Will You Be Proud Of Your Decisions 20 Years From Now?
2024-05-14 01:55:42
The Ramsey Show believes you can build wealth and take control of your life—no matter what stupid mistakes you've made with money. Join as Dave Ramsey and his team of experts answer your questions on the top problems holding you back. Listen now or ask your question live by calling 888.825.5225 weekdays from 2–5 p.m. ET. Learn more at www.ramseysolutions.com
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. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, number one best-selling author, and host of The Ken Coleman Show, Ramsey personality. Ken Coleman. He's my co-host today, as we talk about your life, and that includes your job, and how you make more money so that you make this whole wealth building thing work. Open phones at 888-825-5225..
Lou starts this hour in Fort Myers, Florida. Hi, Lou. How are you?
I'm so good. Thank you so much for taking my call. How are you doing?
Better than I deserve. What's up?
So, I am 28 years old. My husband and I also have four children, our youngest being almost two. So, about two years ago, I graduated with my bachelor's degree, started at a job that I love. My husband makes about $55,000.. I bring $50,000-plus.
We've gotten ourselves into some crazy debt, and I've been following you for about a month now. I had no idea what to do with my finances. I asked my dad. He gave me your book, but I feel so lost because at the end of the month, we're still short $500,000.. So, I don't know how to piece this back together.
One thought was maybe selling our home. We can probably get about $75,000 to $100,000 more than it's worth, put it towards a new home, and pay off our debt, but I don't know what solutions.
we have right now. Okay. So, where's your husband?
Why are you doing this by yourself?
He's not too great with money. Neither are you. I mean, I'm not either. No, no. I'm not either, but I'm driven to get this back on track.
Yeah. Okay. Well,
drive right up into his face and tell him he's going to help. Right. We are going to fix this mess that we made, because part of what you're struggling with here is you're carrying the emotional burden of the financial stress all by yourself, and that really causes your brain to get cloudy and you can't see stuff. So, you've got to be working on this together as a team. I'm not expecting either one of you to become financial geniuses in 22 seconds.
That's okay. I wasn't either when I went broke. I've done stupid. I've got a PhD in DUMB. I know what it looks like.
Okay. So, it's okay to not know, but it's not okay to not participate.
Right. So, the two of you together are going to lock arms, and here we go down the yellow.
brick road. Ready? How much debt do you have?
When I put it all into my little spreadsheet, I made, it comes out to almost $42,000 before my student loans, and my student loans are $20,000.
So, what is the $42,000?
. Break it down for me.
So, we have my vehicle. We owe on a couple credit cards.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you owe on your car?
I owe $20,000 on my car.
We owe $20,000 on the car I drive. Okay. And then you have credit card debt of how much?
The credit card debt, it's probably the majority of it, to be completely transparent.
Well, you said you had $42,000 plus a $20,000 student loan, right? Yeah. So, that means another $22,000 in credit card debt. Have you got anything other than credit card debt, car debt, and a student loan?
No, just lots of credit cards. Okay, cool. All right. Well, that's because you've been living crisis to crisis, and every month,
credit card saves your butt. Exactly, and if we can't make a payment,
it goes on the credit card. And you figured out that this is not sustainable. You're going to end up hitting the wall eventually and exploding. That's a very wise observation on your part. This is not a sustainable methodology.
All right. So, $60,000 in debt, including your car, 62, and your student loan and everything, and you make 100, and you have four kids. Okay. Now, how much is your house payment? That is $1,850 a month.
That's okay. All right. Not great, but okay. Okay. So, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to start fresh. Pretend, like you were doing this, with a blank yellow pad, and the first thing I want you to do is write. Have you guys been getting a tax refund?
Minimal, but yeah. Okay. Then that's not the answer. Okay. I would stop all investing.
Anybody putting any money in a 401k?
Yes. Stop temporarily,
because you're actually funding that with a credit card right now, because you're not bringing the money home, so you're short. So, you follow me? Yes. Okay. So, then what do you do for a living?
I work for a government. And your degree is in what? Public safety.
