Transcript of Don’t Let Your Present Circumstances Define Your Future

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number 1 best selling author and host of the Ken Coleman show is my co host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk. Adeline is with us in Youngstown, Ohio.

Hi, Adeline. How are you?

Hi. I'm doing good. Good.

What's up? You?

So I'm a 21 year old girl. I'm not planning to go to college anytime here soon, and I recently started getting all my money. My dad would get my money before because, you know, take care of expenses and stuff. And I thought I knew how to manage money pretty good, but turns out I don't. So, basically, my question is what should I, as a 20 21 year old, be doing to build wealth at this point?

I have about $6,000 saved and yeah.

And you're working?

I have a car. Yes. I work, 4 days a week, 15 hour a day job.

Mhmm. What do you do?

I work for my brother at his Apple Orchard.

Mhmm.

So what do you make?

Yeah. $15 an hour. It's not steady income. Like, in the wintertime, I make maybe 1500 a month. And then in the busier times a year, I make maybe 25100 a month.

Mhmm.

What specifically are you doing for him?

I run his market, and I fork fruit and, yeah, do a bunch of random stuff, prune trees. Yeah.

Are you living on your own or with your mom and dad?

I'm living at home.

Mhmm. With mom and dad?

Yeah.

Okay. Alright. Cool. So, what's your plan? Where are you gonna be and where are you where are you headed at?

What's the 31 year old version of you gonna be doing?

Hard question to ask at this point. I would like to either be married, and if I'm not married, be doing something in the medical field.

Okay. Alright. Well, I'd start taking some steps towards that, and just figuring out what that looks like in terms of the medical field part. I'm not in charge of the marriage part, but the, it's not my department. But but, yeah.

You know, I start saying, okay. What do I wanna be 4 years from now that's on my way to being another thing 10 years from now? And what classes do I need to be taking or certifications do I need to get? What experience do I need to move? Because I'm usually, you don't go from the apple orchard to the medical field.

You usually, go into the medical field at some kind of entry level thing. And so maybe you start talking about, taking some early steps towards that, because your career is part of managing your money, in other words.

Right.

That's why we're asking you all about your income. And then you moving out and having your own place, that's part of managing your money as you go with. As far as managing your money goes, and I'll let Ken speak further to your career, the the you just want you you've got to just make the money that you have behave and go where you want it to go. And you do that simply by, having a plan before the month begins of where EveryDollar is gonna go, and that's called a budget. And there's a budgeting app that we have called EveryDollar, and I will give you the premium version of that to get you started on that.

And, but basically, you're gonna sit down before the month goes, enter your numbers in this app, and go, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to tell this money what to do instead of looking up at the end of every month and going, I have no idea what happened. And then that will lead you away from debt, towards savings, towards investing, towards investing into yourself and some possible education moves.

Yeah. What I would add, Adeline, is the best thing you can do right now to move forward is to get as much knowledge as you can about the potential directions you could choose. The reason people don't move forward and they stay in the apple the apple orchard, if you will, is because they're intimidated. They're scared. So here's what I want you to do.

I want you to think about I want you to write down tonight before you go to bed all the different medical professions that you might be interested in. Everything from a 10 level interest to a 1. So she could get visually what's out there. So that's a doctor, a surgeon. That's a nurse practitioner.

It might be a nurse. It might be somebody who does radiology scans.

Like pediatrician. It could

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

And what's gonna happen is you're gonna begin to understand what it takes to get there. That's the education piece and the experience piece. As Dave said, what is the lowest rung of the ladder require and look like to move into the medical, position that you want? And so hang on the line. I wanna give you 2 things.

I wanna give you the get clear assessment. It's about a 20 minute assessment. It's gonna give you real clarity on professional direction. And I wanna give you the book, The Proximity Principle, because this is a deep dive in what I'm describing for you. But if you do that, you're gonna have real clear direction.

1 other thing I wanna tell her, Davis, is for seasonal people, we get this call a lot. When you're in a seasonal job like this, you need to take that experience and skill set from the apple orchard to another job or 2 so that there's not this dip in income. There should not be a dip in the wintertime for you. You should be doing something else in a part time capacity, or 2 part time jobs, or another seasonal job that is hot during the downtime of the orchard. That's the mindset to keep your income level at the same level or create increase for yourself.

It's very important. And and so, Alan, don't miss that the answer to your how do I manage money question for us was the income side. There's 2 sides to the equation, the income side and the outgo side. And immediately, both of us hone down on the income side for you. So managing your career and your income is part of managing your money.

And, and and so when you're looking at picking up the extra jobs in the down season, when you're looking at making the first steps into the medical profession, all that's part of managing your money. In terms of the actual tactical, what do I how do I keep the money that we have and make it behave? Well, that's the budget. So we're gonna give you all 3 things to help you. We'll get clear assessment from Ken, his book the proximity principle, and we'll also give you the premium version of the app, EveryDollar, which will help everyone get dialed in on it here.

So very good stuff. Good question. Thanks for joining us. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Ken, it's, you know, you coming on as a Ramsey personality several years ago and opening up the whole career side of things even further because we had noticed for the years that, sometimes when people are looking at money situations, they just need to make more money.

That's exactly right. And we also realize that, a lot of career problems cause money problems. There's no question. And a lot of career, awesomeness can cause money awesomeness.

That's exactly right.

You know, it works the other way too. So all of these things do fit together, folks. And the number of times that we have a debt free scream and during their debt free journey, they added income part time and or got promotions and better jobs, Almost 90% of them did 1 of the 2 or both. Happens all the time because once people start paying attention, they're paying attention. This is the Ramsey Show.

1 of the questions I get all the time is, which life insurance company should I use for my term life policy? A valid question since there are hundreds of companies out there with rates all over the place and riders and add ons that are simply a waste of money. You need to get this done and make the right decision. That's why the only company I use and have recommended for over 25 years is Zander Insurance. Zander is a broker who shops the top term life companies for you and finds the best rates available from the only plans I recommend.

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Amber is in Dallas. Hi, Amber. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave.

Hi. What's up?

So me and my husband were 34, and we're 35. We don't have much of a retirement. He's got 13,000. I just started my last paycheck, so I have $400 in there. We have about $49,600 worth of debt, and that includes everything except for our mortgage, which is $128,000 left.

Not terrible, but it's at 6.125%.

I've been I have

been I'm an RN, so I'm able to work extra, and I've been working extra since August. And we've been able to pay off just under $5,000 worth of debt, which is great, but it I can't do this forever. I'm you know, I miss my kids. I miss my husband. So that 49,600 that I'm kind of laser focused on to get rid of, and we've dialed back or I feel like we've dialed back everything that we can, as far as financially or, you know, monthly.

I'm just not sure how to get ahead because our goals are obviously to get out of that. But I also am really concerned about retirement age, which I know isn't roughly 30 years. But I don't want my daughter to ever have to worry about what's you know, worry about me whenever I'm older. I want her to be able to live her life.

The best way to be able to retire with dignity is to get the debt cleared. So you need to stop putting money in retirement temporarily.

Oh, okay.

And use all that money to help clear this debt. That's a temporary thing because I want you to clear the debt fast so you can get back to having breathing again a normal life. What's your household income?

While I'm working extra, we we bring home about 85100 to 88100. It kind of depends. I'm RN. It's just, you know, funny hour shift differential.

What's your husband do?

Oh, sure.

