0:13

Live from the headquarters

0:16

of Ramsey Solutions. It's the

0:18

Ramsey Show where we help

0:21

people build wealth do

0:23

work that they love

0:25

and create actual amazing

0:27

relationships I'm Dave Ramsey

0:29

your host Jade Washaw

0:32

Ramsey personality is my

0:34

co-host today open phones

0:36

here at AAA 825-225-225-225

0:38

the call is free

0:40

and some say the

0:42

advice is worth exactly

0:44

what you pay for

0:46

it. Vinny starts this hour

0:48

in New York City. Hi Vinny,

0:51

how are you? Pretty good.

0:53

Good, how can we help?

0:55

So I'm looking to get

0:57

advice. I have a small

0:59

business. I have about $95,000 in

1:02

debt in our business and

1:04

we make good money in

1:06

sales but every time I feel

1:08

like I make money. All of

1:11

my profit goes to my

1:13

credit cards and I never

1:15

see anything. And it's just very

1:17

frustrating because I make two

1:19

steps forward, one step back

1:21

if that makes sense. I'm

1:23

trying to see what I

1:25

can do to get my debt

1:27

down. I also have a small debt

1:29

in my personal, because I want

1:32

to buy a house next year as

1:34

well. So that's what I need

1:36

help with. Well bad news you're

1:38

not gonna buy a house next year

1:40

because you're gonna be getting out of

1:42

debt Yeah, you can't do both of

1:44

these things Right the so you finance

1:47

the start of your business on credit

1:49

cards No, no, so we've been you

1:51

said you had business debt and then

1:53

you said credit cards were taking all

1:55

your money. That's where I got that well,

1:58

so we have business debt because

2:00

we purchased, I made some, you

2:02

know, terrible finances as far as

2:05

buying a truck at the wrong

2:07

time, I'm perching a newer truck

2:09

instead of an older truck. And

2:11

one of the biggest, I'm sorry.

2:14

Oh, the go ahead, keep going.

2:16

One of the biggest debts is

2:18

in February, I had to spend

2:20

$30,000 on a pickup truck because

2:23

in February I had an accident.

2:25

And I had a clean snow

2:27

and I had no choice but

2:29

to purchase another truck to complete

2:32

the snow for the commercial properties.

2:34

So- You didn't have insurance? I

2:36

have insurance. They fixed my other

2:38

truck. But now I have two

2:41

trucks when I didn't even budget

2:43

for that or plan for that.

2:45

Are you still actively taking out

2:47

debt? Or have you decided I'm

2:50

done? Like, have you changed your

2:52

philosophy around debt? Yeah, right now

2:54

I'm done. I, right now I

2:56

try to make, you know, the

2:59

lowest in my expenses. Like I,

3:01

for instance, I don't even go

3:03

out there anymore. I try to

3:05

cook, you know, who a whole.

3:08

Let's go back to the business.

3:10

Let's go back to the business

3:12

a second. In your business, what

3:14

do you do? What is your

3:17

business? We do landscaping and construction.

3:19

Okay. All right. And now you

3:21

have two trucks and you only

3:23

need one. Well, I

3:25

mean, yeah, exactly, pretty much. Yeah,

3:28

not pretty much. Absolutely. You're doing

3:30

it on one and then you

3:32

stupidly went and bought another one

3:34

to plow three streets while the

3:36

other one was being fixed. Okay.

3:38

So, how much do you owe

3:41

on the stupid truck? 30,000. Okay.

3:43

Sell it? Okay. Yeah. Let's get

3:45

rid of that debt. I guess

3:47

rid of a third of your

3:49

debt, dude. Yeah, and you didn't

3:51

need it right you panicked Okay,

3:53

next time you panic, debt is

3:56

not your answer. That's what she

3:58

meant by are you through with

4:00

debt. Every time you have a

4:02

problem in business, if you go

4:04

borrow money, you'll be out of

4:06

business in about 20 minutes. That's

4:09

the path you're on. Okay, and

4:11

how much credit card debt have

4:13

you got? I have six, Alabama

4:15

30. Okay, and what's the other

4:17

30? So I have, it's a

4:19

couple credit cards. I have one

4:22

credit card at 16. And then

4:24

I have another credit card that

4:26

is six. And then I have

4:28

another one that's about eight. Okay,

4:30

that's 30 and 30 on a

4:32

truck, but you told me 95.

4:34

So what's the other 35? So

4:37

the other 35 is I have

4:39

my first truck I have I

4:41

still owe 15,000 on that. Okay.

4:43

And then I owe my dad

4:45

12,500. Okay, so and what did

4:47

you, what was your profit in

4:50

the year 2024? Net profit that

4:52

you paid taxes on. A net

4:54

profit was around $40,000. Okay. And

4:56

you live in New York City.

4:58

In Connecticut, but it's worse. Yeah.

5:00

Yeah. Extremely expensive. You know, you're

5:02

not making any money. Right. You're

5:05

starving to death. Yeah. I mean

5:07

if you had a job making

5:09

$40,000 and no debt, we would

5:11

tell you to look for a

5:13

job. So is this business growing?

5:15

The business is growing. You know,

5:18

last year in sales in 24

5:20

we did around $200,000 and $20,000

5:22

through to $100,000. So definitely is

5:24

growing. Okay. Well if you can

5:26

double it again, you can get

5:28

there, right? So if you sold

5:31

the truck and doubled it again

5:33

and lived on beans and rice

5:35

at home... You can plow your

5:37

way through this, no pun intended.

5:39

Are you single? I am, yes.

5:41

Yeah, and if you're not working

5:43

on your construction stuff, you're working

5:46

doing something else. You work all

5:48

the time. You're broke. So pick

5:50

up a side gig, working for

5:52

somebody else, if you can't stay

5:54

busy with your construction landscaping stuff.

5:56

Okay? So that's the trick man.

5:59

I mean you've got to get

6:01

some income coming in to offset

6:03

this because it takes more than

6:05

$40,000 a year to eat in

6:07

Connecticut Right. And so there's nothing

6:09

left. That's why it feels like

6:12

the credit cards are killing you.

6:14

However, it's actually the stupid second

6:16

truck that's killing you Yeah, how

6:18

many employees have you got? I

6:20

have four employees full-time Yeah, okay.

6:22

You got more work in there

6:24

You've got four people working creating

6:27

200 grand. You've got to get

6:29

more work going. You've got to

6:31

get this to 400 grand to

6:33

make these numbers work. But it

6:35

sounds like you're on that track.

6:37

That's a positive part of the

6:40

story. The business is actually growing.

6:42

If you can maintain your margins

6:44

by carefully managing the business and

6:46

managing the accounting of the business

6:48

and quit borrowing money every time

6:50

something goes sideways. Like you borrow

6:52

money from your dad, you borrow

6:55

money on a credit card, you

6:57

borrow money to buy another truck.

6:59

It's got to stop. You're killing

7:01

yourself. So if you stop that,

7:03

what Jade said is exactly right,

7:05

you stop that and you divorce

7:08

yourself from debt is my provider,

7:10

to I am my provider, I

7:12

am going to get up, leave

7:14

the cave, kill something and drag

7:16

it home to the tune of

7:18

400 grand. Because see, you go

7:21

to 80, if you kept your

7:23

margins, you go to 80. No.

7:25

Yeah, yeah, you'd go to 80

7:27

if you made 40 on 200

7:29

you'd go to 80 on 400.

7:31

Yeah And so keep your margins

7:33

right there and at 80 you

7:36

live on 40 40 and you

7:38

sell the truck You're almost out

7:40

of that. So the thirty thousand

7:42

dollar truck you got 60 left

7:44

you throw 40 at the 60

7:46

you're almost out of that in

7:49

a year But that's kicking man

7:51

and it's all going to debt

7:53

no lifestyle no weekends I don't

7:55

want to hear about happy hour

7:57

happy hours I'm happy I'm working

7:59

more okay that's where you are

8:01

right now that's the business you

8:04

got to get in it's making

8:06

money and throwing it all at

8:08

the debt and then reverse the

8:10

stupidity I've done dumber things and

8:12

you've done Venny but but you're

8:14

right I mean you've got a

8:17

couple things on the dumb list

8:19

there so you got some stupid

8:21

tax being paid You don't spend

8:23

$30,000 to plow four driveways. Nope,

8:25

not on this planet. You give

8:27

them work to one of your

8:30

buddies and you pay him to

8:32

do it that's got a snow

8:34

plow and do it because your

8:36

truck's in the shop. And you

8:38

just miss that revenue right now.

8:40

That kind of stuff, instead of

8:42

buying a $30,000 truck. No more

8:45

panicking. And even if you do

8:47

panic, dad is not going to

8:49

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Ramsey solutions.com/store. Matthew is in Austin,

10:55

Texas. Hey Matthew, what's up? Hey

10:57

Mr. Ramsey, thank you for taking

10:59

my call. Sure, how can we

11:01

help? Well, my fiance and I

11:03

are getting married in October. Yes,

11:05

it's exciting. So I've been using

11:07

those resources online, so I have

11:09

a good picture of, you know,

11:11

how to set the budget. But

11:13

my question today is how do

11:16

we approach and ask our parents

11:18

how much, if any, they're willing

11:20

to contribute to this way. How

11:22

long have you been engaged? We

11:24

got engaged in February. Okay, so

11:26

they know what's coming up. Have

11:28

they said to you, hey, we

11:30

have some money set aside? Not

11:32

specifically, her parents. We kind of

11:34

started the planning process and both

11:36

her and our parents were kind

11:38

of like, don't assume like you're

11:40

on your own. Oh, okay. Her

11:42

parents offered to pay for her

11:44

dress. Okay, great. And seemed like

11:46

they want to help with the

11:48

venue. Okay. My parents, they haven't

11:50

told me specifically. you know, amounts

11:52

or what specific expenses they would

11:54

want to. So, I'll bring you

11:56

to. I'm 23 and she is

11:58

going to be 22 in about

12:00

two weeks. Okay. So if I

12:02

were in your shoes and I

12:04

was in your shoes when I

12:06

got married, I would have, I

12:08

would go to my parents and

12:10

say, here's the date. You said

12:12

that you were going to help

12:14

with the rehearsal dinner. What does

12:16

that look like and what does

12:18

that mean for you? I'm trying

12:20

to lay out the budget. Help

12:23

me plug into it what you

12:25

want to do. And then she

12:27

goes to her parents. That way,

12:29

if there's any feelings, like they

12:31

don't have to deal with having

12:33

some expectation from the in-law, if

12:35

that makes sense. Yeah. It'd be

12:37

fine if you went with her

12:39

to her to her parents, but

12:41

don't talk. Yeah. Exactly. But it's

12:43

not something where it's like we're

12:45

inviting both of our parents to

12:47

dinner and we're figuring this out

12:49

because I feel like there could

12:51

be a level of pressure. I

12:53

wouldn't put them together. Yeah, definitely.