Okay. So, you work for law enforcement or in the? In an investigative role. Okay. All right.
And your husband does what? He does. construction. Good. Okay.
So, here's the general rule with them. There's three things you can do to get this working. One thing you can do that'll help get it. If you will get organized and do a detailed budget on the EveryDollar app that I'm going to give you for free, okay? I'm going to give you the premium version for free.
I'm going to pay for it. And you and your husband sit down tonight, and you give every dollar that is coming into your house before the month begins an assignment. And obviously, we're not going to plan to be 500 in the hole.
Right. We're going to plan to break even, and then we're going to stick to the plan. But what's happening is, is you're living from crisis to crisis. rather than by a plan. When you do a detailed plan and both of you are in agreement, because he's going to help her, I'm going to kill him.
Okay. He's going to help. All right. So, he's got to help. That's part of his job.
He doesn't have to become a financial genius, but he's got to sit down with you. and the two of you got to look at this. This is sixth grade math. Anybody can do it. Now, it's actually fourth grade math, but the, in most schools.
But the, so it's addition and subtraction. So, we're going to put the number that we make home and take home at the top of the page. We're going to give every one of those dollars a name. Getting organized will make you feel like you got a raise. Getting in front of it instead of trying to catch up from behind it.
Telling your money what to do instead of wondering where it went, you'll feel like you got a raise. That's thing. one. Thing two is you're going to stop all spending. You're not going out to eat ever again.
You're not going to be in a restaurant unless you're working there. You're not going on vacation. You ain't got any money. You're a broke people. Okay.
Broke people don't go on vacation. Broke people work. And you got to work to get this mess cleaned up for a while. Okay. And then the third thing is, and Ken, this is your turn after 13 minutes, finally.
You know, the third thing is, is your husband has a wonderful career called construction and he can go make a ton of money right now, extra money, working extra.
And she might be able to as well. Could she do some private investigation work? I don't know what your limitations are, but both of you've got to say, what can we do to bring in more money? If you do what Dave said, and you pause the 401k, you're immediately have a raise. So now we've got margin, but he needs to be working weekends, nights.
He's picking up any kind of laboring work that he can do to see if he can generate- Swing a hammer, you can make 40, 50 bucks an hour. $1,000, $1,500 extra per month. Makes serious money right now. And so that's how we actually fund going through the baby steps. And let's knock out some of these credit cards.
Consider selling the car. We didn't have time to mention that. If you have any kind of equity in that car, I would sell that car as well. And that'll really fast forward the situation.
Yeah. Income up, out, go down and get organized. And this will work for you. Hold on.
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Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host. Open phones at 888-825-5225.. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you are here. Jake is with us in Nashville.
Hi, Jake. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. How are you? Better than I deserve.
What's up?
Okay. So, I am getting married to my fiancée in October. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.
How old are you? I'm 28. Cool. How old is she? She's 28.
Awesomeness. Good. Yep. So, I am marrying into $100,000 student loan debt.
She is awesome, isn't she? Yeah. She is awesome. I have a home that has about $100,000 in equity in it, and she has an opportunity to move to Dallas to kind of further and kickstart her career more and kind of help build out an office there.
I don't know if that's the best way to go. Other than that, we only have about $20,000, $21,000 in debt, and that's just two cars. So, really, it's just student loans.
So, $21,000 in cars and $80,000 in student loans? No, about $100,000 in student loans. So, $120,000.. Yes, sir. Gets you out of debt.
Yes, sir. And you make what? I make $55,000.. What is she making or going to make?
She makes $105,000 right now, but that can grow. There's a bonus coming up this year, so she'll just kind of grow more from there. What does she do?
She's in technology consulting.
So, if she goes to Dallas, what are you going to do in Dallas? Well, that was the thing. So,
so I kind of, I just got in about two years ago into IT support, so I'm kind of growing still.
So, let me get this straight. Your wife is in IT and you're here to support her.
I see what he did there. I was impressive. That was quick. Are you open to moving to Dallas? That's the question that I'm trying to dig into.
Yeah. Okay. Is this settled? Is?
this the plan?