He is in, he he's in, like, a investigator HR position. He doesn't have a degree or anything, but he makes 73 k a year, but he also has to pay 12,000 a year in child support. So whatever that is.

Mhmm.

So 73,000 minus 12,000 is what we can make.

Okay. And so you're making about the same. You're making about 70 or so.

Well, when I don't when I'm working just normal and I'm not working extra, I bring home about 4,000 a month.

Yeah. I'm not talking about bringing home. I'm talking about your total household income. Probably about a 150 to get home with 85100. Does that sound right?

Yeah. That sounds about right. Yeah. Around 8 80

What's the, 50,000 in debt on?

We I have a $56100 personal loan

Mhmm.

That's at 13.95%. That was, like, a loan to pay off

What else?

Ugly credit card from my twenties.

What else?

And and that behavior is fixed. Like, I'm not gonna run up any debt. In fact, I've used credit credit cards to repair my credit.

What else?

We have a $20,000 car that has 13.95% interest, 12,000 left on my car. It has 8%. And then I have about $7,000 in school loans, and it has varying, but they're all around 4%.

Mhmm. K.

And then our our our home, of course, a 128.

Your old credit is bad, and you got screwed when you bought that $20,000 car.

Yeah. Yeah. At that time, I had not repaired my credit.

Doesn't matter. You got screwed. You have a high interest rate, and half of your debt is 1 car.

Yeah. That's true, isn't it?

Yeah. Sell it.

I don't know if we can. He he has a about a 30 minute commute Monday through Friday. We and I

have our a 30 it doesn't require a $20,000 car to do a 30 minute commute. Requires a $5,000 car.

Okay.

If you had rid of that 14% interest rate, 13.85, on a car you couldn't afford and shouldn't have bought, and it's half of your debt, you and you quit putting money into retirement, you're gonna see these numbers start to flip for you, kiddo. It's gonna start to work. And he's not looking at this with you. You're doing it by yourself. Right?

Oh, no. No. No. We are both very involved. I think we both just lacked that kind of deep financial literacy.

Good. Good. Okay. Yeah. If you sell the car and you stop the other, retirement temporarily, and you get detailed on your every dollar budget, and both of you are looking at that every dollar budget and beating the snot out of it, I'm making every we're not going out to eat, we're not going on vacation, Don't see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working as your second job.

And does he need a second job? Probably. You're working 1. And temporarily, let's get this stuff knocked out, and let's see how fast I can pay off $30,000 or $25,000 worth of debt, making a $150,000 a year really fast.

Yeah. I don't know if

he could get a second job. He's he doesn't get home till 6 PM most days, and then on the weekends, he has his son. He has special needs. Okay.

Alright. But

I but that's the beauty and the blessing of the career I chose is I'm able to.

Yeah. Amber, I I wanna make sure you're grasping the numbers that Dave is giving you. Okay? If you remove the car payment, plus the actual debt on the car, just what you guys have paid off since August, it's roughly 4 months you paid off $5,000. You gotta listen to what Dave said and put real pen to paper right now.

Like, sit down right now before you do anything else today and run those numbers. If we sold the car and we bought a $5,000 car, what is that monthly raise we just got to put towards debt? I don't think I don't think those numbers have clicked for you, and that's okay. I would run those numbers in a real budget. I think you're gonna be shocked how quickly you're gonna pay that debt off.

And then you're back to retirement.

Here's what's interesting is you're tired and you find all these reasons things can't happen That's right. Because you don't see how you're gonna get there.

That's exactly right.

Once you see how you're gonna get there, you're gonna be energized, and there'll be no stopping you. Yeah. That's called hope. Power of hope. It's very powerful.

And sometimes hope is literally the result of a mathematical equation, what Ken's telling you. And so let's do that. Hang on. I'm going to put you and your husband through Financial Peace University and put you into EveryDollar and get you guys going, because you guys need to sit down. It sounds like you're, like, 80% of the way there.

You're both on board, which is excellent. Really glad to hear that. He's carrying this with you. That's amazing. Yeah.

That's that's very good. You're both you're willing to work extra. That's amazing. You've identified that I want to get rid of the debt. That's amazing.

So you you've got all the parts there. All I'm doing is helping you polish the rough edges off of what you're looking at, and I think that's gonna cause the ball to roll. And then the hope's gonna kick in, and weird stuff starts happening. When you start seeing a way, then you just push your foot to ride down on that accelerator, and you bust it. You bust it.

We're gonna make it. We're gonna make it. We're gonna make it. We're gonna do this. We're gonna do this.

Get it. Get it. Get it. Rob is with us in Tampa, Florida. Hey, Rob.

What's up?

Dave, how are you? Hi, Ken. How are you?

Good. How can we help?

Purpose of my call. I'm, I'm I'm calling I I wanna know I I know what I wanna achieve. I just don't know how to achieve it. If I can give you a real quick background, I'm 67. I'm divorced.

I'm retired. I have an IRA, I'm totally debt free. I have an IRA with a $985,000 in it and I have a brokerage account about $115,000 in it. And I have 1 son, my sole beneficiary And what I'm trying to achieve, like I said, I'm I'm in good health. I think I have 20 years left in me Mhmm.

Possibly more if, you know, if God's willing. I I wanna know how I can, you know, move some money now where upon my death, my son isn't hit with the mandatory required mandatory distribution.

No. And it well, they're not they're not technically RMDs, but under the SECURE Act that Biden passed, he'll have 10 years to empty a traditional IRA. So he's gonna empty a $100 a year and be taxed on it, the way you're sitting today. The way to avoid that is to begin to move some of it towards Roth. And so as you make a pile of money, move a chunk to Roth and write a check.

Because Roth is required to, be distributed over the same 10 years, but you can't leave it in there in the inherited IRA. But there's 0 tax on it, cause you will have already paid the tax. So develop like a 10 year plan to move 900 ks plus, whatever the growth is, towards Roth a little bit at a time, to where when you leave him with nothing but Roth, instead of traditional, he's not gonna have any problems with taxes at all because there's not any taxes. I did that, started that on that process myself about 10 years ago, and I have 0 traditional anything. It's all Roth.

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So since we turned on the microphone today, I think all we've done is give stuff away, which is great because we're helping people with it. So if you heard us give away Ken's Get Clear assessment on figuring out what it is you're passionate about, what it is you're gifted at, and give you some insight into some directions you can go to enhance or even change your career. That's awesome. The Total Money Makeover book, you know, 10,000,000 plus copies now sold. The baby steps millionaires book, all about the baby steps millionaires, and Ken's book, paycheck to purpose.

All this stuff is on sale right now at the Black Friday extended event atramsysolutions.com/store. Like, $12 books. These assessments are half. So this is like the best deals of the year, so have at it. That's the thing.

Do it right now. Ramsey solutions.com/store, or you can click, the link in the note show notes on the podcaster on YouTube. So Derek is in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hey, Derek. What's up?

Hey. How are you?

Better than I deserve. How can we help?

Yeah. I just need help. I feel

like I'm drowning in debt right now.

Okay. Tell me about it.

Alright. So I have a around 10,000 in, a personal loan because I recently consolidated my credit cards. I had I was in a abuse relationship. And after I got out, I found out that they probably racked up close to 6 or $7,000 in credit card debt in my name without me knowing about it.

And you paid that off?

And after, after contacting the banks, and all that, they said there's nothing they can do about it?

Well, of course, there's something they can do about it. So Yeah. Wait a minute. No. Just let me stop.