12:55

That's a nightmare right there. Well,

12:57

actually you could get them if

12:59

they're competitive. No, I'm kidding. I'm

13:01

kidding. I'm guessing. the way you

13:03

phrase these sentences that between you

13:05

and your fiance you would be

13:07

the nerd she would be the

13:09

free spirit does that sound right

13:11

100% you're the detail it's easy

13:13

it's easy if you just say

13:15

to your mom and dad hey

13:17

you know how I'm detailed and

13:19

you know how I'm nerd out

13:21

about this stuff it'll help me

13:23

a lot to feel, to have

13:25

peace about the planning if I

13:28

just know what to plug in

13:30

here. Do you just tell us

13:32

what you want to plug in?

13:34

And I need to know. I

13:36

need to know. And then she

13:38

can say the same thing to

13:40

her parents and say, you know,

13:42

Matthew's a big planner and it

13:44

just helps us to have peace

13:46

and less stress, less anxiety if

13:48

we know the amount. Yeah, and

13:50

not only the amount, but you

13:52

know how these things are, people

13:54

need deposits. And they need the

13:56

money well before the fact. So

13:58

make sure that you also reiterate

14:00

that because you need to understand

14:02

if it's going to be a

14:04

situation where you're fronting the money

14:06

and then they're giving it to

14:08

you as a gift on the

14:10

back end or if they have

14:12

the money today to put those

14:14

deposits. So just make sure you

14:16

get clarity on the timeline and

14:18

make sure they know, hey, if

14:20

you said that you're paying for

14:22

the venue, I'm just letting you

14:24

know that they need a deposit

14:26

in the next three weeks. thinking

14:28

of it October, right? And so

14:30

just that clarification is going to

14:33

help everybody. Yeah. But I think

14:35

it's in-person, calm, you don't have

14:37

an attitude or a voice tone

14:39

of entitlement or expectation. It's simply

14:41

a question of clarification. Yes, sir.

14:43

That's all you're looking for. Honestly,

14:45

we could, we, I ran the

14:47

numbers, we can cash flow this

14:49

ourselves. That's not the issue. The

14:51

issue is we need clarification of

14:53

what you're not cash flowing because

14:55

you're going to put together a

14:57

budget. Unless, unless, unless, let me

14:59

throw this out there, if you

15:01

have some indicator, and you didn't

15:03

say it, but if you have

15:05

some indicator that taking this gift

15:07

comes with something and you don't

15:09

want the something that it comes

15:11

with, yeah, then you do have

15:13

the ability to, if you take

15:15

the venue I want, or if

15:17

you invite all my friends, or

15:19

if you, you know, that sort

15:21

of thing, if you don't want

15:23

that, and you can cash flow,

15:25

that's also fine. It's up to

15:27

you, and your wife, to be.

15:29

Yeah, we we we took the

15:31

more Back in the day the

15:33

bride's parents paid for stuff paid

15:35

for the wedding Okay, so we

15:38

took the more traditional approach with

15:40

Rachel and Denise and Sat down

15:42

we proactive the other way sat

15:44

down with their fiance's Winston and

15:46

Bill and said okay. Here's the

15:48

amount at the top line Now

15:50

you guys have got to figure

15:52

out how to buy everything within

15:54

that number. And here's some budget

15:56

items you need to look at.

15:58

Receptions are the most expensive thing.

16:00

Dress is not. Flowers can be

16:02

if you lose your freaking mind

16:04

And so on so you get

16:06

you're going to discover this as

16:08

you actually start putting the thing

16:10

together And so you do a

16:12

line by line by line itemized

16:14

budget for the wedding A zero-based

16:16

budget just like if you're spending

16:18

every dollar on paper before the

16:20

month begins. It's project management. It's

16:22

a project. It just has a

16:24

lot of emotions and usually involved

16:26

or a couple of human projects,

16:28

but you know and people's definition

16:30

of word let me just say

16:32

people's definitions of words are different

16:34

and it's worth always clarifying because

16:36

i know with my wedding my

16:38

parents said we'll pay for the

16:40

venue in their mind that was

16:43

the backyard they said we'll pay

16:45

for the food and they thought

16:47

that was barbecue you know i'm

16:49

saying like so we're gonna stop

16:51

by the barbecue trailer it's like

16:53

on father of the bride Steve

16:55

Martin and Chickens Yeah, so you

16:57

have to make sure, hey, this

16:59

is what I have in mind.

17:01

What do you have in mind?

17:03

Definitions matter. Our girls grew up

17:05

on Father the Broad, so we

17:07

had Fronk. Oh, yeah, Fronk. Yes,

17:09

that's so funny. Yeah, it was

17:11

just, it was classic. And we're

17:13

like, yeah. And you're writing the

17:15

check just like, ugh. I'm not

17:17

dealing with Frank, you're dealing with

17:19

him. Here's one check, you're done,

17:21

it's going into the wedding account,

17:23

got your names on it, it's

17:25

a gift, I'm done, I'm not

17:27

going to tell you you have

17:29

to do anything except don't come

17:31

back to me for more. That's

17:33

it, that's all I can get.

17:35

And if you spend less than

17:37

that, you got a down payment

17:39

for a house. There you have

17:41

it, oh I love that. You

17:43

can do that, none of them

17:45

did. Yeah, they just, they just,

17:48

they just... It just had a

17:50

we just had a huge party

17:52

and it was wonderful I love

17:54

a I love a big party,

17:56

especially if you can afford it,

17:58

you know, so that's the thing

18:00

So a good rule of thumb

18:02

too guys the average wedding in

18:04

America today is a little over

18:06

$30,000 Okay, that's an average which

18:08

means up to half of them

18:10

are less and up to half

18:12

of them or more the average

18:14

household income in America is about

18:16

70, so maximum wedding budget would

18:18

be 50% of your household income

18:20

if you are paying for it

18:22

all. And for that matter, moms

18:24

and dads, if you're providing it

18:26

for the bride of your, for

18:28

your daughter, who's the bride, it

18:30

would still be the maximum of

18:32

half your annual income and you're

18:34

paying cash. That's a good parameter.

18:36

Okay. And so other than that,

18:38

you know, is it too much?

18:40

Like I went to a guy's

18:42

wedding, his kid's wedding, it was

18:44

like, I mean, they dropped like

18:46

a hundred grand on this thing.

18:48

It was a parte. tens of

18:50

millions of dollars a year. So

18:53

it really was a nothing expenditure

18:55

for him, but it was way

18:57

different than the typical thing. And

18:59

I'm kind of walking around going,

19:01

you just burned all this in

19:03

one day. But for him, it's

19:05

like buying a biscuit. There you

19:07

go. It's a ratio thing. So

19:09

that's the trick. Look at the

19:11

ratios. I mean, if you make

19:13

$40,000 a year and you want

19:15

to spend $40, $40,000 on a

19:17

wedding, the answer is no. A

19:19

stupid. You're out of control. So

19:21

you are going to be in

19:23

the backyard with the barbecue. Just

19:25

telling you. Not that there's anything

19:27

wrong with that. No, nothing wrong

19:29

with it at all. Just make

19:31

sure we have clarification. That's all

19:33

we want. That's a good point.

19:35

Really good point. This is the

19:37

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for health insurance can be confusing

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with high costs. Complicated terms and

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customer service that doesn't really... serve

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20:58

Mama said if you ain't got

21:00

nothing nice to say, don't say

21:02

nothing at all. Yeah, so move

21:05

on troll. But other than that,

21:07

yeah, I mean the rest of

21:09

you, you're loving this, thank you.

21:11

It's very helpful to us. Very

21:13

helpful. We appreciate it. Rita is

21:15

with us in Phoenix. Hi Rita.

21:17

How are you? Hi Rita. Hi,

21:19

Rita. I'm sorry, I'm nervous. That's

21:21

okay. We're good. How can we

21:23

help? Thank you. Well, I'm 63.

21:25

My husband is 60. We've been

21:27

married 36 years and most of

21:29

our marriages been full of debt.

21:31

Right now we have about $44,000

21:33

in credit card debt. We have

21:35

an $800 dollar truck payment. 200,000

21:37

between the two of us in

21:39

student loans and I just feel

21:41

we have no retirement whatsoever except

21:43

our home you know and and

21:45

so help me with how you

21:47

have 200,000 in student loans at

21:49

64 years old. Oh we're late

21:51

boomers. Yeah who's the doctor? I

21:53

know. My husband felt the need

21:55

to go and get two master's

21:57

degrees. He's a teacher and I'm

21:59

a teacher. And so we got

22:01

a late start probably in our

22:03

mid-50s. I taught, you know, I'm

22:05

teaching wonderful. So one of them

22:07

was not in math? No, I

22:10

know. No. Wow. So what are

22:12

your incomes between the two of

22:14

you with these degrees and these

22:16

careers? So between both of us,

22:18

I added it up, take-home only

22:20

is $5,635 a month. Okay. Wait

22:22

a minute. You make $60,000 a

22:24

piece and he has two master's

22:26

degrees? Well, yes. In teaching it

22:28

helped him make more money, but

22:30

our debt just seems to... No,

22:32

no, no, no, no, wait a

22:34

minute. You don't make anything. Teachers

22:36

that have two master's degrees should

22:38

each be making 60. What are

22:40

you doing? What are you doing?

22:42

Are y'all working in a preschool?

22:44

No, he's teaching high school, and

22:46

I'm teaching middle school. So that

22:48

was your take home. What's come...

22:50

What is it before that? Are

22:52

you taking a bunch out of

22:54

your check? Oh,

22:57

well for the credit card

22:59

debt, I don't even know

23:01

how much it's taking out

23:03

of that. It's doing it

23:05

automatically? Oh, you're paying the

23:07

truck payment and the credit

23:09

card debt and you're putting

23:11

money in retirement and you

23:13

got all this other stuff.