We're like 90-10 on it. If you don't go to Dallas, what's she going to do?
She's going to keep on doing what she's doing. Dallas would let her be in an office more, and she's fully remote now. So, being there, she'd be in an office more and be able to be.
out and network more. Will she get a bump? Will she get a pay bump?
It wasn't stated that she would exactly, but it was stated she would move progressively faster.
Okay. That's a little weird. She didn't get a job. Did she get a job offer? No,
no. She's already working for them remote, but you're saying by being in the office, by moving to the home office and moving into the office, she'll have more opportunity to move up.
Is that right? Exactly. Okay. She's not changing companies. I'm sorry.
I assumed. Okay. Gotcha,
gotcha, gotcha. All right. So, now she's working remote for a company that is in Dallas. So, sell the house if it's here. Yeah.
If you're going to Dallas, the house is sold either way. Even if you weren't broke, I'm not keeping a house in Nashville.
No, no, exactly. And that was a thought where they were. like, we could rent this and maybe-.
No, no, no, no. You're broke. You're $120,000 in debt. You're not a landlord. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Sell the house, pay off a bunch of the debt, finish paying off the debt, raise your right hand, both of you, and swear we're never borrowing any more money.
And then we're going to start saving like crazy for a down payment because we're going to be.
renting in Dallas. That was my next question. Renting in Dallas is probably the.
best thing to do. It's the only thing to do. You don't have any money and you're in debt. Exactly. Yeah.
So, I mean, unless you want to go into some stupid plan or something with these houses, I mean, you can do that, but no. I mean, the house won't even clear the student loan and the cars. No, no, it won't. So, you've still got to clean up the cars or whatever is left on the student loan, whichever way you go at this. I'd probably pay off the cars first and then the rest of the chunk of the student loan.
And then that last 20,000 student loan, you push on through it when both of you are in Dallas, making $150,000 a year, renting the cheapest possible thing you can find. You're broke newlyweds. It's okay. You got nothing to prove, dude. Go rent a garage apartment out back of some rich old lady's house for 500 a month.
And you cut her grass, something like that, right? That kind of deal. Cause this is, this is, we're getting started with our married life, finishing up, getting out of debt, saving up a big down payment to get us a nice home later. This is what we're doing. We're not trying to rent something.
Everybody's like, oh, this is a really nice place you rented. Translation, you're going to be there a while because you spent all the money on rent instead.
of saving up for a down payment. Yeah. I just feel like right now, where we should be is we should have more in the bank than we do. We only have our $1,000 emergency fund, and then everything else is getting thrown at the sweaty. And so we're even doing DoorDash and UberEats on the side just to try to like get more coming.
Good. Good. All that, all that's good. And you know, as you, as you approach the wedding of October, I mean, I guess first of September or middle August, we put your house on the market. Yeah.
You could end up homeless for a short period of time, but you can survive that.
Yeah. We would probably live with family or something here.
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.
Or roll the wedding up or something. I don't know. Probably not. You probably got everything booked and all that, but yeah. Anyway, yeah, yeah.
Sell the house, get out of debt, restart and save the emergency, save up. And, honestly, the field you all are in, your side, hustles, ought to be tech, not DoorDash. I was just ready to say, you know,
these small business people can't afford a tech person, but if you start telling everybody that you know in Nashville and in Dallas, when you get there, that you do contract, buy the job, tech support, you can make way more money per hour with your expertise than you can driving.
around delivering somebody Chili's. Yeah. Unless we're, unless we're in the tech field, those of us that are entrepreneurs are what's known as clueless. We have a tech department here at Ramsey. One person's full-time job is fixing stuff.
I break. That's how bad we entrepreneurs are. Okay. So it's like, I can't work this thing. There's something broken on my phone.
It's cause, Dave, you push these seven buttons in the wrong order. We'll screw it, fix it. And so that's what we do around here. And so guys like me are everywhere,
dude. Ken's right. You're right. I'd be putting that on Facebook, social media, everybody, you know, at church, you wouldn't believe, you might have some old farmer go, you know, my grandson stopped doing this for me five years ago. Every, there's small businesses everywhere that need basic tech support.