Let me stop. Let's find out where we are today. Did you take because you believe those lying, thieving bankers, did you borrow money to pay off debt that was not yours because it was done with identity theft?

Basically. Yeah. Because they said something about that.

Honey. That's what you did. You went and borrowed $10,000 and paid off debt that this criminal you fraudulently using your name opened up without your permission, and you paid that debt off.

Yeah. Yes. Basically, I had I paid 2,000 of it off.

No. I'm talking about the $10,000 you borrowed. That's what you used it for. You paid off the credit cards with it.

Yeah. I paid off the the credit cards and then,

Is there any debt outstanding that the criminal did that you haven't paid yet? No. Dadgum it, son. You got screwed twice.

Basically

You don't owe that money.

My fiance.

You didn't owe that money. When someone fraudulently if I take your name and go open up a credit card in your name, you don't owe the money. That's called a criminal act. It's fraud. It's what identity theft is.

Had the credit cards, since I since so I know I, well, followed your show, and I

But you said they opened up the card in your name without your permission?

Yeah. Basically, what happened was, I had them as, like, the emergency fund. Never used them. And then without really

knowing what they're doing. Up a card. They took your card that you opened up and used it without your permission. That's different. You understand?

Yeah.

If you hand Ken Coleman your card and say go use it, you're liable for that. If Ken Coleman goes and opens up a card in your name without your permission fraudulently signing your signature, that's identity theft. You're not liable for that. Do you understand the difference?

Yes.

So you handed the fiance your card, and they went bonkers with your card?

So I didn't even give them the card. That was that's the biggest thing is,

the bank card that is open in your name. That's the point. Right? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah.

Alright. So you owe $10,000. And what do you make, hon?

So right now, I make 45. And then in 5 months, I'll be making 55.

What do you do?

So I am a child abuse investigator for the state.

That's an irony. Okay.

Yeah. And then I have around 7,000 student loans through 8. But I'm in the government program right now. So if I work for the state long enough, they fully pay those off.

You no. You need to pay them off. You know, it's only $7,000. It takes 10 years to do this. So $17,000 makes you debt free, hun.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Oh lord. Go get 6 extra jobs and be debt free by like spring. You're not working by 40 hours.

So I work around so with my job now is it's a lot of on call. And so most days, I'm home around 9, 10 o'clock. That's because of the nature of the job.

So you're working 50 hours a week for

on the phone.

You're working 50, 60 hours a week for $55.

Yeah.

No. You're not. You're on call. When you're on call, you can drive Uber.

So what our on call was, if we have to initiate a report, we have to immediately drop everything, drive to initiate that report. And there's a lot of time not spending 12 hours in a hospital on my on call days, with a kid waiting for a reliever social worker to come and refill it. And the our body is

Alright. So you alright. What you gotta do is you gotta increase your income. You only need $17,000. This should not be overwhelming.

Yeah.

Sell something. It's not

that much money.

You gotta have I bet you got 2 grand worth of stuff you could sell. Easy. You can work on weekends. You're on call days. Whatever those are.

You're not working 7 days a week. So this is a season where you

gotta you clean up the mess.

$17 is very doable. But you're not

a victim. Okay? You handed her the card. You knew this was going on. The only thing you're a victim of is being engaged to an idiot.

And you're not the first 1 that's ever happened to. So, you know, roll up your sleeves, hon. Get on a detailed tight budget, and get as many extra hours as you can, as much extra income. Don't go out to eat. Don't talk about vacations.

Talk to your supervisor about, I'm not working 80 hours. You're going to have to have some kind of a different plan here because 80 hours for $55 don't cut it. The work you're doing is very important work and it's very good work. You're taking care of kids who have been messed up. Thank you for doing that.

You got a good heart but also you you cannot sit and be a victim of $17,000, man. I mean, seriously. Let me help you with this. $2,000 a month, and you are done in 8 months. That's all you need, and you make 55.

So it's this is very doable. You should be done with this in 6 months, and then have 0 debt. But this debt represents all this pain in your life, and so it's like feels bigger than it is. Mathematically, it's tiny. Emotionally, it's huge.

And that's why you're you know, you act like it's some kind of big monster. It's $17. And, you know, no. I'm not staying in student loan debt for 10 freaking years for $7,000 worth of forgiveness that probably isn't gonna actually come because you're probably not gonna cross every t and dot every I. A high percentage of people that run that game don't end up with the forgiveness at the end.

So you don't want to get in that game. You want to get in the game of, I'm going to knock this out, put it all in the rearview mirror, move forward in health, and with with enthusiasm.

Yeah. I I can feel the stupid tax. We've all done stupid, every 1 of us. And that's what you're feeling, you know. This is a breakup.

She she took your card and and, you know, and so you've created this narrative. The way you led the call is that you have been victimized, and and in all reality, you have it. And I think Dave is absolutely right. The more you can quickly go, I've gotta get a victory. And I would if I were you, I would go sell something today if I could sell it for $500 or if I could sell 5 things for a 1,000, get a quick win and put a $1,000 down on this debt.

You need something to get those shoulders back a little bit. And, there's nothing wrong with you. You aren't you aren't drowning in this. This is all a mindset because of what's happened to you and the way it happened. Learn from it, but get a quick victory.

Like, happen to this. Don't let life happen to you anymore.

So quick lesson, folks. You need to have Zander Insurance's identity theft in place. I do because they will take over an account that is actually identity theft. His wasn't. But actually, as identity theft, they'll take it over and they'll deal with the banks.

The banks will lie to you and tell you you're responsible for identity theft. You're not. When someone else misuses your name, that is criminal fraud. And you are not liable for a debt when a thief uses your name to open up an account. Don't let some banker tell you that.

That's bull crap. And you need somebody in your corner with identity theft protection like Zander Insurance, and that's why we've endorsed them for, god, a decade plus since this identity theft thing became a thing. Hey, you guys. I'm not a fan of the big banks, and you probably already know which ones I mean. But I do like credit unions because they're nonprofit organizations that focus on their members.

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Put giving in the subject line. Philip is in Houston. Hi, Philip. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi. Thank you for taking my call.

Sure. What's up?

So my question is, I am debating if I should buy a house. I currently own a mobile home that I it was given to me for my family, and I have it on family land. After my divorce, I kinda had to restart over. And after a long lead, long battle, I was finally awarded full custody of my kids. So my custody my kids are with me full time.

But I live on a, on

a in a in a mobile home right now that I mean, that it's fully paid for. It's mine. But I feel kinda a little bit ashamed of it because I know because I make good money, and I I feel like I I make about 86,000 a year.

Okay. Alright. And the land that it's on is not yours?

It's my, parents' parents' land. They have multiple properties. Okay.

And and

someone gave you the mobile home?

Yes. My parents.

They

Oh, they did. So they had a mobile home sitting on their land, and they said, hey. While you're going through a hard time, move into it.

Yes. They gave it to me and gave me the title for it and everything.

But they did not give you the title for the land?

Not for the land. Just a mobile home.

Right. Okay. Alright.

How

old are you?

I am 35.

Okay. Alright. Hey. You've been through hell, and you you needed a soft spot to land on. You found a soft spot to land.

That's not a bad landing spot. That doesn't mean we wanna stay there, but it's not it's a nice thing that you landed there. Okay?

And and I spent the lessons I I don't really pay anything I pay here is the the light bill.