23:15

Yeah. And you're getting a

23:17

tax refund too, probably. Right.

23:20

Oh, goodness. About $34,000, which is about

23:22

what it's worth. Oh, yeah, sell that

23:24

today. Sell it. Sell it. That's the

23:26

problem. I don't think my husband's willing

23:28

to sell it. Then I don't think

23:30

I can help you. Does he know

23:32

that you have, does he, does he

23:35

feel that you guys have a financial

23:37

problem? I've, I've, I've kind of hidden

23:39

it from him, so that's my fault.

23:41

If you told him today, hey, we

23:43

have $44,000 in credit card debt and

23:45

$200,000 in student loans, that would be

23:47

a light bulb moment for him, he

23:49

doesn't know that? It would. And if

23:51

I may let you say no, I

23:54

never told him. He didn't think that

23:56

Santa Claus brought it. and he picked

23:58

up the two master's degrees he didn't

24:00

think Santa Claus brought those very true

24:02

but okay he may not know the

24:04

exact numbers but he knows he has

24:06

made a mess and he knows it

24:08

and I feel like I've allowed him

24:10

to because when his dad died he

24:13

gave him a hundred thousand dollars but

24:15

Listen, you're both complicit because you're married,

24:17

right? You're both in on this. It's

24:19

just the level, whatever the level of

24:21

denial is or the level of, you

24:23

know what I'm saying. So you're both

24:25

in on it, you know, we can

24:27

go back and forth on who did

24:29

what and who knows what, but you're

24:32

both in on it. So I would

24:34

say... And both of you are required

24:36

to fix it. Yes. And if he

24:38

does not want to buckle down and

24:40

clean up the mess that by and

24:42

large he is responsible for. It

24:45

was his choice to buy a truck.

24:47

It was his choice to go to

24:49

school and get degrees that have not

24:51

monetized. These were his choices. And so

24:53

now at 60 years old, he gets

24:55

to be a man. And own his

24:57

choices and go, my family is in

24:59

jeopardy. I've got to sell my truck.

25:01

Your family is in jeopardy. He has

25:03

to sell his truck, by the way.

25:05

This is not an option. This is

25:07

why he won't sell his truck because

25:09

when his father died he he inherited

25:11

a cabin in Colorado That's free and

25:14

clear. It's worth about five hundred thousand

25:16

dollars and so He doesn't want to

25:18

sell the cabin because it's emotional. You

25:20

know his dad memory is tied to

25:22

it. What's that got to do with

25:24

the truck? Yeah, that you're right. You're

25:26

right. I mean you linked it. I'm

25:28

asking that as a real question. Is

25:30

there a link or oh He feels

25:32

that once we sell the cabin someday

25:34

That he'll be able to pay the

25:36

truck off You got a choice Friday

25:38

one of them goes up for sale

25:40

You decide okay. It sounded like the

25:42

cabin had way more sentimental value and

25:44

when I look at this I go

25:46

okay the truck you're not even up

25:48

side down you get rid of that

25:50

today do you have any money saved

25:52

anywhere liquid we have we have we

25:54

have 30,000 dollars in our checking account

25:56

but I don't I don't want to

25:58

pay anything off with that because that's

26:00

my security nest over the summer when

26:02

you doesn't get paid okay oh you're

26:04

but you guys make enough throughout the

26:06

year yeah work in the summer and

26:08

I don't know where it's So, okay.

26:10

Okay. Okay. Okay. That's what other teachers

26:12

do. Two homeworks. First homework is you

26:15

got to have a budget. If you

26:17

don't know where your money, when you

26:19

said that, I said, okay, they don't

26:21

have a budget, there's no plan for

26:23

the money. So you're downloading every dollar

26:25

tonight. Second homework is when you go

26:27

to open up every dollar tonight because

26:29

you've already downloaded it, you sit with

26:31

your husband and say, we have a

26:33

crisis. And I don't know if you

26:35

know it, but here's what, but here's

26:37

what, but here's what it, but here's

26:39

what it, but here's what it, but

26:41

here's what it, but here's what it

26:43

is. and you start laying out those

26:45

numbers and say I have a solution

26:47

and you've got to open up the

26:49

lines of communication tonight. There's a couple

26:51

of things we can do. We can

26:53

either sell your truck and buckle down

26:55

and get on beans and rice and

26:57

both take extra jobs or we can

26:59

talk about selling the cabin now. We

27:01

cannot stay on the trajectory making the

27:03

stupid butt decisions we've been making for

27:05

the last decade and have anything but

27:07

alpo for retirement. You've got to say

27:09

this out loud. Yeah, you do. And

27:11

I'm scared I'm scared for you. I'm

27:13

scared for you honey. I'm scared for

27:16

you honey. I want you to go

27:18

win, but I'm scared for you because

27:20

every time we bring up something there's

27:22

a reason to not do it. You've

27:24

got about five things you've been doing

27:26

wrong. You've got to reverse all of

27:28

those in dramatic fashion and then slam

27:30

on the accelerator in the other direction.

27:32

Okay? Number one, you're not disclosing and

27:34

working together on every detail of your

27:36

budget and your future. You're treating him

27:38

like he's a little boy. and his

27:40

feelings are hurt when his daddy died

27:42

and so he can't make a grown

27:44

man decision sorry you get to be

27:46

a man when you're 60 no way

27:48

around it you got to deal with

27:50

it okay number one number so you

27:52

got to be on the budget you

27:54

got to be on the same page

27:56

number two you guys are going to

27:58

have to chop something with a freaking

28:00

machete because you have a mess because

28:02

you've been spending money like you're in

28:04

Congress around there and you've got to

28:06

stop it. You've got to chop some

28:08

stuff and this car is one of

28:10

them but the car really points to

28:12

the cabin. If I woke up in

28:14

your shoes and I was him and

28:17

I had to come Jesus meeting and

28:19

I decided I was going to be

28:21

a grown man. The decision I made

28:23

to go get two master's degrees that

28:25

I couldn't afford to do was the

28:27

day I made the decision to sell

28:29

the daddy's cabin. You didn't mean to

28:31

sue it, but that's the day that's

28:33

exactly what happened. You lost the cabin

28:35

when you went and got two master's

28:37

degrees that didn't monetize. That's what you

28:39

did. you traded the two because it's

28:41

a balance sheet thing you got over

28:43

here you got a five hundred thousand

28:45

dollar asset over here you got two

28:47

hundred thousand dollar debt and the sooner

28:49

you fix that the sooner you can

28:51

get in gear and start saving and

28:53

actually retire not eat alpo that's right

28:55

and Rita you need to run actual

28:57

numbers because what's going to make this

28:59

compelling not just to you but to

29:01

your husband is to say hey here's

29:03

what we have you know teachers they

29:05

set aside you have to pay into

29:07

the pension here's what we have to

29:09

pay into the And that's going to

29:11

shed some light. When we compare that

29:13

with what we owe on our mortgage

29:15

and what we have to be, like,

29:18

real numbers are going to make this

29:20

a very compelling argument for you guys

29:22

to do what Dave said and go

29:24

in the opposite direction. So 36 years,

29:26

you've been taking care of him. And

29:28

now it's time for him to step

29:30

up and say, I'm going to be

29:32

a man and we're going to make

29:34

grown up decisions together because we have

29:36

made a mess. That's what it is.

29:38

You're trying to take care of him.

29:40

You're trying for him not to have

29:42

any hurt feelings. Tuffies. You signed up

29:44

for this trip. He did. And he

29:46

gets to take it. I'm sorry. This

29:48

is the Ramsey show. life insurance or

29:50

they don't have any at all. I

29:52

don't understand this, John. Why don't people

29:54

want to take care of their family?

29:56

They think they're not going to die

29:58

or something? Well, I used to be

30:00

one of those guys, I didn't even

30:02

think about it, and one of my

30:04

buddies said, hey, the only reason to

30:06

not have life insurance is if you

30:08

hate your wife and kids, and I

30:10

immediately went and got term life insurance.

30:12

That's a gut punch. For decades, Dave,

30:14

I've sat across people who've lost people

30:16

who've lost people who've lost somebody who've

30:19

lost somebody who've lost somebody who've lost

30:21

somebody who've lost somebody who've lost somebody

30:23

who've lost somebody who've lost somebody who've

30:25

lost somebody important to them. They've lost

30:27

somebody important to them. You know, you

30:29

got two options while you're sitting and

30:31

talking to a young widow. She's concerned

30:33

about how she's going to invest all

30:35

this money properly and not miss this

30:37

up, or she's concerned how she's going

30:39

to eat tomorrow. These are the two

30:41

options. It's saying I love you to

30:43

your family, term life insurance. Jeff Zander

30:45

and the team of Zander Insurance makes

30:47

it easy and affordable. I've used them

30:49

personally for 25 years. They're the only

30:51

people I trust. Go to zander.com or

30:53

call 800 three five six, four-five-five-five-five-five-four-four-four-four-four-four-four-two-four-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two-two- The

30:57

Ramsey show Question of

30:59

the Day is brought

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our defaulted private student

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y-refi.com/Ramsey, might not be

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in all states. All

31:23

right, today's question comes from Nora

31:25

in Wisconsin. He says, my mother

31:27

purchased a Gerber life insurance policy

31:29

for my son and daughter when

31:31

they were babies. My mom has

31:33

since passed away, so I called

31:35

before my son's 18th birthday to

31:37

inquire about cashing out. The representative

31:39

said if we wait until he

31:41

turns 21, it would be worth

31:44

$30,000. Fast forward, and my son

31:46

is now 21, so I called

31:48

again to inquire about my son

31:50

cashing out so he could use

31:52

the $30,000 for a house down

31:54

payment. This time, a representative informed

31:56

me that he had... an upon-death

31:58

policy, and he can only cash

32:00

out for the money that's paid

32:02

in, which is 2,200, not 30,000.

32:04

Needless to say, I am in

32:06

the process of closing the accounts

32:08

for both of my kids. I

32:10

will still give them the amounts

32:12

their policies are worth, but what

32:14

a letdown. Tell people to avoid

32:16

this trap at all costs, and

32:18

we do. We do tell people

32:20

to avoid these traps. Gerber life

32:22

insurance is probably one of the

32:24

worst ones out there. It's humorous,

32:26

it's so bad. It's really bad.

32:28

Life insurance, his sweet mom who's

32:30

passed bought life insurance from a

32:32

baby food company. Yeah. I mean,

32:34

just think about that when you

32:36

say it out loud, it tells

32:38

you there's a problem, right? Absolutely.

