

start running your business you need to start running your business with more margin. Quit taking so much home and quit giving away so much until your business is able to support itself and you become your own credit line. You need to build retained earnings in a business to where you have some cash slush sitting in the business to cover your ups and downs of, of cashflow needs. And you're, you're running this business up to the wire because you're taking it all home,

and then you're having to dip into the credit line because you've got no margin. And so you need to keep, you've got to keep, it's not healthy business practices. You need to keep some retained earnings. So a percentage of your profits every month from today forward should go to retained earnings. Never to be touched. They're just sitting there in the business. And if you get $2 million in return earnings earnings and you can bring some of them home but take some percentage and build right build an emergency build a retained earnings fund at work start doing that now

to do away the credit line now back to the other thing define giving excessively by your definition um constantly thinking about giving um and not literally on a daily basis not in any that's not giving obsessively that's not giving excessively that's obsessing about giving maybe that could be that's different than giving excessively right it's like i can't well it's both i do a lot of giving okay i just i'm, I'm like, no, I need to make sure I have. Well, you said you're big income earners. What's your household income? Last year was $470, and the year before that was $540. Okay.

I would define giving excessively as you were giving, actually giving so much money away that you're harming other parts of your life. Okay. Excessive isn't a dollar amount. It's a percentage. And I think the percentage is the problem. Okay. What percentage of your income do you give away?

And that's why I put it out of profit and loss, but I'm like, I don't, that's my problem. I don't know. I know that like for taxes, like I know in my mind, I need over six figures, obviously for, for taxes, because we're an S-corp. So I have to pull that. And then I try to think in that, like, I know I need, you know, let's say under a hundred thousand per month. So if I have 200,000, so last year, my retained earnings before the summer, if I'm looking at it from year to year to date was probably 373. So this year, or at the end of the year, then I had close to 300,000 that I thought, I don't know, I had 160.

And I thought, okay, I have enough to get into next year. And that was after all of my giving. And however, no, because the job, I asked you what percentage of your, of your income you're giving, and you went on this rambling thing about your retained earnings. Because I don't know what the percentage is. That's what I mean. In my head I said I want to be at least. So it's not excessive and it's not obsessive.

You're not doing it on purpose. You're just randomly giving money away and you feel like you're out of control because of the chaos yeah yeah right yeah okay so i gotta ask a different than overspending is there some sense of guilt what do you think is driving this this isn't healthy would you agree with that no i i guess to me it feels healthy because it feels good to give. But yes, when I don't want to have this issue, like the last couple of years felt great because I... Yeah, but here's what I'm getting at. I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I'm trying to help you. I really think that you've got some sense of guilt and you are trying to give this feeling away i think there's something

going on here yeah you told me five times you're a big income earner it's like you feel you don't deserve what you've accomplished that could be yeah that could be here's my point i really think you ought to yeah i think you ought to see a therapist how many people i do when you grow up without it you just know people are hurting i know your heart's in the right place i think this is in your head there are people like you were when you were a kid and you've got a lot of money and you think you can help them but the bad news is you're not god that's right no exactly and i do know that i do know that so i try to have these these like said, I can make it a year without doing that. But obviously I don't have deep enough pockets that I need to get back.

So here's your tactical math formula that will help you. And then you may need to sit down and talk this through with your pastor or with a therapist, okay, in terms of what's driving the tears okay because ken put his finger right on it so the but but what i would do if i were in your shoes is i would change the business model how we handle the money at the business to where the business is self-supporting because we keep enough retained earnings you're blending your business and your personal together, you need to separate them very distinctly. You need to have a set of business books at the office. And when you close the books each month and you have a profit, a percentage of that profit should be set aside for retained earnings.

If you do that continuously and you set aside the proper percentage, and you can do some simple math and figure that out, you will not have a need for a line of credit anymore because you make tons of money okay then everything after you have set aside your percentage for retained earnings is called profit and you bring that home now when you bring that home i want you to start giving every one of those dollars a name with your husband every month. And some of that needs to be generosity. And that's healthy and that's good. And having a heart for people that are in situations like you grew up in is exactly what you should be doing with money.