Again, it's a soft landing spot. That's kinda nice. However, it does not take you where you wanna be 10 years from now. 10 years from now, you don't wanna be owning an ancient, rotting down mobile home on someone else's land. So this doesn't project well into the future even though it's a very nice gift into the present.

Does that make sense?

Yes.

So we can be very grateful to mom and dad. I'm grateful to them. I think what they do is very nice, but it is not your 10 year plan. Okay?

Okay.

You wanna buy something that goes up in value, and you own the dirt.

Yeah.

That's your long term plan. There's no reason to be ashamed. There's nothing to be ashamed about.

We can't feel that on you, and you don't need to feel that way. You've been through a fight. Yeah. So throw our shoulders back here and figure out what do we gotta do to move forward? But your kids don't care about the mobile home.

No. I'm not ashamed of it. That it's a nice thing. But, again, it's not your long term plan. Not because of shame, but just because of math.

And so I spent the last year kinda just, maxing out my 4 0 1 k, maxing out my Roth IRA. I was able to save about 22,000 in in my savings account. The only debt I have is just a truck that I owe about 15,000 on.

Write a check and pay it off today. Okay. Now save up a good down or save up a good emergency fund of 3 to 6 months of expenses, and then start and stop your 401 k temporarily and start saving up for a good strong down payment on a house that's gonna go up in value.

Okay.

Alright. Now how much land does your mom and dad have total?

I would say about 15. The 1 I'm on right now is 2 acres, but they have 2 acres in different properties here and there. They they have property manage they own a property management company

Is this property that you're on adjacent to their home? No. It's a stand alone property?

Yes.

Okay. Alright. Well, I mean, just talk to them about if they're in property management, they know that this is not going up in value and that you don't own the dirt. And so, mom and dad, I'm going to start saving for a down payment on a home, which means I'm gonna be selling off the mobile home or giving it back to you, 1 of the 2. What's it worth, do you think?

I don't know. Let's say about 4,000. It's not a lot

to buy a mortgage.

Just give

it back to them when you get ready to leave. Because they were renting it out before, weren't they?

Yes.

Yeah. That you don't mess up their rental property by dragging that thing off. So just just when you get ready to leave, just say, hey. I'm gonna save up money, and I'm gonna go buy a house, but thank you so much for letting me land here on your rental property for a little bit, and I'm gonna give you the title of this back when I leave. Okay?

But thank you all so much. And just be very grateful because you should be. It was a very nice thing they did.

Yeah.

But it's not your long term plan. That that it can be both things. It can be a nice thing and not the long term plan, and no shame is in either thing. Is that okay?

Yes. Appreciate that.

You're a good guy, man. You're making good money. You fought for your kids. You landed in you got good family that helped you land on a soft spot. That's nice, man.

There's a lot of good there's a lot of good in this story, Philip.

Thank you. That's nice. I've been blessed. I listened.

But you have been in the middle of a dadgum tragedy. You know?

You did. It it's good. And he saved up 22,000. Yeah. And the money's raised today.

So he's paying attention.

That's right. And now he's gonna get a massive raise when he pays the truck off today. Exactly.

Oh, I forgot about that little detail.

We want that.

It's a big deal.

And Dave, we got a lot of new people all the time joining in. I think this is a this will be a good refresher here of why we tell people if they're not familiar with the baby steps or they've just joined us in his situation, it's gonna change his life if he actually gets an order and does them the right way. That's why we're telling him to cut it today. Cut the payment today. Write a check, get rid of the the truck.

Yeah. Well, I mean, all that money that you're you're wasting on that truck payment goes to build up savings really fast. And this guy's a natural born saver. Yeah. Partly because he's been through hell and he's real careful.

Right? But, but I mean just accentuated his nature is what it did. And so just lean into that and go, okay, now I don't have a truck payment, now I don't have a mobile home payment, because my dad gave it to me. I'm living here. All I got is utilities, and I'm making 85 k.

I gotta feed some kids, and other than that, let's go to town, baby. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

As fast as he saved 22, he's gonna save 52.

That's right. And that's where he gets the house. Yep. That's the magic of the baby steps. Right?

Big time. And and listen, there is nothing snobbish about a couple of guys in Tennessee being telling you not to do mobile homes. Okay? It's nothing about that at all. It's not it's not a class warfare thing.

It's not anything. It's a simple math thing. They go down in value. When you put your money in things that go down in value, it makes you poorer. Why is this hard?

So a mobile home is like a car you sleep in. It goes down in value. And so you don't go buy a $55,000 mobile home and then look up 10 years later and it's worth $10,000 and wonder why you're broke people. Don't do that. Buy something that goes up in value.

You're better off to rent. At least you're not losing while you're paying payments. When you pay payments on a mobile home, you're paying the payment and you're losing the value. It's like when you're paying payments on a car and it's going down in value. So I've got a friend that's in the mobile home business.

Dude, would you quit trashing mobile homes? I was like, oh, trash mobile homes. It's not a personal thing, dude. It's simple. When you start making 1 that goes up in value, I'll advertise for you.

But until then, we're not gonna talk about it. We're gonna I'm gonna tell people to put money. It goes, you know, my grandpa said, I'll put money. I was bragging about my car when I was in college, and he's like, what's that? And I said, well, it's kinda like an investment.

He goes, honey, my investments go up. You know? Well, duh. Right? And that that's the thing.

So you you really wanna have investments like your personal residence going up in value. And the problem with a stinking mobile home is they set it on a piece of dirt, and the piece of dirt goes up in value faster than the mobile home goes down, so it gives you the illusion you made money. You didn't. The dirt just saved you from your stupidity. So don't buy mobile homes.

Now he didn't buy 1, mom and daddy gave him a whole $4,000 1. This is not a you know, this is not they didn't give him the Taj Mahal of mobile homes for sure. But but that that's the deal, guys. It's real simple. That's why we tell people to do that.

Go buy things that go up in value. This is what rich people do. That's how they became rich people, and that's how they get rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. This is The Ramsey Show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships.

Open phones at triple 8-825-5225. Ken Coleman, number 1 best selling author of the book Paycheck to Purpose, host of the Ken Coleman Show here on the Ramsey Networks. He's my cohost today. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. The phone number is 888-825-5225.

The call is free, and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. James is with us in San Diego. Hi, James. What's up?

Hi, Ramsey. This is a pleasure to be here. I really, really love what you do for people, and I

Thank you. I'm

a little super I'm super nervous right now.

So We haven't lost a patient. You'll be okay. What's up?

So I have it's not this call isn't for me. I have a I have a buddy that's very financially literate, and they've made some very poor financial decisions over the last, few years. And I guess to start with, I guess where to begin is they have right now currently 37,800 and $37 of debt. Their minimum monthly payments for those debts is $1743. Their gross monthly income approximately is around 100 k a year, plus or minus a couple thousand.

They have a mortgage right now. They're behind 1 month on their mortgage. It's so they're currently at $1500 a month to well, that's what they're behind. Normally, it's 12.50. With all their with all their, basic household bills.

They're looking at around, I think, $4,000 a month or $45100 a month. So my thing for them is they have 2 kids they've recently had over the last 2 years, and they find a struggle to be motivated to go to their job. Well, they go to work, but they allow overtime, and, he could work a little more than he is now. But I guess the problem with them is they're just kinda stuck in this hole. They're about negative $700 a month.