32:40

So, yeah. what a rip and

32:42

then they lied to him too

32:44

which absolutely they do i mean

32:46

they just lie all these people

32:48

in this business they because what

32:50

the guy meant to say was

32:52

he forgot to say it correctly

32:54

was that the death benefit would

32:56

go up at 21 because he

32:58

becomes an adult but the death

33:00

benefit is not worth anywhere near

33:02

what they paid for it the

33:04

poor lady if she had put

33:06

that money oh she did she

33:08

put it in a fruit jar

33:10

that's yeah She put it in

33:13

a cookie jar and it laid

33:15

there for 21 years. And you

33:17

got your money back with absolutely

33:19

no interest. And so what that

33:21

means is that it should have

33:23

been close to $20,000 if it

33:25

was in just a maybe a

33:27

decent mutual fund, not even a

33:29

good one. Yeah, you would have

33:31

had, oh my gosh. Yeah, that's

33:33

painful. Yeah. And you know, here's

33:35

a sad thing too. That sweet

33:37

Nora. His mother, that passed away,

33:39

I think that was her name,

33:41

right? Did he call her that?

33:43

Yeah, the mom's name was Nora.

33:45

Yeah, sweet Nora, thought she was

33:47

doing something sweet for her grandbabies,

33:49

which every grandparent wants to do.

33:51

And these freaking people at Gerber,

33:53

completely, predatory, fed on her grandmotherly

33:55

love, and ripped her off. Well

33:57

when you're in if I remember

33:59

I hope I wasn't unclear about

34:01

how I feel about this when

34:03

you're in the delivery room of

34:05

all the papers that they give

34:07

to you They give you the

34:09

Gerber life insurance policy in in

34:11

the room when you're having the

34:13

baby, you know We ought to

34:15

just talk to some hospitals about

34:17

how they're that's malpractice. It is

34:19

I remember saying that I thought

34:21

man It's great to want to

34:23

invest for your kids and invest

34:25

for the future But they give

34:27

you the worst possible thing if

34:29

they I would rather them give

34:31

you a paper that says hey

34:33

from here on out if you

34:35

just put a hundred dollars a

34:37

month when your kid is, you

34:39

know, they'll have almost four hundred

34:42

thousand dollars like Anything I don't

34:44

care you could put it in

34:46

an index fund and have that

34:48

do you see what I'm saying?

34:50

Yeah, you fall off no Nora's

34:52

who asked the question. I'm sorry

34:54

it was not the mother Nora

34:56

My mother she said yeah, that's

34:58

right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about

35:00

that Nora. Okay. Just not look

35:02

down at the email and saw

35:04

it. But I'm so aggravating. Yeah,

35:06

it is. But it's kind like

35:08

this guys look if you people

35:10

call and ask us about like

35:12

reverse mortgages like reverse mortgages. The

35:14

advertisement before the reverse mortgage is

35:16

a walk-in bathtub. The advertisement after

35:18

the reverse mortgage is a snuggy.

35:20

This is where you're picking up

35:22

your financial products. I mean, right

35:24

there, and who's advertising it? Actors

35:26

that are done. That's right. Actors

35:28

that are way done. Yeah, I

35:30

mean when you reach the end

35:32

of your career that the agent

35:34

calls and says you can do

35:36

a reverse mortgage Commercial and you

35:38

go yeah, baby sign me up.

35:40

We know where your career is.

35:42

Okay, it's gone down the tubes.

35:44

It's in the it's in the

35:46

snuggy toilet. That's what I'm saying.

35:48

But yeah, it's the same thing

35:50

guys. Just think about this. Okay,

35:52

how many cash advance places do

35:54

you see? in the rich end

35:56

of town. They're not there, Dave.

36:00

Okay, there's a clue, right?

36:02

How many title pawn places

36:05

do you see in the

36:07

rich end of town? Okay, there's

36:10

a clue, right? Think about

36:12

this. Oh yeah. Did you

36:14

know that something like 78%

36:16

of the lotto tickets are

36:18

sold in the poor zip

36:20

codes in town? And have

36:23

you listened to the

36:25

lotto commercials? they're not

36:27

appealing to the highest

36:30

common denominator of humanity.

36:32

Pretty much Darryl and his

36:34

other brother Darryl are their

36:36

target market. I mean,

36:38

think about it guys. Yeah. These

36:40

are people that can't afford to

36:43

go to Vegas and lose money.

36:45

Okay? So you take some clues

36:47

from the proximity. Of the marketing on

36:50

this and it will it will help

36:52

you too. I'm sorry you got ripped

36:54

off Nora and I thank you for

36:56

giving us the opportunity to completely trash

36:58

Gerber again. We do it pretty regularly

37:00

but whole life life insurance insurance that

37:02

has a cash value insurance insurance has

37:05

a cash value buildup has a savings

37:07

program in it 100% of the time

37:09

is a bad product. There's

37:11

not a good one. There's some

37:13

that stink less than others but

37:15

that's true of humans. Okay, so

37:17

it's just it's just both of

37:19

them stink. They're all bad. Do

37:21

you're investing not with

37:23

an insurance company. And

37:26

by the way, even if investing. Even

37:28

if she had had the 30,000,

37:30

it's still a crappy rate of

37:32

return. No, that would be, you know,

37:34

it's only, what, it's like a

37:37

hundred bucks a year. Until 21.

37:39

100 bucks a year, that would have

37:41

been, yeah, that would have come out.

37:44

probably about 30 K but about 25

37:46

K probably but anyway it's not putting a

37:48

lot in a hundred bucks a year not

37:50

a month yeah so but yeah still yeah

37:52

a year it's not it is eight dollars

37:55

and 33 cents a month so you put

37:57

that in the calculator I was thinking a

37:59

month But anyway, the, well, ouch,

38:01

I'm sorry, I hate that. So

38:04

what do you do if you

38:06

have kids? Well, they might get

38:08

juvenile diabetes and be uninsurable when

38:10

they're older. Yeah, they might. You

38:13

know what the percentages is on

38:15

that? Almost zero. Yeah, so let's

38:17

talk about childhood cancer, too, and

38:19

be uninsurable. But you know what

38:22

the probabilities are on that? Almost

38:24

zero. Okay percentage wise and you

38:26

so you don't buy life insurance

38:28

on someone whose income you aren't

38:31

trying to replace and Children do

38:33

not have an income from a

38:35

financial perspective. They're a liability not

38:37

an asset. They're not creating money.

38:40

They're drinking it and so you

38:42

know all in eating it and

38:44

whatever and all that so but

38:47

and that's fine we're not mad

38:49

at the kids send them to

38:51

the salt mines no that wasn't

38:53

what i said no what i

38:56

said was is there wonderful perfect

38:58

little things that are to be

39:00

taken care of and it costs

39:02

money they don't make money so

39:05

you don't ensure something that doesn't

39:07

make money it's that simple and

39:09

um yeah i i like the

39:11

way to think of it is

39:14

if somebody's dependent on your income

39:16

That's that's when you get life

39:18

insurance. And you get insurance only

39:20

do your investments somewhere else. That's

39:23

right 100% of the time. So

39:25

we may as well go through

39:27

it. So if you're working, if

39:29

you're the working adult for me,

39:32

10 to 12 times my income,

39:34

right, on me, and then if

39:36

you have a spouse that stays

39:38

at home, what do you say

39:41

like four times the amount or

39:43

up to? Well, what I always

39:45

just say is you you know,

39:48

let's say Sharon was a full-time

39:50

mom if she had passed away

39:52

when I had little kids at

39:54

home I would have had to

39:57

hire Mary Poppins, and that's a

39:59

lot of money Mary Poppins. I

40:01

mean that we're talking Cook food

40:03

Do homework drive kids around all

40:06

that in today's world that's fifty

40:08

grand yeah that's a huge money

40:10

so you need you need five

40:12

six hundred grand on a stay-at-home

40:15

mom because that's the economic value

40:17

that she brings to the table

40:19

that's right in that example so

40:21

but if you're if you're working

40:24

and you make a hundred thousand

40:26

bucks you need a million to.

40:28

Yeah definitely and a million to

40:30

invested at you know 10 12%

40:33

will replace the hundred K without

40:35

touching the million to it'll create

40:37

a hundred K a year in

40:40

an income for the remaining spouse.

40:42

That's right and our friends at

40:44

Zander are the ones you want

40:46

to go to to get that

40:49

locked in and in place really

40:51

today don't wait on that. Insurance

40:53

is not a baby step. Life

40:55

insurance is not. Good point George

40:58

brought that up recently yeah very

41:00

good. This is the Ramsey Show.

41:02

Let me tell you the God,

41:04

it's gonna cut you. It's holy

41:07

week in Jerusalem. Crowds welcome Jesus

41:09

as king. Rebellion is in the

41:11

air. Jesus operates outside our jurisdiction.

41:13

Room will descend on us all.

41:16

But instead of taking the throne,

41:18

Jesus turns the tables. My house

41:20

shall be called a house of

41:22

prayer, but you make it a

41:25

den of thieves! The world will

41:27

never be the same. Now in

41:29

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41:31

your tickets now. Live from the

41:34

headquarters of Ramsey Solutions. It's the

41:36

Ramsey Show. We help people. Build

41:38

wealth. New work. that they love

41:41

and create actual amazing relationships. Jade

41:43

Washaw Ramsey personality number one best-selling

41:45

author is my co-host today. The

41:47

phone number here is triple 825-225-225.

41:50

Thomas is in Honolulu. Hi Thomas,

41:52

how are you? Hi Mr. Ramsey,

41:54

Miss Washaw. So I'm currently unemployed.

41:56

I recently got... terminated from construction

41:59

services company, North America, also have

42:01

had some extensive experience in sales

42:03

and customer service, some operational stuff.

42:05

is why recently, last year actually

42:08

I graduated the University of Hawaii

42:10

at Mano with a bachelor science

42:12

and biology degree. 25 years old

42:14

got roughly around $13,000 in savings

42:17

right now. I just paid off

42:19

my rent for the upcoming month.

42:21

I'm actually just not sure where

42:23

to go. some sales positions and

42:26

and some operations positions but I

42:28

haven't been getting us as much

42:30

interviews whatnot. Why did you get

42:32

fired Thomas? Yes so my previous

42:35

position they said it was due

42:37

to negligence actually I so locked

42:39

up the store in my role

42:42

at Hill tea was part of

42:44

the an account manager development program.