And it's a lot better than delivering Chili. Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that's a no brainer. Same thing with your life.
While we're preaching about making more money, when you get to Dallas and you get out of debt, I would be looking at Bethel tech, Bethel tech, not.
net. I endorsed them. They've got a nine month program. Ramsey. listeners can do it for less than 15 grand.
And here's why I'm telling you to consider just talk to them, but multiple opportunities for somebody like you to go from tech support to move into coding, uh, uh, data analytics, AI, uh, cyber security. I mean, I just named three fields in technology that have a quick path to six figures.
Yeah. They're all a hundred grand and above entry level.
So, you know, I would be looking at increasing your income. Now you two are looking at making, you know, 200, two, 50 pretty quickly. And you've made the oath, Dave, had you raise your right hand? So now you're building wealth quickly. You did it, man.
You can do it. Congratulations.
on the marriage, man. Hang on. I'm going to put the two of you through financial peace university. If you promise Kelly that you will take the class, I will give it to you for free, along with every dollar premium. That's our wedding gift to the two of you.
All married couples that are listening right now, go, God, I wish I had known that we got married. So we're going to give it to you so that you know, when you get married, so go, do it, dude. Seriously. It's going to, it's free to you. Hang on, miss Kelly.
I'll pick up and get you signed up and get you going. So good question. A lot of opportunity in front of them. They have a lot of upside on those.
careers. I want to make sure that young people caught what you said there. It wasn't Dave, just being fun. This idea of selling a house and getting a huge chunk of their debt out of the way. We're excited for them and it makes sense because they're moving.
But if you don't change your behavior, all you're doing is it's just filling up one hole and before you know it, you'll be digging another. It's very important that you go never again. We're not going to do this again and not just use the convenience of a house sale to bail you out. You got to be careful.
with that. Exactly. And the answer changes if you were staying in town, because the last thing I'm going to sell everything else you own before we try that. This is the Ramsey show.
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Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us. Well, the book that we did, The Total Money Makeover, is 20 years old. this year. Taylor Swift was starting her career.
The iPhone was not yet invented.
Some of you weren't born, and this book came out, and wow. Now we've sold over 10 million of them, helping people get out of debt and build wealth, and so we're celebrating. The interesting thing is The Total Money Makeover has had several makeovers through the 20 years. I think we're on the fifth or sixth edition now. A couple years ago, I swore I wasn't going to do another edition, and now we did the 20th anniversary edition, so I lied.
So a new edition, a brand new edition, cleaned up all the statistics, and everything's current now, and updated and expanded advice on mortgages and car loans, investing for retirement, paying for college, buy now, pay later, traps, and if you like audio books, I sat down and re-recorded this. It had not been done in 20 years, so the audio book is now current again, and for The Total Money Makeover, 20th anniversary edition, and every book includes three months of every dollar premium for free. There's a QR code in it that you can scan. Oops, I just told you a way to get it for free without buying it. Oh well.
If you see it at Barnes and Noble, just flip it open and hit the QR code, and you'll get three months free, and then put it back on the shelf. Don't buy the book. No, I'm kidding. That's what I just did, I think, but anyway. Yeah, okay, so marketing guys are going to love me.
Ramsey solutions, dot com, slash store or anywhere great books are sold. 20 years worth of success stories are cheering you on. The Total Money Makeover 20th anniversary edition. Katie is in Indianapolis. Hi, Katie.
Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi. Hey, what's up? I don't know about the babysitter,
but I was wondering what should I do. I'm currently homeless. I have three kids. I'm 27, and my annual income is $28,800.. Okay, you don't need to do anything about the Baby Steps, right.
now. We've got to get you in housing and get food and lights covered, and then we'll worry about the Baby Steps. You're drowning right now. Where are you living? In your car or what?
Yes, it's in my car, and then, every now and then, family. lets me stay there.
Who's got the three kids?
My grandma does. Okay, and so they have a place to live. You're.
in your car sometimes. Correct. Okay, how'd you get there?