So do you have any advice for them? I know right now they're doing 8% on their 4 1 k's because the company matches 8. I'm just trying to, you know, help them out if they if any way I can. I figured it you'd be the 1st person to call, but I recommend it maybe You're

very sweet. I don't know if you can help them because I don't think they're gonna do it.

No. I agree. I know. I agree. But,

I'm gonna I'm gonna give you just a I'm gonna burn a few calories and try to help you help them because you're a good guy, but I think you're probably wasting your dad gum time.

I understand. I'm and it's it's worth it for me to try.

Well, I mean, yeah, a little bit, but it's not worth it for you to care more than they do about their own life.

So that

that's a boundary you need to set. You need to walk and get give us a little drive by. If they pick up the if they pick up a couple pieces of information and run with it, then you can help them a little more. But if they sit back and go, well, you know, I just don't feel like working. I'm sorry.

That 1 right there just kills me. Okay? I'm broke. I have 2 little kids. I can't make my bills, but I really don't want I don't wanna miss Yellowstone on the dadgum television.

I gotta be home. You know, I mean, come on.

Yeah.

Get up off your butt.

It's it's 12 hour shift, so I kinda understand.

Oh, you're killing me here.

I know. I know.

WAM. Call the WAMbulence. Alright. So here's the deal.

Okay.

Alright. Here's the deal. Stop the 401 case, get on a written budget, stay out of the restaurant, take all the overtime you can, and sell the expensive car that's in these numbers somewhere.

Yeah. So they have 2 car loans. 1 is at 7,000, the other's at 15.

Tada. Then yeah. Almost like I've done this before. Yeah. Sell the expensive car, stop the 401ks, get on a detailed budget, pick up all the overtime you can pick up.

They really there's nothing wrong with any numbers here. Oh, and before you start before you start paying any extra on your debt, buy food, pay the light bill, and pay the stinking house payment. How in the world you're not paying your house payment of 1500 when you make a 100,000 a year? These people are mentally lazy too.

Yeah. It's it's tough to hear because I we're me and my, wife are pretty, we're comfortable, and it's hard to hear. And they make more than they make, honestly, more than us.

Yeah. So

I mean And we live in San Diego.

Their house is not their problem, but, dude, you don't get behind on your house payment when you make a 100 k and you have 2 little babies.

Yeah.

This is just are they doing drugs?

No. You sure?

No drugs. Not a 100%.

I mean, this sounds like there's addiction in the house, maybe.

It's $3. It's $360 a month for cigarettes. That's an addiction for sure.

No. But, I mean, really, they're because I don't they're smoking weed. I don't wanna work much, and I didn't pay my house payment. You sure they're not smoking weed?

Well, the wife has the wife

Okay. Alright. I thought so. Alright.

Yeah.

Because THC is like a it's called an ambition killer. Okay? Yeah. Yeah. This completely destroys ambition.

So they don't

smoke weed.

There are no ambitious potheads. Okay?

Yeah.

There are no potheads with extreme work ethic. They don't exist. Right. So this is the problem. Alright?

This so Yeah.

I I would just say, James

minute, but we got there.

You're very nice, James.

I think You're a sweet guy.

The best thing you could do is to come to Jesus meeting with this dude. I I just think it's a dude, man.

Time for you to grow up. Throw the cigarettes and the pot in the dad gum ditch. You and your wife start acting like grown ups. You got babies you're responsible for. Come on, man.

Adult up. Man up.

Mhmm. You're making excuses for them. I hear it.

Yeah. Well, he likes them. He thinks they're sweet. They're probably sweet. A lot of potheads are.

But it's just, you know, Golly. You gotta be kidding me. This is

just

I know. This this call went

sideways when you said have this much illogical stuff going on without Right. Like, getting down there. I've done this too long. Right.

He doesn't need to go in at work.

Here's the deal. Larry Birkett used to say, financial problems, including when Dave Ramsey went bankrupt because he was stupid, the guy I'm talking about right here, financial problems are not the problem. They're the symptom. What are they the symptom of? In my case, it was arrogance and the need to look cool and drive a car I couldn't afford and buy crap I couldn't afford with money I didn't have, and build a big real estate portfolio, and I got rich quick instead of get rich slow because I'm smarter than everybody else, and I was a stupid little snot nose, and I got the tar knocked out of me because I was an idiot.

And that but it was the the problems were not the problem, they were the symptom. These people's problems are not their problem, they're the symptom of what's going on in their house, the dysfunction in the household. And that's what you're facing. So, you know, another example of that is we've sadly, with 30 years or 40 years now working with people with financial problems, we end up spending a lot and you do with careers too, end up spending a lot of time with people that are recovering from addictions. Mhmm.

And so we don't we're not addiction counselors. We don't know anything about it, technically speaking. We've only got 30 years of dealing with addicts, because a 100% of addicts have financial problems. A 100%. You're addicted to porn?

A 100% of the time, you're gonna end up in our office with your stupid house in foreclosure if you don't break that. You're addicted to gambling? Oh, that 1 will get you there real fast, because that's like money stupid. Right? It goes straight to the heart of the thing.

You're, you know, you're doing drugs, you're doing cocaine, you're doing alcohol. A 100% of these people. And I was with a buddy of mine the other day, he's been dry for 2 years. He was doing cocaine, he's doing mountains of cocaine. He's been off at 2 years, I'm real proud of him.

I said, why'd you quit? He goes, realize there's no old cocaine addicts. There you go. Wow. Yeah.

But the addiction is the problem. The symptom ends up being the financial issue. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. I've never done this before, but I'm partnering with a nutrition company, Field of Greens.

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Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co host today. Ben is with us in Dayton, Ohio. Hi, Ben. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Thank you, Dave. Glad to be here.

Good to have you, sir. What's up?

Yeah. So I have a question regarding life insurance. So I'm I'm looking at a policy through Xandr at 10 times my income, and the last variable my wife and I need to nail down is the duration of the term life insurance. Now I've taken FTE before. I know you normally recommend 15 to 20 years, but my question, if that's is if if that's right for our situation.

So I have other context to give there, but I'll let

you go ahead and ask

Why why would you think it's not? What is the context?

Yeah.

So, basically, over the next 10 or so years, my wife and I intend to have more kids. So there's a lot of life coming at us in the next 10 years. And I've heard you mention on the show before that, again, life comes in stages, it's not all at once, and you want your insurance to reflect that. So my thought is, does it make more sense if we keep having kids over the next 10 years to get a policy that's 10 years and then at the end of that, get 1 that's 20? Because if I get a policy now that's 20 years, our child that's on the way, she'll be out of the house hopefully at that point, but But if we have kids in 10 years, I would need to take out another 1.

So does it make more sense to take a shorter policy and then take out a 20 or maybe 25 year policy at the end of that rather than just taking out a 20 year policy now that I

know I will probably end up changing

in 10 years. Does that make sense?

So your first baby's on the way? Correct. Congratulations.

Thank you. Appreciate that.

And you're a good dad because you're thinking about how to make sure your kids and your wife are taken care of. Way to go, Ben.

Good, man. Good all.

Well done, sir. Well done. So you're not gonna mess up. You're doing fine. You can do your plan or you can do whatever.

The only thing I'm positive of is you're a bit of a nerd and that's a wonderful thing. I am too, by the way. That's how I recognize it. And so you're overthinking this. It's not going to unfold the way you've got it in your head.