42:46

Basically we would run the store

42:48

to send out packages, receive packages,

42:51

inventory, sales and whatnot, but the

42:53

store is the role and then

42:55

we've always had issues with the

42:57

door to go in and out.

43:00

Some people they've gotten locked out,

43:02

we had a call locks and

43:04

whatnot, but one evening after I

43:06

locked up and after I locked

43:09

up, but one evening after I

43:11

locked up and I locked up,

43:13

but After I left the door

43:15

popped open, and then I got

43:18

told it was negligence, I didn't

43:20

secure the entrance, but I do

43:22

think that they were kind of

43:24

hoping to kind of cut me

43:27

because the previous two employees in

43:29

my position, they got terminated and

43:31

the last one before that, you

43:33

just quit without any two weeks

43:36

notice. I think the Turner, maybe

43:38

get like a fresh start there

43:40

or something. Okay, so you've been

43:43

applying for sales positions, is it

43:45

that you're not, are you even

43:47

getting in the room for an

43:49

interview or you're not even receiving

43:52

interview callbacks? So I've had some

43:54

sparse, I've had two interviews so

43:56

far, you count executive role and

43:58

then a project management role, but

44:01

it seems, for me, I realize

44:03

with my age and then How

44:05

old are you? What not? I'm

44:07

25 years old. What's wrong with

44:10

that? I put a lot of...

44:12

I feel like over here anyways

44:14

a lot of the applicants, they

44:16

seem to be a little older,

44:19

so I kind of put a

44:21

lot of pressure on it and

44:23

I feel like I'm not performing

44:25

as well as I can and

44:28

maybe should be in the... It's

44:30

possible. Yeah, I'll tell you right

44:32

now. I think you might... Do

44:35

well with some coaching or you

44:37

might do well with a little

44:39

bit of help in that area.

44:41

Are you limited to Honolulu or

44:44

are you looking elsewhere? I am

44:46

Yes, I am open to moving

44:48

to the mainland, but right now

44:50

with with my current Living situation.

44:53

It's just me my younger brother

44:55

actually have you got some kind

44:57

of a limitation or a a

44:59

slight disability or anything you're facing?

45:02

No, no. Okay. Good. Okay. You

45:04

just sound really, really nervous on

45:06

the air, which I would be

45:08

nervous too if I wasn't used

45:11

to being on the radio. So

45:13

are on the podcast. I understand

45:15

that, but I'm just trying to

45:17

check and see what's going on

45:20

because your voice cadence. uh... it

45:22

sounds like you're you're scared to

45:24

death and maybe that's all that

45:26

is okay that's fair i'm i'm

45:29

picking on you i'm just trying

45:31

to find out what you're dealing

45:33

with why you're not landing these

45:36

positions okay i would if i'm

45:38

in your shoes uh... i want

45:40

to step back uh... two or

45:42

three steps from this and say

45:45

okay where do i want to

45:47

be when i'm forty What do

45:49

I want to be doing and

45:51

what are the steps to get

45:54

there? And why do I want

45:56

to be doing that? uh... and

45:58

it's not necessarily go back to

46:00

school but it sounds like a

46:03

lot of your jobs you just

46:05

fell backward into them just whatever

46:07

landed at your feet you took

46:09

it because you were hungry and

46:12

you want to eat by the

46:14

way that's not a bad thing

46:16

as a temporary measure take a

46:18

job and so you can eat

46:21

that's an okay thing but uh...

46:23

i i doubt when you're getting

46:25

a four-year degree in biology your

46:27

dream was to manage the warehouse

46:30

and try to lock the door

46:32

that's broken No, that

46:34

was not like like you weren't sitting

46:36

around dreaming of doing that when you're

46:38

25 years old So you fell backward

46:40

into that job's what I'm saying it

46:43

just it just came at your feet

46:45

and you took it some of the

46:47

sales things you took it's the first

46:49

thing that came up You may or

46:51

may not like sales you may or

46:53

may not be good at sales I

46:55

don't know but it feels like that

46:57

just whatever rolls in front of you

46:59

you pick it up and go with

47:02

it and go with it and again

47:04

To eat, you do a lot of

47:06

things on the short term, but I

47:08

want you to start doing some thought

47:10

about where I want to be five

47:12

years from now and 15 years from

47:14

now. And I'm going to send you

47:16

Ken Coleman's book, Find the work you're

47:18

wired to do. It has the get-clear

47:21

assessment built into it. It's my gift

47:23

to you. and then I'm also going

47:25

to send you his book, The Proximity

47:27

Principle. The get-clear assessment takes about 20

47:29

minutes to take, and it will point

47:31

out to you what some of your

47:33

strengths are, your passions are, and it'll

47:35

help you point in a direction that

47:37

is a good long-term career path, not

47:40

just a job. Because you've got to

47:42

get out of the business long term

47:44

of a job. Short term take a

47:46

job take three jobs. I don't care

47:48

short term is anything go make some

47:50

money Right, but long term I don't

47:52

want to be stuck in something where

47:54

their biggest crisis of the week is

47:56

a door that won't lock. Oh my

47:59

god Really, let's move on. Like thank

48:01

God you got fired and so you

48:03

get to go do something with your

48:05

life that matters now Yeah, and And

48:07

yeah, so I'm going to lean into

48:09

that. And I may take some jobs

48:11

while I'm working towards my career. But

48:13

get in an apprentice program. It could

48:15

be something in the trades. You could

48:18

go that way. Could be something in

48:20

technology. It could go that way. It

48:22

could be you wake up that biology

48:24

itch and scratch it that was there.

48:26

I don't know. But I'll send you

48:28

those two books as my gift, Thomas.

48:30

And so while you're looking for a

48:32

job, I also want you working on

48:34

your career. Yes. And do your best

48:37

to prep for these interviews as best

48:39

as you can. you know role play

48:41

these interviews go over these interview questions

48:43

and get good at really being prepared

48:45

to for them so that you can

48:47

answer them like in a concise way

48:49

and really get across if the place

48:51

is open to the public go walk

48:53

it that's right and feel the air

48:56

that's right in and get on their

48:58

website and read everything about them read

49:00

the history of the founder of the

49:02

organization If you're going to go to

49:04

work for Amazon, know about Bezos, know

49:06

how he started in his garage, know

49:08

all that. If you're going to go

49:10

to work for Dell, know he started

49:12

in his garage, right? And so, you

49:15

know, and so what does Michael Dell

49:17

do? How's he think? Because that does

49:19

run down through that organization, even to

49:21

this day. That's so true. Yeah. Preparation,

49:23

remember this, preparation is a gift you

49:25

give yourself. That's some of the best

49:27

advice I've ever gotten. Confident not freaked

49:29

out that's right and that'll help you

49:31

with that whole process this is the

49:34

Ramsey show Hey,

49:37

what's up guys? It's Jade Warsaw,

49:39

and look if there's anybody who

49:41

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know a lot of you would

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51:37

ramsi solutions.com/smart tax. Jade wash all

51:39

Ramsey personalities. My co-host, Drew's in

51:41

Fort Worth, Texas. Hey Drew, how

51:43

are you? Any better I'd be

51:45

you, Dave? That's cute. How can

51:47

I help? I was calling in

51:49

to let you know I'm a

51:51

millionaire. Thanks to you. Baby Steps

51:53

Millionaire. What's your net worth? So

51:56

right now we're sitting just at

51:58

$2 million. What's interesting about it

52:00

is... we hit our first million

52:02

just before we turn forty and

52:04

then seven years later we just

52:06

turn forty seven and like you

52:08

say it doubles every seven years

52:10

we just hit two million dollars

52:12

i love it give me a

52:14

little breakdown on the mix how

52:17

much of that's real estate retirement

52:19

and so on Yeah, so we

52:21

recently hit a million dollars in

52:23

our retirement thanks to the guidance

52:25

of your smart vester pros So

52:27

big shout out to Chris and

52:29

Tyler out there It was awesome

52:31

when we saw that seven figures

52:33

on there. I'll tell you that

52:35

was so inspiring and exciting That's

52:38

sweet. We also have about 750

52:40

in our home equity another 150K

52:42

in our college savings and then

52:44

remaining hundreds in like cash and

52:46

cars and things like that. Got

52:48

it. Well done, sir. Well done.

52:50

How much of this did you

52:52

inherit? Well, interesting enough, so my

52:54

grandmother passed away about seven years

52:57

ago and she gave the grandkids

52:59

just a thousand dollars with a

53:01

message of saying, hey, live life,

53:03

you know, have great experiences. And

53:05

today would have been her 106th

53:07

birthday. So this is an experience

53:09

that I'll never forget. Wow, how

53:11

fun is that? Very cool. Good

53:13

for her. That's great. Man, that's

53:15

amazing. So she was like 99.

53:18

Yep, 99. She passed away. She

53:20

was the matriarch of our family.

53:22

And my daughter is named after

53:24

her. She's the fifth. Adelaide named

53:26

after her grandmother. That's sweet. Adelaide

53:28

the fifth. That's sweet. So what

53:30

was your income during this time?

53:32

Highest to lowest or lowest highest.

53:34

So our adult income, you know,

53:36

range from 45K to 220 is

53:39

about what we make right now.

53:41

But I'd say probably since we

53:43

started the babysat process, you know,

53:45

15 years ago, it's probably averaged

53:47

about 160 to 170. What do

53:49

you all do? I am in

53:51

medical device sales leadership and my

53:53

wife is the C-O-O-O of this

53:55

household. I love that love that.

53:57

I love it very cool and

54:00

so you got a four-year degree

54:02

yes I graduated in three and

54:04

a half years from Miami University

54:06

in just business marketing okay very

54:08

good all right good marketing degree

54:10

and of course you're in sales

54:12

now that's good. What was your

54:14

GPA? So I'm sure you could

54:16

relate to this. I graduated with

54:18

a 3.07. I was dying to

54:21

get that 3.1 Look at you.

54:23

But unfortunately I fell a little

54:25

short. Oh, you were over three.

54:27

So that's the one that killed

54:29

me. Good for you, man. Excellent.

54:31

What do you drive? So in

54:33

Texas, you're required to have either

54:35

a pickup or a Jeep. So

54:37

I went with a 2018 Jeep

54:39

Wrangler sport. Love it. I love

54:42

that you went with the Jeep.