I was in a very toxic relationship,
and it was time for me to leave.
Okay, and when you make $28,000 and you don't have any rent,
where's your money going right now?
Well, most of it is to help my grandma out with my three kids.
Why are you not staying with grandmother, and why only the kids?
She feels as if I need to learn a lesson from this.
Say that again. She feels she needs to learn a lesson. So, grandmother said you need to learn a lesson. I'm not taking you in. Correct.
Okay. You have no other family or friends that you can crash with until you get some.
stability?
No, I don't have friends. With the toxic relationship, I wasn't able to talk to nobody. I.
was only allowed to go to work and come back. So, your grandmother told you not to get involved with this duper, and you did?
No, she didn't really say anything about it. So, what lesson is it you're supposed to be learning? I'm confused.
That I need to make better choices.
Well, that's freaking brilliant. Okay.
No kidding.
What's your job? Tell us about your job.
I work as a machinist. I do CNC operator. I've been there for a year now.
For who? Is it local? I mean, excuse me, is it private, or is it public sector?
You're a machinist, you said? Yes, as a machinist. It's for, like, it's a foreign company. They work out of Japan, but they're locally here.
Okay. What are you making per hour?
And how many hours are you working a week?
you doing with the rest of your time?
The rest of my time, I'm usually just trying to figure out places and programs to help my situation.
Yeah. Good for you. Okay. All right. So, the first thing is we've got to get you into a little apartment with your kids, and you take your kid's life back over and quit giving your grandmother money who wants you to stay on the street.
That's asinine. So, you need to get your family back together and get in a situation. If she wants to watch them during the day, that's fine while you're at work, but you need a home and a place to land, obviously, and we've got to get you sustainable and back up on your feet, and we'll help you with that and help you get going. Okay? Are you associated with a church of any kind there in Indianapolis?
I'm not. Okay. All right. What I'm going to do when we get through talking in a minute is I'm going to put you on hold, and Kelly's going to put you with one of our Ramsey coaches in the area, and it's not going to cost you a thing. We're going to pay for it and help you.
Okay? They're going to help you get plugged into a new family called a church, because you need some extra family based on the ones you've got,
and then, if you want to work out with your grandmother to watch your children while you have a place to live, that's fine. Your new family then can come around you and help you get into a new place, have a church, come alongside you and help you get a deposit and get started, and then, because I think if you were in and paying rent, making $30,000 on something cheap, you could make a do. Do you? Yes, I do. Okay.
We just got to get you started. It's just hard to get started, because right now everything's just spiraling, right? Yes, absolutely, and it's like really hard.
because I feel like. when I feel like I got something figured out or I'm going forward, there's just like 10 other things that come at me.
Yeah, that's generally the way it is.
Yeah, and you've had a really tough couple of years here, dealing with some guy who told you you weren't worth anything.
Yeah. Yeah, and you are worth it. That's right. Okay. Thank you.
Everybody has made bad choices, including your freaking grandmother and including me, and so we're going to help you and we'll get you plugged into a church and them and our coaches will help you get into a little place some way or another and help you figure out how you can sustain that. then. Then, your first goal, Katie, is simply this. I just want you to get in the rhythm of living a sustainable life. What that means is you make enough to buy food, rent, lights, and clothes, and gas in the car.
That's all I need you to make. That's right. For right now. If you can just get the rhythm of doing that, if you simply could exist with a little bit of wiggle room for six months and you had your own place, your own food, your own kids, that would be a huge leap from where we are today. Agreed?
Agreed. I absolutely agree.
Then later we'll worry about a total money makeover. That's right. Right now we need to get back up to survival level.
And Katie, the number one thing that our coach is going to help you with, and you need to commit to doing what they teach you, is budgeting. You're making enough right now to survive. You really are. If you start pulling back on what you're giving grandmother. So really lock in.
They're going to teach you how to budget. This is a massive gift. And this is also going to give you confidence, because right now you're suffering from a lack of confidence, because you're kicking yourself in the rear end about the decisions you've made.
Right alongside your grandmother.
You need some confidence.