That's a wonderful thing to do with money and finding some causes and some individuals that you can just take on and help with that money because you've got plenty of money to be generous. And let me jump in. Let's face it. If you give away 20% of your income, that's almost $100,000 a year. Yes. Yeah. And that's what I'm doing. But I also need. I don't know if you're doing that or not because you're not sure you're doing it and julie right i know that i do give about that much listen here's what i want you to hear dave is laying this out for me and once you get a formula you have to work on this phrase what you can give is enough you got it okay what you can give

meaning the formula dave's talking about with some responsibility What you can give, meaning the formula Dave's talking about with some responsibility, what you can give is enough. Gilgit, you understand what I'm saying? And if you want to give away 20% of your income, there's nothing wrong with that at all. Yeah. That's not excessive, by the way. Right. What's excessive here is the chaos, the out of control,

and some of it's coming from a broken place rather rather than a uh a formerly broken place that's healed and you want to help others and i that a couple things to work on there and it's a really good question thank you for calling with it and way to go congratulations on your success this is the Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, 1 Corinthians 16, 13, and 14. Be on your guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous.

Be strong. Do everything in love. Theodore Roosevelt said, Courage is not having the strength to go on. It is going on when you don't have the strength. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We are glad you are here. Eric is in Boston, Mass. Hi, Eric. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you for having me. Sure, what's up? Yeah, so I want to talk about my product.

I sell barbershop blades, razor blades, straight edge blades. So the problem I'm having is that I have, I would say, three different tiers of customers. So I have the barbers, which are the final customer, the people that use the blades. I have distributors, the people that go to the suppliers to buy the blades. They're like the middlemen. And then I have the suppliers that have physical stores, and they sell to the distributors and the barbers. So the problem I'm having is with pricing my product in a competitive market. So the issue I'm finding is that my pricing is similar based on the cost of

the product, similar to make a profit, similar to the products that are already in the market. So I don't know. I'm looking for strategies of how to price my product to appeal to these three different levels of customers per se and make a profit okay how long you been doing this uh it's been about a year now where are you getting the blades uh get them from china and i repack the the blades in a different in a different uh packaging what made you decide to do this uh i always loved business

as i was a child i mean i always i was like 13 years old i was already making deals and stuff so i always had a passion for for business i mean i uh have a pretty decent job per se but i just always wanted to do something different and start a business. Why Razorblades? It's an industry that is growing and is particularly dominated, I would say, by Spanish-speaking in my area at least. So I saw a big market there and I can connect with the community. I know how to do social media and stuff like that so i was looking at the trends and all that and i was like you know what like maybe selling barbershop supplies is a good business so i went for that and then yeah i'm sorry all right it's okay no

you're fine so here's the thing there's a couple of different categories that you'll find yourself with products in the marketplace. There are products that are unique and therefore really don't have a direct competitor. And then there are products that are homogeneous, meaning they're all alike, and the main competition is on price. That's called commoditized. if a product is commoditized if all the consumers looking at if all the people are looking at price it's the only differentiators price you are in a commoditized market and you only have one way to win and that's price okay okay it sounds like you are pretty close to that in this world with what you're describing to me.

If you have a blade that is differentiated because of the quality, it will last longer. I'm making this up, but if you could buy a blade that had a story to it, it came from such and such a family that have been making it since the 1800s, and their blades are higher quality than the cheapo blades that you get somewhere else, and they last twice as long, and they sharpen a lot sharper. Therefore, the customers that are getting a shave are going to love you that much more you know this is a differentiated braid i'm brand differentiating here you have to different you have to set your brand apart from the other blades if you cannot do that then you just have to compete straight on price and when you're competing

straight on price that's a difficult market to exist in for long because someone will always come along and play the trump card on you and and that's the challenge that i'm facing yeah because as i mentioned i buy them from china and i repackage the blades yeah what is different about my blades not only that they last longer which is proven and they're durable too but also the packaging is a cylinder packaging that can be used as a disposable for the used blades already Nobody has come out with anything like that that I know of. Okay, so you've got two things that you need to market, and it's not price. Thing one is I've got a disposable situation here. I can get rid of the blade without somebody getting hurt.