54:44

That would have been my choice.

54:46

Well, we just upgraded her car.

54:48

She had been driving our last,

54:50

the last thing we ever took

54:52

debt out was in 2009 when

54:54

we bought her a traverse. But

54:56

now living here in Texas, she

54:58

wanted a convertible. We upgraded to

55:00

a 219 Buick Cascada convertible. Oh,

55:03

that's fun. That's nice. Yeah. That's

55:05

very cool. That's my $2 million

55:07

net worth car. Yeah, living the

55:09

dream. I like it. Put the

55:11

top down. I like it. Good

55:13

job, y'all. Well done. I have

55:15

a question. What role did budgeting

55:17

play in this? Oh, it's, it

55:19

played everything. I mean, I tell

55:22

all the people, because we do

55:24

financial peace and lead that, we're

55:26

going through, we're leading a class

55:28

right now, and I tell everyone

55:30

when you start, it's amazing, you

55:32

immediately get a raise. The advice

55:34

I give people all the time

55:36

is dream big, but act small.

55:38

So like, yeah, my wife and

55:40

I, we always have these conversations

55:43

about, you know, what we want

55:45

our future to look like, and

55:47

it's just exciting to kind of

55:49

see like, like, like, like, like,

55:51

What goals are we going to

55:53

have? What do we want to

55:55

do? It keeps us motivated, but

55:57

dreams, you know, without action, just

55:59

a wish. So, you know. If

56:01

we want to do these small

56:04

things, your future is determined based

56:06

on these small little decisions every

56:08

single day. And the budget keeps

56:10

us on pace with what those

56:12

small decisions are so that we

56:14

can reach those goals. You're right.

56:16

Yeah, the budget's the map to

56:18

get you to all your money

56:20

goals. That's so important. Very cool.

56:22

That's good advice that I was

56:25

going to ask you what you

56:27

tell youngsters. And that's younger than

56:29

you. You're a young millionaire, too

56:31

millionaire for sure. Very well done

56:33

dude. Well done proud of you.

56:35

How's it feel? It's it's so

56:37

freeing I mean the journey were

56:39

two million dollars but to be

56:41

you know completely honest and stuff

56:43

it isn't such a it's not

56:46

always a smooth ride right? No.

56:48

The last year I mean I've

56:50

gone through a couple different layoffs

56:52

in medical device sometimes you have

56:54

that with startup companies or different

56:56

things there's been some layoffs and

56:58

through the entire time like we

57:00

weren't stressed. we knew we had

57:02

the emergency fund we knew we

57:04

had our budgeting we knew we

57:07

had all this stuff in there

57:09

and we're just constantly at peace

57:11

you know with where we're at

57:13

today and where we're gonna be

57:15

tomorrow yeah well done sir very

57:17

proud of you thanks for calling

57:19

in and sharing your dream with

57:21

us because you're living it you

57:23

are living the dream i like

57:26

it i like it so what

57:28

do you say dream big act

57:30

small yep and i would say

57:32

if you're gonna dream big you

57:34

better work big you better work

57:36

big Gotta work big. Because if

57:38

you don't work big, it's not

57:40

coming. The work goes with it.

57:42

Because otherwise you get called a

57:44

dreamer, which is a negative thing,

57:47

right? You don't want your daughter

57:49

dating a dreamer, they'll live in

57:51

your basement. So, no, we want

57:53

people that get stuff done. They

57:55

leave the cave, kill something, and

57:57

drag it home. Obviously, Drew is

57:59

one of those. You know, Jade,

58:01

I think I'm just visualizing out

58:03

of the 30 or 40 million

58:05

people that are going to this

58:08

particular moment on this show. That's

58:10

There's a couple things Drew's family

58:12

understood that the typical person walking

58:14

around doesn't understand. Number one, 89%

58:16

of America's millionaires are first generation

58:18

rich. They did not become millionaires

58:20

because of an inheritance. That is

58:22

good news for all of us

58:24

who didn't have a rich uncle

58:26

or rich parents. All we've got

58:29

to do is leave the cave,

58:31

kill something, and drag it home.

58:33

And you remember a couple of

58:35

principles. Principle number one is the

58:37

power of compound interest will make

58:39

you wealthy, and that's what happened

58:41

to Drew. It's also making him

58:43

double wealthy fast. So what that

58:45

means is $100 a month invested

58:47

from age 25 to age 65

58:50

is $1,176,000. So you're a millionaire.

58:52

That doesn't count buying a house.

58:54

That would even take you up

58:56

higher, you do even better. And

58:58

that doesn't count the fact that

59:00

you're probably going to put a

59:02

lot more than $100 in in

59:04

your 401k, your Roth IRAs and

59:06

stuff as you go along with

59:08

matching, but $100 a month gets

59:11

you there. That's, you know, principle

59:13

number one. You know, piece of

59:15

knowledge, number one, was that... 89%

59:17

of America's millionaires are not millionaires

59:19

because of inherited wealth. We get

59:21

that from the largest study of

59:23

millionaires ever done in North America,

59:25

airtight research that Ramsey Research did.

59:27

It's in the book, The Baby

59:29

Steps Millionaires, my latest number one

59:32

bestseller. And that book has the

59:34

white paper of all the research

59:36

in the back, for those of

59:38

you that are interested. So Drew

59:40

is a baby steps millionaire and

59:42

that's the third piece of information

59:44

is they followed the baby steps.

59:46

That's right. And baby step one?

59:48

Yeah baby step one you are

59:51

saving a thousand dollars a thousand

59:53

dollars saved after that baby step

59:55

two you're paying off all of

59:57

your consumer debt that's everything except

59:59

your mortgage. Baby step three you're

1:00:01

walking in and you're saving up

1:00:03

three to six months of expenses

1:00:05

after you've done that. Now we're

1:00:07

at baby. Baby step four where

1:00:09

you're investing 15% of your income.

1:00:12

Baby step five we're putting away

1:00:14

for kids college. Baby step six

1:00:16

we're moving on to pay off

1:00:18

the house. Finally baby step seven,

1:00:20

living and giving like no one

1:00:22

else. And there you have it.

1:00:24

And typically to get all the

1:00:26

way through six, many houses paid

1:00:28

off, takes people between seven and

1:00:30

ten years from today ready to

1:00:33

set go. They typically are out

1:00:35

of debt, consumer debt, and everything

1:00:37

if they lean in using the

1:00:39

debt snowball and beans and rice,

1:00:41

rice and beans, quit spending money

1:00:43

that they don't have, sell stuff.

1:00:45

Sell so much stuff the kids

1:00:47

think they're next. They're out of

1:00:49

debt in 24 to 30 months.

1:00:51

Two, two, two and a half

1:00:54

years. And then about seven years

1:00:56

later, the house has paid off.

1:00:58

Or at the seven-year mark, rather,

1:01:00

the house has paid off. And

1:01:02

that's right where Drew is. He's

1:01:04

got there at 40, and now

1:01:06

he's going to double about every

1:01:08

seven years for him. Yeah. And

1:01:10

it's not a magic act. You

1:01:12

know, a lot of people think

1:01:15

this just magically happens. But it's

1:01:17

not magic. It's very intentional. It's

1:01:19

very intense. And if you do

1:01:21

that, you can make it happen.

1:01:23

Absolutely. This is the Ramsey Show.

1:01:25

What does the future hold for

1:01:27

business? Ask nine experts and you'll

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get ten different answers. Economic growth

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and more time focusing on what's

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next. And speaking of what's next,

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download the CFO's guide to AI

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and machine learning at netsweet.com/Ramsey. I

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talk to people every day who

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want to know how to do

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better in two areas, money and

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relationships. That's why I'm pumped to

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bring the money and relationships tour

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to a city near year. Join

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me and Dr. John Deloni for

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a night that will challenge the

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Atlanta, Phoenix, Fort Worth, and Kansas

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City. Grab your tickets at Ramsey

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solutions.com/tour before they're gone. We

1:03:01

do our show on the glass

1:03:03

Monday through Friday, meaning there's a

1:03:05

window and you get to watch

1:03:08

the monkeys in their cage here.

1:03:10

That would be me. Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo. And

1:03:12

I used to have a little

1:03:14

sign up that said don't feed

1:03:16

the monkeys. And George Camel took,

1:03:18

he took exception to that sign,

1:03:20

so we had to take it

1:03:22

down because he was being called

1:03:24

a monkey, but that's not cool.

1:03:26

Anyway, I'm the self-proclaimed monkey here,

1:03:28

so I'll take credit for that.

1:03:30

Anyway, we're on the glass and

1:03:32

you can stop by and hang

1:03:34

out, watch the show happen. from

1:03:36

one to four central time Monday

1:03:38

through Friday. Two of us will

1:03:40

be in here all the time

1:03:42

and we're in here to help

1:03:44

you. And also just outside the

1:03:46

glass in the lobby with all

1:03:48

the folks, there's usually 50 to

1:03:50

200 folks sitting around watching the

1:03:52

show. There's free homemade cookies, there's

1:03:54

free coffee, and there's a debt-free

1:03:56

stage, and standing on the debt-free

1:03:58

stage is Josh and Rebecca to

1:04:00

do a debt-free scream. Hey guys,

1:04:02

how are you? Good. How you

1:04:04

doing, Dave? Welcome, welcome. Where do

1:04:06

y'all live? Zebula, North Carolina, a

1:04:08

little small town just east of

1:04:10

Raleigh. Okay, fine. Welcome to Nashville.

1:04:13

And how much debt have you

1:04:15

too paid off? Two hundred and

1:04:17

three thousand four hundred dollars. Oh,

1:04:19

love it. How long did that

1:04:21

take? Sixty-three months right at five

1:04:23

point three years. I work in

1:04:25

retail. merchandising. I'm a systems analyst

1:04:27

at a transportation company. Great, very

1:04:29

cool. So five years, two hundred

1:04:31

and three thousand, was that your

1:04:33

house? It was a house. You

1:04:35

paid up your house. Only look

1:04:37

at it weird people. I know.

1:04:39

A hundred percent dead free. How

1:04:41

old are you two weirdos? I'm

1:04:43

thirty. Wow. Twenty-nine. We're the paid-four

1:04:45

house in Raleigh, North Carolina. What's

1:04:47

the house worth? Right at three

1:04:49

sixty. Wow, how fun. And how

1:04:51

much of you guys already got

1:04:53

in your nest egg? Roughly $2.50.