And ask the coach, when you're meeting with them, what a proper amount to allow for grandmother to watch your children. I kind of am a little bit afraid grandmother is taking advantage of you on the money. It sounds like she's sucking up all the money which is trapping you. Or she ought to be helping you figure out a way to get up on your own after you made some bad choices. That's what she ought to be doing.
And she's not. So I'm a little worried about the amounts involved here. Hang on. Kelly will pick up and we'll help you get this going, kiddo. And you call us back if you need some help.
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Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality is my co-host. Today's question comes from.
Jennifer in Georgia. My husband and I both work outside of the home and have two school-age kids, prioritizing time together as a family is challenging. with our current schedules. We've been alternating picking up the kids from school based on our work schedules. This is not ideal and our employers are getting tired of it.
Together, we earn over $400,000.
. The only debt is our home. I carry our health insurance through my employer. I was recently offered a position that will give me the flexibility our family needs. However, it is an hourly position with no benefits at $63 an hour.
Is it foolish to leave a well-paying job with benefits that I love in order to spend more time with the kids? My heart tells me one thing, my brain tells me another. Well, this is where I wish I had somebody on the phone, Dave. But if we are collectively earning over $400,000 and we like our work, the word love actually is used here, I'm paying somebody to pick up the kids, maybe a college student or a grandmother. I just don't understand the problem here as to why we would leave a job we love when we have no debt except the home and $400,000 income, and the problem is picking up kids after school.
That's the way this is laid out, Dave. I think there's something more here under the surface, but I would not take the hourly position.
in this scenario at all. She switched gears in the middle of the email. That's the problem.
She sets it up as it's a work schedule thing. We can't pick up. We have trouble picking up the kids. The employers are aggravated. But then, towards the bottom, she says, is it foolish to leave a well-paying job with benefits that I love, in order to spend more time with the kids?
So which is it? Because picking them up is not the issue.
It's the second one, which is why she's asking the question. And so when somebody says, my heart tells me one thing, my brain tells me another, the heart is, with the kids, wanting flexibility. The brain is going, this is foolish. And so what you have to do there is you get the head and the heart on the same page by laying out those two voices.
I mean, there's two or three possibilities here, but it's always amazing to me that the first thing we do is we figure out. the only way to solve the problem is make less.
That's not always the way you solve the problem. So let's pretend that there was a third option. If things are exactly as you feel like they are, Jennifer, here's a third option. You change jobs to a job where you make more money than you make now and has the flexibility for you to pick up your kids.
Huh? And thought of that, instead, we think we have to take a pay cut. No, change jobs where you make more money and has the flexibility. But somehow we think, in order to do work that I love or in order to have work-life balance, I have to make less. always.
That's bullcrap. Bullcrap. I believe you, believe you me, you would trade incomes with me. And you know what my work-life balance is, it's amazing. I do whatever the flip I want, whenever the flip I want.
And so, because I built a life and built a career in such a way that it does that over a period of time. So that's what you can do. I mean, and so you get to choose these things. You're not trapped.
The second thing is you could just simply hire a nanny and or someone to do some, pick up the kids and do some afterschool care type thing. You can afford it. The third thing is every time,
not every time, I always suspect, every time I suspect when someone questions that they don't have enough time with their family, I always want to put a camera in their house and see how many hours a month the television is on.
Cause that's not spending time with your family, it's spending time with Netflix.
So throw a brick through your television and then see how your time increases with your children. It'll be amazing.
So, and I'll lay your stupid Facebook down and your stupid Instagram down and your stupid TikTok down and quit going down the YouTube rabbit holes and then saying, I want to spend more time with my children. Meanwhile, I've got a screen stuck to my nose. So I know what the numbers are statistically, nationally, of how many times the average person looks at their phone 2,500 times a day. Yeah. Is that bizarre?
It's like, it's like, it's like you're like, you know, if you just wash your hands that much, you'd be in the hospital. Right. So, uh,
the other thing I'd add to this, Dave, is I really want her to define what more time is. Yeah. So, once we define what more time is, then it may be a situation where she wants to be a stay at home mother. And that's the greatest job in the world. Big fan of that.