So Probably not. The variable is not the number of kids. The variable is your income. So 10 times your income today is gonna be different than 10 times your income 5 years from now, or 12 times your income 10 years from now. And so, that's what what I ended up doing, and you've heard this apparently, but I'll repeat it for the everybody else out there because the way you reflected this back, I know you heard this.

I did 15 year policies, and then ever so often I bought an ever another 5 years later, I bought another 15 year. And then those would fall off at the appropriate time as the liability for the children go down. So the goal is when the life insurance runs out for you to be debt free

Mhmm.

And have a large enough nest egg that if you die financially, your wife doesn't care. Okay. So you got a $1,000,000 in mutual funds and you have no debt and the kids are grown and gone. Those are the 3 things. Right?

So they're out of college. They're not on mom's payroll in any way if you're gone. And so that's gonna work out, you know, and and and here's the thing. As long as you keep your health, you could do your plan or you could do, you know, 3 different versions of 15 year policies, which is kinda what I ended up doing. And then I ended up adding 1 because we're building a big building, and Sharon goes, I don't want to finish that building with my money.

I wanna finish it with your life insurance money if you die during the building. So I had to buy 1 for her just because that's what she wanted. It was SWI, Sharon wants it. It had nothing to do with financial planning. It was like a Christmas present.

And so, but you you're gonna end up that's what I mean. Stuff I had it all nerd figured out, and nothing ever works out the way I've got it figured out when I look back on it 15, 20 years later. So if you do it your way, you're gonna be fine. You're you're covering your family for 10 to 12 times your income. If you pass away with 1 or 2 babies in the house, your wife will have plenty of money to live off of the principal or live off the the growth of the principal without touching the principal, and have replaced your income and she'll be okay.

And, you know, and that's not gonna you know, if you got a 3 year old and a 1 year old, she's probably not gonna just sit there and do nothing and play that out for 17 years exactly that way. Usually doesn't happen. Her life will change after you're gone, too. So there's all these things that happen that are hard to quantify the variables. But the good news is if you've got a good long policy, 10, 15, 20, that's fine.

I wouldn't fool with thirties. I don't think they're worth it. But I did fifteens, a series of fifteens is what I did. And then each time I reassessed as my income went up, I needed more insurance, I just bought another policy. And then as we got out the back end of the story and we didn't need insurance, they start falling off in 5 year increments because I bought them in about 5 year increments.

So that's an okay way to do it. What you're talking about is similar, and what you really end up looking at is the difference in premium between a 15 and a 20. There's not much difference, and you don't save a lot. And it's not a lot of difference between a 10 and a 15 usually. Because, I mean, you're young and the whole stinking thing is just the cost of a pizza.

So if you're young and healthy and if you're not obese and you don't smoke and you're in your twenties, this stuff just doesn't cost anything. And, but those I mean, smoking and obesity will run it up. But, if you smoke, it's just double. Let me tell you what it is. It's double.

And so, you know, that's the thing. But, you know, you guys did the similar stuff, you and Stacy.

Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, we but we followed the income. This was the key lesson. The variable is not the kids.

It's the income. And so as my income increased, I stayed right on top of that and kept changing based on what you've always taught. This is before we I even worked for you. So that's the variable. It keeps it simple.

As your income goes up, then look at the policy.

Add a little bit more. And you don't have to cancel the old 1 and

get a new 1. That's correct.

Just add a smaller 1 on top of it. And that way you've got them phased in and phased out. Yeah. And that's an easy way to do it. And Xandr can help.

Xandr Insurance can help you with all that. And they do a wonderful job. They shop among a bazillion different companies. They get you the best price. Guys, when you're buying insurance of any kind, particularly life insurance and, P and C homeowners and car, always go with an independent broker that will shop among a bunch of different companies and get you the best deal.

You don't want 1 that has a listen. If they have a football player on their advertisement, they're more expensive. So let me help you. Okay? Mahomes and Peyton Manning.

Okay? 2 of them. State Farm is super expensive. Right? Somebody's gotta pay for all those dad gum football commercials, and it's you boys and girls.

So you State Farm people, that's who's paying for it. So

So you're telling me Jake is not the friend that we think he is?

I'm telling you that if I don't if I see another State Farm commercial, like, back to back to back to back to back every break till I'm about to throw up That's true. Oh my god. You can't even watch football for these people. Right. I wish they just get back on the field so and play so we didn't answer that gum in commercials.

I agree. And that

that painting versus painting, I I that 1 drives me nuts. Painting versus painting, I it it's too much. Well, it's

it's a walking dad joke.

I get it.

And I am a walking dad joke. And I

like I don't wanna be reminded of my weaknesses.

Personally, but I know Payton, and he's a wonderful guy. And he does have a great sense of humor in general.

By the way, I wanna point this out because we have a lot of people that, again, brand new coming in. Our audience is growing. The the life insurance, Xander, is so good at what they do. It is such a pain free process from start to finish, from the time you call them, to the nurse coming out and taking your blood, to the paperwork. I gotta tell you, it is it it I think a lot of people, like, oh, what do I gotta do?

Did you

just say the nurse taking my blood was pain free? I heard you say that out loud

as well. I did say that. They come right to your house. It's simple. Paperwork is easy.

I just I don't want people to know. It is such a easy process.

It is. Comparatively to the To

the other stuff in life that you have to take care of, and it doesn't get more important.

But you you know, like, for instance, on p and c, if you go to 1 of the ELPs and you shop it, you know, on your homeowners and your car, you're going to save like $800 probably on average. Yeah. Annually over what you're paying on car and homeowners. So, and that's simply because not because they have like the cheapest insurances, it's because in your situation they're going to look at 5 or 6 different companies or 8 different companies, they're going to find the 1 company in your situation that is the best deal. That's right.

And that's what you want. When you're an insurance agent and you only sell for 1 company in the business, we call that a captive

Yes.

Agent. So a nationwide agent, that's the guy that wrecks everything, right? Isn't that the commercial? Uh-huh. Is that nationwide?

I can't even remember now.

No. That's Allstate.

So it didn't work? The ad didn't work because it's not even memorable. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

The guy's memorable, but I don't yeah. Yeah. So and and yeah.

That's the only reason I watch those. It's because that's kinda fun to watch them destroy everything. Something.

Yeah. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over. So shop. Shop. Don't work with the captives.

Shop among a bunch of different get an insurance broker. That's a different thing. This is the Ramsey Show.

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Alright. Hey. It's that time of year when it's getting a little colder. It's getting dark earlier, and sometimes we just wanna stay inside and get cozy.

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Hey. George Campbell here. So you're thinking about buying or selling your home. It's exciting, but there's a lot to think about. And all those decisions can feel overwhelming.

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So if you're ready to take the next steps toward your home goals, go to Ramsey Solutions dotcom/realestate. That's Ramsey Solutions dotcom/realestate.

Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality is my cohost. The Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by Why Refi? We trust Why Refi because they help people who have defaulted private student loans. They refinance with a low fixed interest rate, you can't get anywhere else, and it'll get you a payment. With Chris, for instance, they got his payment down 40%.

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Today's question comes from Vanessa in Indiana. I'm a 21 year old who will graduate college in the spring with my bachelor's degree. How am I supposed to go about getting an entry level job when they all want full time experience? I had part time jobs while in school, but they don't really relate to my career path. Well, I appreciate the question, Vanessa.