1:04:55

All right. So you're halfway to

1:04:57

a little over halfway to being

1:04:59

a millionaire and you're not even

1:05:01

30 years old and barely 30

1:05:03

years old. Yes. Excellent. Excellent, guys.

1:05:05

Way to go. Thank you. Wow,

1:05:07

wow, wow, wow. So you start

1:05:09

this and you're not even 25

1:05:11

years old. How long have you

1:05:13

all been married? Five and a

1:05:15

half years. Okay, so boom right

1:05:18

off the right of the gate

1:05:20

here we go yes game on

1:05:22

So tell us the story how

1:05:24

in the world do you get

1:05:26

this smart this young? I'm very

1:05:28

thankful to say very little of

1:05:30

it has to do with us

1:05:32

So we both were raised with

1:05:34

parents and even grandparents that modeled

1:05:36

biblical principles for how to handle

1:05:38

money from a very early age.

1:05:40

So they modeled giving, they modeled

1:05:42

investing, they modeled living on less

1:05:44

than you make, living on a

1:05:46

budget, and just generally managing God's

1:05:48

resources well. And I'll give you

1:05:50

a short story that illustrates what

1:05:52

I mean. So I grew up

1:05:54

with a dad that I've always

1:05:56

called the boring version of Dave

1:05:58

Ramsey. He has a little more

1:06:00

hair. but you're a lot more

1:06:02

fun to listen to. And I

1:06:04

remember one story in particular, he

1:06:06

went to a yard sale and

1:06:08

haggled with this poor old elderly

1:06:10

lady for a nutcracker. She had

1:06:12

the nutcracker marked at 50 cents.

1:06:14

And he walked up and the

1:06:16

nutcracker had a chip's tooth, so

1:06:18

he got that thing for a

1:06:20

quarter. Well, there you go. That's

1:06:23

how you do it. I love

1:06:25

it. That's fun. And then if

1:06:27

I can't say it, so, and

1:06:29

then college, this is where the

1:06:31

Ramsey organization comes in. So I,

1:06:33

at college, found your videos. I'd

1:06:35

never heard of you before college,

1:06:37

and FPU made such a big

1:06:39

impact on me, even though I

1:06:41

hadn't actually taken the course, as

1:06:43

soon as I graduated, our church

1:06:45

started offering it. And I think

1:06:47

I took it three times because

1:06:49

I liked it so much. So

1:06:51

let a couple of small groups.

1:06:53

And so FPU was a big

1:06:55

part of that. So our story

1:06:57

is a success story, not so

1:06:59

much, because we're fantastic or amazing,

1:07:01

but because the people around us

1:07:03

are fantastic and amazing. And you,

1:07:05

Dave, in the entire organization, are

1:07:07

certainly a big part of that.

1:07:09

And we cannot say thank you

1:07:11

enough. Well, thank you. You had

1:07:13

the option of doing stupid. and

1:07:15

you chose wise. So I'm still

1:07:17

going to blame you for your

1:07:19

success. Well done, hero. Good job,

1:07:21

because not everybody gets a good

1:07:23

pattern and follows it. No, that's

1:07:25

right. Like Dave said, you have

1:07:28

a choice and you guys chose

1:07:30

right. And I love that you

1:07:32

were both immediately on board. So

1:07:34

you never really had the consumer

1:07:36

debt. You just both got in

1:07:38

locked in and said we're going

1:07:40

to do this. Did it feel

1:07:42

like a sacrifice? Or was it

1:07:44

just kind of, hey, this is

1:07:46

just part of our part of

1:07:48

our budget. I know for me,

1:07:50

I know paying off the house

1:07:52

was a big thing for Josh.

1:07:54

Like let's try to pay it

1:07:56

off early. For me, I came

1:07:58

into it. I like to say

1:08:00

I got married and got into

1:08:02

debt for the first time ever

1:08:04

because he had bought the house

1:08:06

just a couple months before we

1:08:08

got married. It was able to

1:08:10

see just the weight in the

1:08:12

stress that was taken off of

1:08:14

Josh once the house was paid

1:08:16

off and now we just have

1:08:18

a lot more freedom as a

1:08:20

result of that. What's the first

1:08:22

big thing you're going to do

1:08:24

to celebrate? Buy a car. Oh

1:08:26

good! Rebecca totaled, well actually a

1:08:28

deer totaled our only half decent

1:08:30

car last Thursday. Oh wow. So

1:08:33

we lost our only decent car

1:08:35

and so I looked up the

1:08:37

Kelly Bluebook value of our two

1:08:39

remaining vehicles and old truck my

1:08:41

grandfather's truck and the first car

1:08:43

she ever bought and it's like

1:08:45

four thousand nine hundred dollars between

1:08:47

two vehicles. Yeah you need to

1:08:49

upgrade. We need something a little

1:08:51

bit more reliable. Both of you

1:08:53

do yeah instead of deer fodder.

1:08:55

Yeah I like it. So what

1:08:57

are you going to get? I

1:08:59

have no idea. I am not

1:09:01

a car person so I'm leaving

1:09:03

that up to him. I just

1:09:05

want a better car. Okay, you

1:09:07

just want something that's a little

1:09:09

nicer. Yes. It doesn't take much

1:09:11

to upgrade that. No, it doesn't

1:09:13

really. You're going to get a

1:09:15

little insurance check and you're going

1:09:17

to put a little money with

1:09:19

it and try to get a

1:09:21

little better place. Yes. We're going

1:09:23

to get a little insurance check

1:09:25

and you're going to put a

1:09:27

little money with it. the world.

1:09:29

Wonderful. It feels great. It feels

1:09:31

amazing. What do you tell people

1:09:33

the key to getting out of

1:09:35

that is you paid off your

1:09:38

house by the time you're 30?

1:09:40

So I've been very blessed to

1:09:42

get to know a 99 year

1:09:44

old World War II combat veteran

1:09:46

over the past few years. He

1:09:48

was my grandfather's best friend and

1:09:50

he told me once once you

1:09:52

become emotionally invested in something it

1:09:54

becomes virtually impossible to change your

1:09:56

mind. And so I think the

1:09:58

key to getting out of debt

1:10:00

is simply becoming emotionally invested in

1:10:02

it, allowing the stuff to drop

1:10:04

from your head to your heart.

1:10:06

You know, rain that falls on

1:10:08

grass doesn't actually do anything. It's

1:10:10

the water that soaks down to

1:10:12

the roots that causes life change.

1:10:14

Yeah, wow. Very good. true and

1:10:16

well put. Exactly. Yeah, it's, um,

1:10:18

you become what you think about,

1:10:20

you know. Bible says as a

1:10:22

man thinketh in his heart, so

1:10:24

is he. So that's the deal.

1:10:26

That's, and it's the power of

1:10:28

focus, the power of intentionality, all

1:10:30

of that is a biblical principle.

1:10:32

You're exactly right. So very well

1:10:34

done, sir. Proud of you guys

1:10:36

and ladyam. Yeah, you guys are

1:10:38

awesome. This is great. We'll pray

1:10:40

you get home. Thank you. So

1:10:43

you can get a new vehicle.

1:10:45

So you can both get a

1:10:47

new car, yeah. Because now without

1:10:49

any house payment or anything else,

1:10:51

now you've got the ability to

1:10:53

save and pay cash for that.

1:10:55

And you probably don't realize what

1:10:57

the next three years was going

1:10:59

to look like, how much freedom

1:11:01

you've really set yourself up to

1:11:03

be, because you've only really known

1:11:05

one way while you were married.

1:11:07

But now you've got a whole

1:11:09

new version of you two to

1:11:11

learn about and it's going to

1:11:13

be pretty incredible. So way to

1:11:15

go. You guys are heroes. Man,

1:11:17

you're amazing. So, you know, every

1:11:19

time someone tells us that there's

1:11:21

a Gen Z problem or a

1:11:23

millennial problem, I... tell them no

1:11:25

there's not I point I got

1:11:27

excellent versions of both on this

1:11:29

stage every week coming in here

1:11:31

and showing us how it can

1:11:33

be done and so you guys

1:11:35

give us hope for the future

1:11:37

us old people so good job

1:11:39

guys well done Josh and Rebecca

1:11:41

Raleigh North Carolina two hundred and

1:11:43

three thousand paid off in sixty

1:11:45

three months making 105 to one

1:11:48

sixty five house and everything at

1:11:50

thirty years old counted down let's

1:11:52

hear a debt free screen Three,

1:11:54

two, one. We're dead free! Yeah!

1:11:56

Love it! Love it! Love it!

1:11:58

Wow! Well done! Twenty-nine years old!

1:12:00

Man, that's beautiful right there. They'll

1:12:02

be able to do anything. I

1:12:04

mean, you take a couple hundred

1:12:06

thousand dollars a year of income,

1:12:08

which is what they're approaching, and

1:12:10

no payments of any kind. They're

1:12:12

not even, they're 30 years. It

1:12:14

can be so much money. So

1:12:16

much money. Unbelievable. Wow. That's inspiring.

1:12:18

I'm inspired. Very cool. This is

1:12:20

the Ramsey show. You spend hours

1:12:22

researching before making a major purchase

1:12:24

like a home or car, but

1:12:26

it's also a good idea to

1:12:28

put in the work searching for

1:12:30

the right insurance coverage. to protect

1:12:32

your biggest assets i recommend using

1:12:34

ramsy trusted pros whether you're looking

1:12:36

for car home or any other

1:12:38

type of insurance ramsy trusted providers

1:12:40

have been coached and vetted to

1:12:42

serve you like we would find

1:12:44

what you need at ramsy solutions.com/insurance

1:12:49

Jade Washall Ramsey personalities my co-host

1:12:51

Mike is in Idaho. Hey Mike

1:12:53

welcome to the Ramsey show Oh,

1:12:55

how's it going guys? Better than

1:12:57

we deserve. What's up? All right,

1:12:59

so um I think I accidentally

1:13:01

started business and I need a

1:13:03

little help here Explain All right,

1:13:05

so um I'm a high school

1:13:08

photography teacher and I teach yearbook

1:13:10

and journalism and all that kind

1:13:12

of stuff I started taking senior

1:13:14

photos and sports team photos and

1:13:16

designing banners and essentially I started

1:13:18

doing it simply to essentially pay

1:13:20

for my classes in Idaho we

1:13:22

really don't have a lot of

1:13:24

money for things and one of

1:13:26

my students to actually have cameras

1:13:29

to take a photography class which

1:13:31

I think is super helpful. Anyway,

1:13:33

so yeah. Yeah, right. So anyway,

1:13:35

I've taken all that money and

1:13:37

I just donated it to my

1:13:39

classroom. I hire some of my

1:13:41

students in order to get them

1:13:43

experience. My problem, I suppose, is

1:13:45

a good problem here, but words

1:13:47

really gotten out that I'm doing

1:13:49

pretty well. well with this stuff.