At that point, you are taking a massive pay cut, but it's for a season and you can always get back into the workforce. So this comes down to what are we prioritizing? What do we mean when we say more time with the kids? If you're saying I want 10 more hours with them, well then that's utilizing weekends and nights. well, as you're saying.
So, uh, it's, it's, that has to be defined. Yeah. In 2022, the average,
according to Google, who knows everything. Um, so I'm questioning that, but I mean, in 2022, the average person that is 18 years old and older spent three hours a day on television. Wow.
Ta-da. I literally think of that when I hear that, Dave, I go, how do you find the time? If I, if I run yesterday's schedule through between my work and my personal life, I don't know how you find time. If you go to bed at a decent hour, that's probably part of it,
but I go to bed early. Yeah. I mean, I'm not, and I'm not saying this lady necessarily is, but every time I hear we only spend more time with my children. Uh, so I'm going to take a job, making half of what I used to make. I w before I do that, I would unplug my television and my Facebook and my, and all social media, detox from the screens and see how much time you really are missing with your children.
Because I, I, the average family in America, is being destroyed by screens. We know that the data is in, it's out of control. And, um, there there's just, man, there's stuff everywhere on it. So yeah. And, and yet we're on every one of those platforms talking to you about the stuff we do.
So we're trying to help, but.
Interestingly enough, Dave, I looked it up. This is the 20th anniversary of Total Money Makeover, the best financial book ever written. We talked about the earlier, uh, Facebook started in 2004 as well, but came on late, the biggest social media platform in the world.
It did better than the Total Money Makeover did.
Well, yeah, but it's still too iconic.
What's the kid's name that did that? What's his name?
Uh, Mark Zuckerberg.
Yeah. I've not, I've not got a Zuckerberg level of net worth. It didn't. Total Money Makeover just didn't keep up.
Don't cry for me, Argentina. Nobody's worried about your net worth. All right, come on. This guy, this guy, he's done well, folks.
Oh, my gosh.
Interestingly enough, Myspace was the big platform. Yeah. In 2004.. Where's that? Crickets.
Anyway.
Yeah. Nobody knows.
Nobody needed that trivia, but I gave it to you.
I did not realize that Facebook was that young. I thought it was older than that.
Total Money Makeover and Facebook, same age. Kind of fun to think about.
That means that we sold that book and put it on the bestseller list, uh, with, uh, no social media.
That is correct.
No YouTube.
No algorithm.
No, I mean, isn't that amazing? But there used to be bookstores back then. And we would go into your town and sign books at these things called bookstores. And the television stations had, uh, local, local programs.
People watch TV like 60 minutes.
They watched. There were, there were newspapers, back then. The actual paper.
Oh man, I miss the newspapers. I'm getting all nostalgic.
Yeah. It's, um, yeah.
Nothing like black newspaper print on your fingers in the morning with a cup of coffee. All right.
So what would life be back, be like without a smartphone or Facebook?
Be great, actually. Make it so.
Well, that's kind of what we're talking about with Ms. Jennifer here. I'm just saying, I'm not accusing her necessarily of doing that. I'm just, every time I hear a question like this, that we can't find the time to spend with our kids. So I need to quit working as much.
It could be true, but it could be that if you just never touch social media again and you never watched television more than an hour a week, then, um, or a set movie for a week. Sharon, I watched a movie the other night. I hadn't done that long time. Really? 99% of the time, that's things sitting on the wall dark and we're reading a book, but, um, but we're all farts.
I mean, that's, you know, no question about it.
No comment. So next question, please.
Yeah. That's it. Take it from there.
Was it, was it on a service or was it cable that you watched?
That movie was on Netflix. Oh, okay. I don't have cable. You don't have cable? Yeah.
I'm, I'm disconnected, or whatever you call it.
Wow. Dave Ramsey is unplugged, folks.
I'm unplugged. I'm just.
Unplugged.
Have you ever heard of the internet, Ken? Well, yes.
Al Gore. Tennessee, had created it.