I've answered this question thousands of times. The answer is, it's not entry level if it's requiring a bunch of experience. So what it it just can't be. So, what you do is is you you recalibrate and you go, I'm trying to get on rat lung rung of the ladder 2, 3, or 4, and I need to drop down to the lowest rung on the ladder. And so if it is by definition a entry level job, then they're not gonna require a bunch of experience.

And what happens most of the time is people have their eyes on something a little bit bigger, and they go for that. And they actually are requiring experience. So how did someone get into that job? Look lower. I can promise you there is in fact entry level jobs where you do not require any experience.

So this is all about reality and patience, would be the 2 words so that you see the right things. And I appreciate that you'll want to, get something a little higher up the ladder. We all do.

And Ken, I think it matters I think it matters more. I'm thinking about from an employer position when we're hiring. It matters more, if if her degree is in a technical field, then all they want to know is she can accomplish the technical task. That's correct. If it is in a broader soft skill field Mhmm.

Let's say communications. Mhmm. Okay? And she wanted to go to work in PR. Alright.

That's not a tact a technical tactical thing. There's soft skills involved there. I would be more concerned with experience there than I would someone as a, a developer. That's a technical skill.

That's

exactly right. Okay. So if you got a if you got a certification as a developer, we might put on the job offering, but we prefer experience. But I'm not gonna we're not gonna require that as harshly as we would in something where soft skills are involved. Does that make sense?

It's exactly right. Yeah. And and so So it depends on the field shifting.

Depends on the field. So let's take that example. Let's say that, you you, got a degree in accounting or PR or something, and you're going for something and and whatever it is. And they're saying, okay. You don't have any experience even in classes or in summer work.

You've not interned. You've not done this. It's not the sky is falling. Then you simply go, okay. Great.

So I need to go get that. And so I might need to go, do go get 2 part time jobs or a part time job. And I've gotta get some intern experience, and I get that basic level experience. And so now all of a sudden, I have checked that box.

And the other thing that comes into play is, that's just something an employer sometimes will put on there as almost a screen. Yes. And, would would they necessarily never hire someone with 0 experience? That's not true. They would in certain circumstances.

That's right.

Because all they're trying to figure is, can you do the job? Yes. And so the proximity principle could help that. It

can. And I think you also yeah. And so the proximity principle is where I've got people that are in that industry who I've spent some time with, and now they're gonna open up some doors. But I wanna go back to what you just said, and that's gumption. I think you're absolutely right.

Here's what I would say to someone coming around out of college. If they say, you need experience in communications, or you need experience with problem solving. You know what I would do? Instead of saying like this young lady said, and I'm not knocking her, my part time jobs didn't have that experience. You know what I would do?

I would look back into my high school and college experience and I would say, you know what? I was in charge of the yearbook my senior year at a large public high school. And, as the student editor, I had to solve problems all the time. I'm not saying you're gonna get the job because of that answer, but there's the gumption point. They're looking for, do you want this?

Are you hungry? And can you say, realistically, I solve problems. You

have point. Poise.

Right. But if you say I solve problems by doing this, we had deadlines.

But if you look down and go, well, kicks sand. Right. I don't know. I don't know. I apparently don't have any.

Yeah. Well, you just managed to

get a 4 year degree. That was like you push through something. There you go. There's just more transferable experience than people realize when you're sitting in these job interviews. They wanna see that you can think on your feet, that you've got some gumption to say, I believe I can do this job.

That's what they're looking for.

Yep. Because they're gonna train you. You're making a sale, baby. You're the product. Yep.

Damon is with us in Des Moines, Iowa. Hi, Damon. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up?

Oh, I just had a question. My, employer has offered me to buy into 10% of our company. I'm, an electrician with a small company just outside of, Des Moines, Iowa. I'm on baby step 2 now. My wife and I, we both make about a 110,000 together.

We, Let's see. I just didn't know if I should continue the baby steps, which, like I said, I'm on baby step 2, or if I should direct my focus on to trying to get, this 10% for a $100,000 is what is how I would get that 10%. And I wasn't for sure if I should put my focus towards getting some ownership into the company to where I

can No. You should look at your boss and say thank you for your kind and generous offer, but I'm in the middle of getting out of debt right now. And so my wife and I have to focus on that. I'm so sorry. I can't do it.

And let me tell you why. Okay? A $100,000 for 10% of that company is You said it's a small company, and yet and let and yet you just valued it at a $1,000,000.

Yes. I and I don't like I said, I don't have all I don't have all the all the numbers on the company yet. He just kinda gave me

How many employees does it have?

We have 10 employees. I know this year, they had told me that we're on track to do 1,400,000. And last year, we did 1,700,000 with a couple

How how old are you?

My wife and I are 25.

Okay. Do you wanna work for him for the next 10, 15 years?

Yes, sir. I do. I I actually used to live in the city. I've worked with companies that have, you know, 3, 400 employees. And I really enjoy the rural life, and I really enjoy So

here's the deal. That opportunity will come back around. If it is a good opportunity, I'm

not sure it is, but it'll come back around later. Number 1, I think it's overpriced. Number 2, let me teach you something about small business purchases. Okay? What you are purchasing there is called a minority interest.

Meaning you do not have at least 51%, meaning you don't have control. You follow me?

Yes, sir.

Okay. And so you have absolutely 0 power with your stock. 0. So Bossman can decide to run this thing in the ditch, and suddenly your 10 percent's worth nothing. And there's not a stinkin' thing you can do about it.

So you do not buy minority interests in small businesses. Period. And number 1. For any price. If he wants to give it to you, fine.

As a bonus, that's okay. But no. We're not gonna give him a $100,000, and you have 0 control over anything in the company. Your vote means nothing because he he holds all the cards. You follow me?

He can, he can go, he can go deeply in debt, he can develop a cocaine problem, he can do whatever, and they're in squat you can do about it. And your 100,000 is going to become more 0 if any of those bad things happen. And sometimes those bad things happen. Not all the time, but sometimes they do. So don't do minority interests in small businesses.

Period. And I think this one's overpriced, and, Damon, you're in debt. So just be kind and generous to him and say thank you for your kind offer. I'm honored to be working here. I'm gonna continue to work and plow the field like I'm supposed to.

And, we'll we'll revisit this discussion later when I would just buy the whole thing from you or something. But for right now, I'm getting out of debt, and my wife and I are gonna have to focus on that. That's what you should do, sir. This is the Ramsey Show. It's Cyber Monday week.

And if you're looking for Christmas gifts that actually make a difference, we've got them. Get best selling books like breaking free from broke, baby step millionaires, and more for just $12 or audio books for just $8. Now is your chance to give something that'll help your friends and family build wealth, transform their relationships, and find work they love. Visitramsysolutions.com/storetoday.ramsysolutions.com/store. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality is my co host today.

Thank you for joining us, America. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. Folks, 100% of the people that do anything successful do it as an act of intentionality. Success is not an accident. It's not random.

It's not a lightning strike, and it's not a DNA issue. He's a born leader. No. He's not. I've been to the hospital.

They always say, it's a boy. It's a girl. They never say, it's a leader. Leaders are developed. It's a series of intentional acts.

You learn the character qualities and processes of leadership if you wanna be a leader, a successful 1. He was born a great husband. No. He wasn't. Ask any wife ever.

There's no such thing as a born great husband. They have to be developed.

I'm not sure if you ask many wives, they'll say there's such thing as a great husband.

Yeah. There's.

Hey now. Yeah.

There's. My wife's got 1. So there you go.

Self described. I love that.