1:13:52

I'm starting to get booked up

1:13:54

with a lot of different senior

1:13:56

photo sessions. A lot of different

1:13:58

teams are contacting me to get

1:14:00

their photos and right now I'm

1:14:02

looking at like $400 to $800

1:14:04

a month I'm bringing in for

1:14:06

my program that I'm donating. Because

1:14:08

I'm making actually a lot more

1:14:10

money than I originally thought I

1:14:13

was going to, I want to

1:14:15

make sure I'm protecting myself and

1:14:17

I, you know, I'm very ignorant

1:14:19

when it comes to business. I

1:14:21

still want to donate a lot

1:14:23

of this money but down the

1:14:25

road I would really like to

1:14:27

maybe start compensating myself with all

1:14:29

the hours that I put into

1:14:31

this. Do I need to file

1:14:33

for an LLC or I guess

1:14:36

what are my next steps here?

1:14:38

No, you don't need an LLC,

1:14:40

you just need to make a

1:14:42

decision. Yeah, how much you have

1:14:44

to decide at what point does

1:14:46

that? You used to give 100%

1:14:48

of your proceeds to the classroom

1:14:50

to the classroom and now you're

1:14:52

not going to. Correct.

1:14:55

Again, I'm not sure yet. I'm not

1:14:57

sure which route I want to take,

1:15:00

but I suppose that would be my

1:15:02

next step to decide. If I wanted

1:15:04

to start compensating myself, what would be

1:15:06

my next steps? Just making that decision.

1:15:09

Is anybody else, I mean, this is

1:15:11

for your class in your classroom, is

1:15:13

anybody else dependent on this money that

1:15:15

they're going, oh man, we were expecting

1:15:18

that money from Mike that needs to

1:15:20

be involved? Yeah. And at that point

1:15:22

it's me. Figuring out okay, what percentage

1:15:24

of is it 50% is it 80%

1:15:27

that I want to give away versus

1:15:29

keep and What's your intent with the

1:15:31

money? Is it that you're getting out

1:15:33

of debt? Is this just to help

1:15:36

build up savings like and kind of

1:15:38

have a clear picture for all of

1:15:40

that? And then you just push play

1:15:42

Yeah, sounds good. Yeah, the first thing

1:15:45

and then I would open a separate

1:15:47

checking account for your business. Okay, you

1:15:49

can open it in your social security

1:15:51

number. It doesn't require a tax ID

1:15:54

and it require an requiring LLC The

1:15:56

only reason you would need an LLC

1:15:58

is if you get big enough, the

1:16:00

business is big enough or your personal

1:16:03

wealth is big enough, that you have

1:16:05

a target on your butt and somebody

1:16:07

wants to sue you. now you're a

1:16:09

broke photography teacher nobody wants to sue

1:16:12

you correct you're not going to get

1:16:14

any money for me anyway exactly so

1:16:16

I mean what are you going to

1:16:18

drop a camera on their toe I

1:16:21

mean I mean there's not a lot

1:16:23

of potential liability here okay so the

1:16:25

I'm not worried about it if I'm

1:16:27

you so you would open it under

1:16:30

what's called a sole proprietorship and so

1:16:32

your checking account would be Mike so-and-so-so-and-so

1:16:34

DBA doing business as Mike's photography or

1:16:36

whatever you call it. Okay, okay, and

1:16:39

then all the money that you make

1:16:41

doing that goes into that account all

1:16:43

expenses Come out of that account and

1:16:45

all contributions come out of that account

1:16:48

And keep some money aside for taxes

1:16:50

because you're gonna you know, you're gonna

1:16:52

have taxes on the net profit and

1:16:54

the other thing with taxes is is

1:16:57

there a some kind of a non-profit

1:16:59

associated with your school that you can

1:17:01

Donate this money to that ends up

1:17:03

in your classroom. Yeah, so we all

1:17:06

have our own accounts for each one

1:17:08

of our programs here. So is that

1:17:10

a tax deductible account? Could I make

1:17:12

a contribution to it and get a

1:17:14

tax deduction? Yes, sir. Okay, then you're

1:17:17

making a contribution to that account. You

1:17:19

take a tax deduction for your expenses.

1:17:21

What's left is taxable profit. Okay,

1:17:24

and you would set aside a

1:17:26

fourth of that and you file quarterly

1:17:28

estimates on your to income taxes

1:17:30

for your taxable profit But that just

1:17:32

depends on how much of it. You're

1:17:35

not going to donate as long

1:17:37

as you're donating everything net of expenses.

1:17:39

You have zero taxes Okay, but

1:17:41

once you decide and right now on

1:17:43

right now every single dime's going

1:17:45

to it. So am I okay right

1:17:48

now at least you're fine? But

1:17:50

I mean if you're doing 800 bucks

1:17:52

a month That's $10,000 a year. Correct.

1:17:54

That's pretty, pretty... generous to a

1:17:56

single classroom? Well, again, we don't have

1:17:59

a whole lot here. Yeah, but

1:18:01

I mean, how many times you've got

1:18:03

to buy all this stuff one

1:18:05

time? Correct. Well, cameras break down and

1:18:07

all that kind of stuff and new

1:18:10

equipment comes out and they keep

1:18:12

filling my classrooms full of more and

1:18:14

more kids and I need more

1:18:16

resources, I guess. Well, you also know

1:18:18

in the technology world or the

1:18:20

camera world that there's an endless... Yeah.

1:18:23

That's a bottomless pit. Yeah, I

1:18:25

mean, you'll have to draw a line.

1:18:27

I've got several million dollars in various

1:18:29

kinds of cameras inside this building,

1:18:31

and I'm constantly having to look at

1:18:34

people and go, no, I think

1:18:36

we've got enough. Because the people that

1:18:38

are on the backside of those

1:18:40

cameras love buying more. That's true. Yeah,

1:18:42

you'll have to draw a line

1:18:45

there. Yeah, so you know, you get

1:18:47

your gadget people and gadget people just

1:18:49

always want more gadgets. That's, that's

1:18:51

life. And so, yeah, you want to

1:18:54

do that very generous of that

1:18:56

very generous of you. Very generous of

1:18:58

you. Pretty cool. That's that's like

1:19:00

a the cool teacher. He is the

1:19:02

cool teacher. I'll give the cool teacher

1:19:05

a piece of advice though because

1:19:07

we didn't talk about it, but if

1:19:09

Mike, if you have debt, you

1:19:11

do need to take some of this

1:19:13

to put towards getting out of

1:19:15

debt. Just saying absolutely, you know, absolutely

1:19:18

split the difference. I'd probably go

1:19:20

as much as half or more. Yeah,

1:19:22

but this guy's just very generous and

1:19:24

he loves what he loves what

1:19:26

he does. coming to him, that is

1:19:29

a huge ingredient when you're building

1:19:31

your business I think is clearly having

1:19:33

a passion for it, having a

1:19:35

love for it because people can sense

1:19:37

that. Yep. And you're better at

1:19:39

it because of it. Yeah that's exactly

1:19:42

how it works. So very well done

1:19:44

Mike, you're the cool teacher man,

1:19:46

we dubbed you that for the week,

1:19:48

good stuff. Open phones here at

1:19:50

AAA, 825, 5225. Anthony is in Cleveland.

1:19:53

Hi Anthony, what's up? Oh,

1:19:55

so I'm 20 on... I'm right

1:19:57

right now. But I'm looking to

1:19:59

buy a home. I only make

1:20:01

$30,000 though. What's your advice on

1:20:04

being so young and not making

1:20:06

a lot of money trying to

1:20:08

buy a house? I wouldn't buy

1:20:10

a house. You're 20 and you

1:20:12

don't make a lot of money.

1:20:14

I would go make some money.

1:20:16

It's okay to rent. Rent as

1:20:18

cheap as you can rent. And

1:20:20

let's work on the career side

1:20:23

of the equation. Let's get the

1:20:25

income way up. Start stacking cash.

1:20:27

Yeah. I feel like I'm bad

1:20:29

at budgeting my money and like

1:20:31

when it comes to like rent

1:20:33

and all my bills and actually

1:20:35

budgeting I don't know where my

1:20:37

money is going. Well do you

1:20:40

have debt? I learned about you

1:20:42

in high school. Yes I got

1:20:44

$17,000 in a car. Well that's

1:20:46

where a lot of it's going.

1:20:48

1,600. Yes, and you make $30,000?

1:20:50

$1,600 and I earn credit cards.

1:20:52

Yeah, that means when you took

1:20:54

our class in high school, you

1:20:56

flunked it. Yeah, that's where the

1:20:59

money's going. Sell the car. Yeah.

1:21:01

You got to. And you got

1:21:03

to decide today that you're not

1:21:05

borrowing money because I can tell

1:21:07

you as long as you're taking

1:21:09

out debt, it's going to buying

1:21:11

a house is going to become

1:21:13

further and further and further and

1:21:16

further away from you as a

1:21:18

goal. So if you want to

1:21:20

lasso that and pull it closer,

1:21:22

you need to stop borrowing money,

1:21:24

especially, especially things like credit cards

1:21:26

and car payments. The car owns

1:21:28

you, you don't own the car.

1:21:30

You can't breathe. All you think

1:21:32

about is making car payments. It's

1:21:35

all you can think about. The

1:21:37

thing's got your handcuff and it's

1:21:39

dragging you around the parking lot.

1:21:41

It is no fun at all.

1:21:43

The thing's eating you alive, dude.

1:21:45

So, yeah, the way, don't even

1:21:47

talk about buying a house. And

1:21:49

let's get our income up, get

1:21:52

the car. our gone get

1:21:54

all debt gone

1:21:56

and lean into

1:21:58

that budgeting stuff

1:22:00

stuff. So be okay

1:22:02

be okay, it dude

1:22:04

keep at it

1:22:06

at it, keep at it.

1:22:08

is is the Ramsey Show. you