You don't throw it in the trash can, and whoever's cleaning out the trash can gets hurt with an open blade, right? And then two, these blades are higher quality and last longer and i will put my guarantee on that and if you do not experience that i'll give you your money back yeah yeah i i get that so who's who's of the three groups uh because i was doing some quick research i don't think you mentioned how different are the three groups that you were talking about? And which one has got the best upside? Well, the largest customer will be the suppliers. Right.

Because they're the people that buy bulk, and that's what I'm aiming for. Now, the issue that I'm finding is, I mean, it's kind of a commodity because it's so saturated with other options, and I'm a new blade. So for the customer, the supplier to be motivated to make a big purchase or even try all my blades, I have to give a competitive price. So it has to be much lower than the competition, and I might not be making that much profit. How much dollar volume are you talking about doing? You mean in quantity or per unit? I don't care.

Well, no, quantity. Well, I mean, having had a large sale, the most I've sold now is like 500 units. So it's not like I'm – So why is the bulk sale supplier the best route why not one-off why not sell smaller volume at greater margin direct to the barbers yeah that's i try that but uh i can actually make more money doing that but it's time consuming and what happens is that usually distributors go straight to the barberbershops, and they have different products. And that's what they do for work. That's their living.

So it's not financially sound for me to go out there on Fridays only to sell blades. So, Eric, if I was on the other end of the phone and you were sitting next to Dave and I called in, I said, hey, let me tell you something. I'm in a business right now that to make the best profit margin, it takes a whole lot of time. And if I don't do it that route, I'm pretty much having to price myself out of profitability because my margins are so low. Would you tell me that's a good business to get into? Absolutely not. That's what you just said. That's essentially what you just told us.

And I'm not trying to, you know, poo-poo this idea, but you're a business guy. You've been wanting to do something like this your whole life this is just not a good business to be in for those reasons now you got to either get your margin up um or you got to get your margin up because what you're describing is no fun if you if when you get commoditized and all you're doing is competing on price it's a race to the bottom. Yeah, that's right. It's very different. And so we do not enter any businesses at Ramsey that are commoditized.

I refuse to get into them. I'm not going to compete on price. I'm going to compete on quality and uniqueness. And so there's only one place you can get a total money makeover. The total money makeover advice is in a total money makeover book. There's not a generic version of it out there, except for the pirated versions from China that are on Amazon. But other than that, but the, yeah, but I'm talking about the real world.

And so, yeah, that, that, so, dude, you've got to get something that's unique and stands out in your world, direct-to-consumer, the subscription model. There's three or four guys that have done different business models on a very large scale, direct-to-consumer with subscription with razors. Not straight razor blades like you're doing, but razors. So you've got to figure out, is there some way you can get in with a supplier that wants to carry these in mass it's a great discussion that's why we drug it out and enjoyed the discussion with you i like it like your spirit i like what you're trying to do and um so but i don't have the answer you've got to find a way to say i'm either going to do this in mass at a price point that makes it

fun or i'm going to do a smaller volume at a higher price point with higher margins, and then I can make the case for my brand differentiation. And you do have brand differentiation available to you. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Dr. John Deloney here. Mental and emotional health challenges, broken relationships,

it's all just part of life, but they don't have to define you. The Dr. John Deloney Show is here to help. It's a caller-driven podcast where you can get practical advice on dealing with anxiety, loneliness, depression, relationship challenges, your kids, and so much more. Listen to questions from our callers, or if you're walking through a tough situation and need some help, give me a call. You were never meant to do life alone, and that's what this podcast is all about. Follow along on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or the Ramsey Network app. Remember, you're worth being well.