Because of the humility and all. But yeah. But the, so anyway, the so the thing is this, winning with money is an intentional act. You have to tell your money what to do, because broke people always wonder where it went. Rich people tell their money what to do, and they have a plan.

Broke people, thank God it's Friday. Oh, God it's Monday. I sure hope it all works out. I sure hope Trump will fix my life because Biden didn't. Trump isn't gonna fix your life, honey.

He's gonna do a bunch of crap, but fixing your life isn't any of it. I can tell you that. It's not his job, by the way. It wasn't the guy before him's job or the guy before him's job, the guy before him. It's your job.

So on paper, on purpose, you tell your money what to do. That's called a budget. If you want help doing that, the world's best budgeting app is called Every Dollar. It's in the App Store for free or the Google Play Store. Get it and download it, put it on your phone, and start making your money behave.

It's an intentional act, boys and girls. Brian is with us in San Antonio, Texas. Hey, Brian. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hello, Ramsey team. It's a pleasure.

Pleasure, sir. How can we help?

Well, I just wanted, y'all's take on, making sure I'm not crazy and considering an $80,000 new car, a Tesla Model S.

Cool. Nice car.

Yes, sir.

Alright. So what do you make?

Well, I make, $360,000 a year.

Cool. What's your net worth?

I've got, without the house included

No. House is part of your net worth. What's your net worth?

Okay. About 1,200,000.

Alright. You got the cash to pay cash for it? I do. Okay. Buy it.

Okay. Let me tell you what let me tell you the the rule of thumb I use on this. Okay? Yes, sir. The reason I ask you those questions.

We tell people not to buy a brand new car unless they've got at least a $1,000,000 net worth. Ding. Check box. Okay? Okay.

Because new cars go down in value, including Teslas. Right. They don't go up. They go down. And you can't afford a depreciating asset that's brand new.

When you drive it off the lot, that sound blump blump when you go over the curb was $10,000. Okay?

Right.

That's what it is. You've got to be able to choke that down, and you can choke it down. And you don't buy new unless you've got a $1,000,000 net worth. You do. Okay.

Second thing is, don't buy depreciating assets. Things with motors and wheels, in your case wheels, all added together that equal more than half your annual income. You make 3.60, we're buying 80. That's less than half your annual income. I'm assuming the other car, if there is 1, is not, you know, not a $200,000 car.

So you're probably okay.

Yes, sir. Okay.

So Paid off. Because you don't want too much of too much as a percentage of your income invested in things that are going down in value. Again, same thing. So, like, I got a friend that made 15,000,000 last year, and, he bought a $428,000 car. That kind of blows my redneck mind.

I have my head I have a hard time getting my head around that, but it's a very small percentage of his income. It's like most people buying a biscuit. Right?

Mhmm.

And so, yeah, it's not gonna hurt his finances at all, even though, you know, we you know, jealous people say stuff like, well, no 1 should ever. Right? You know, you that's that's what jealous people say. No 1 should ever. So if you made $15,000,000 last year, you can afford a $400,000 car.

It's that simple. You made $360,000, you can afford a $80,000 car. You've got a $1,000,000 plus net worth, you can afford to buy a brand new car. That's how I and you're paying cash. You're not going to borrow money.

That's the 3 things I was looking for. You you checked all 3 boxes.

Yeah. And, hey, he's done it the right way, and so this is he's he's had to wait. That's the other thing that when when when Dave walks through those

I'm just glad George and Rachel aren't in the air with their little Teslas. Yeah. Because I would have had to put up with the Tesla stuff telling a guy to buy a Tesla because there's no chance I'm doing that. But those 2 both are Tesla drivers. So You just Batteries.

Even if they came out with a really cool looking 1?

They're they're they're they actually are a cool car. I just I need

You wanna sell

I need like an app for it that makes some muffler sound. Right. Because a redneck needs a loud muffler, and that's just all there is to it.

They do that. You know, they have these cars Do

they really?

Yes. Absolutely. But I don't think it's enough for you.

No. It's not.

I think you wanna smell

know I'm sitting on a battery.

You like the hint of petrol in the air. That's it. That's you wanna smell that you're driving.

That's it. Actually, I'm trying to help the planet. Well, I mean, the planet gets destroyed by making those batteries more than me driving my Raptor. I could tell you that.

Oh, so you're green.

Is that what

I'm hearing?

That's it, man. I'm I'm I'm totally I'm down with the green. Right. Not at all.

But yeah. It's very exciting, James. Funny.

I don't care what you say. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Fabian is with us in Los Angeles. Hi, Fabian. How are you?

Hi. Doing good, sir. I just wanna say, first, Bob Matthew, my future in life. And I binge watched your show. We bought your books, and I'm currently on baby tattoo, and we appreciate you very much.

Well, thank you, sir. How can we help you today?

Alright. So I need you to do that theme that you do where you pretend like I'm your son, and if I'm making an overall good career choice. I wanna be able to switch careers. I feel like I was in my twenties going on ventures.

What are

you doing now? What do you wanna switch to?

So, the last few years, I did cons project management and construction, blueprints, and I really like that. I've been doing restaurants for 10 years. I went back to it, because it was a venture with a startup company that went downhill. And now I backtracked. I went back to what I was good at.

So, yeah, doing restaurant for 10 plus years and construction blueprints to permit for 2 years the past 2 years.

So you wanna go from restaurant management to this construction blueprint stuff?

Yes, sir.

K. So what's the question?

Do you think the construction industry is a good career path? Absolutely. I okay. And then how do I make this switch over? Because, I never went to school for it, but I learned how to, like, work with

Does it require does it require if I were to hand it to you today, does it require a college degree to do what you wanna do? The answer is no.

Project managing, read a blueprint. Most people doing it don't have a college degree. There's a few people who have a construction management degree, but almost none in the business.

Sounds like you've already got enough experience to get in the industry. So the question is, can you get back in it and make the kind of money you need to make?

Yeah. And I'll Then do it. Because, I get yeah. So my advice

is this. Keep working in the restaurant business until you land the job doing what you wanna do and so there's no interruption of income. This is not scary if we do it methodically and we're patient and we don't stop working. And that's that's the Hey,

I used to work at the start up, the construction business start up before, where are they working?

It was a remote company. It was,

Were any of them local?

Yes. Some some of the projects were local.

Yeah. Find out where those guys are working. They may they may talk nice about you and help you get a job there.

Oh, you mean like

the The guys you used to work with in the construction business, find out where they are. That company was a start up and went down, you said. Yeah. Now go find those guys and run that to ground, and they'll get the door open for you and you can get going. Yeah.

But you don't yeah. Go you need to go do this, man. Absolutely.

How to do it. You've already done it, so you know where to look. Absolutely. You got this.

Walk out there on the job site. Start talking to people. Who's hiring? I know how to do this. I'll help you.

And just walk in there and start reading blueprints and project managing. You know how to do it. It's it can be done. You really you know. You already know you don't have to have a degree because you've already done it.

This is the Ramsey Show.

Hey, you're still here? What are you doing? You do know that the rest of today's show is playing right now over on the Ramsey Network app. Right? All you gotta do to finish the episode is search Ramsey Network in the App Store, Google Play Store, or just click the link in the show notes to download the app for free.

Yep. You heard me right. For free. Then right there on the home screen, you can watch the rest of today's show. Bada bing, bada boom.

Alright. I'm getting out of here. Enjoy. We'll see you on the app.