Yeah. I heard that. If you don't believe me, ask him. Yeah.
I got all kinds of random trivia for you today, folks. Not why you listen to the show. True. That's just boners.
But it is about balance, and don't always assume that your only choices are negative choices. If they are, that means you don't have enough choices yet. Go, get you some more options, Ms. Jennifer. 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. I'm, Dave Ramsey, your host. Number one, best-selling author of the book Paycheck to Purpose and host of the Ken Coleman Show. My co-host, Ramsey personality, Ken Coleman, today.
The phone number is 888-825-5225.
. Isaac's in Greensboro, North Carolina. Hi, Isaac. How are you?
Hey, Dave. I'm great. How are you doing today?
Better than I deserve. What's up?
So, just a quick summary of my situation. I'm 21.. I live in Greensboro, of course. I live with my dad currently, and I'm hoping to move in with my lovely girlfriend at the end of this year. I have no debt.
My credit is really poor, though. It's about $600, and I have $3,000 in cash saved up. My question is, I just don't really know what would be the best course of action here. I make about $18 an hour. I made my budget just the other day with my friend, who was the one who introduced me to your show.
He's my best friend. And I'm on course to save about $1,300 a month, every month.
Good for you.
I don't know whether it would be best to put a down payment down and try to squeeze myself into a home around the end of this year, or focus on renting and saving up for a down payment that way.
Are you getting married at the end of the year?
No, sir, I'm not.
Okay. Then you don't need to be moving in or buying a house with somebody you're not married to, for sure. That's going to get you into a mess. So, what I would tell you to do is simply get you an inexpensive place when you're ready to move out and just work like a crazy man. Pick up as many hours as you can pick up, and let's pile up as big a pile of cash as we can.
Do you have any debt at all, sir?
Technically, I have about $10,000 to $15,000 in medical debt, but I'm very thankful. I think my grandparents are going to cover that for me. I could be wrong. I don't really want to bank on that, but I think that's what they're hoping to do for me.
Obviously, they don't have the money.
Other than that, I have zero debt.
Wait. Well, no, you don't have zero debt. You have $15,000 in medical bills.
That's right.
Okay. And if they're going to cover it, do they not have the money to cover it?
They do. They just have not done it yet. I need to broach the subject with them, honestly.
Yeah, you need to get clarity on what's going on. So, if they have the money and they're going to cover it, they need to cover it. It's okay if they want to do that. It's okay if they don't want to do that, too, by the way. It's their money and their choice, but if they're going to do it, they need to do it, because otherwise, you need to get to work on it.
Yes, sir. Okay. So, I would get that cleared up either by grandparents or by extra work and get you an inexpensive place to rent, and then I would pile up as big a pile of money as I can so that when I get married to this lovely lady, then we can talk about buying a house.
Yes, sir.
And that's how I would do it if I was in your shoes, Ken. What are you doing, making $18 an hour, Isaac? What do you do for a living?
I work as an EMT, actually.
How many hours a week?
So, I work 40 hours a week.
And you're trained EMT?
That's right.
How old are you again?
21.
I'm 21, sir.
Why are you only making $18 as an EMT? That seems very low.
Most of the other gigs actually make less than that. If I were starting an ambulance company, I'd make $14, $15 an hour, which really isn't great at all.
So, what's the path look like? What's the next level?
What are you going to do with your life?
So, if I'm being completely honest, I do have a dream for myself. I want to... I'm an artist by trade. I'd love to do something with my art.
What kind of art?
You know, I'm a cartoonist.
Okay. Well, that's a long road. So, I like that. you've got the EMT. My question is, what is the next level up of pay?
being an EMT? Clearly, you're young and you're on the lower rung of the ladder. What's that? look like moving up?
Well, I would make a 4% raise every year staying here. But outside of this, you know, unless I was working as a paramedic, there's not really any clear path towards making a hell of a lot more money, quite honestly.
Okay, well, but the issue is.
I originally was a firefighter, but I have since switched out of that career. I had cancer, hence my medical bills, and I just decided that was not the career for me at that point.
Well, so let's talk short term.
I've been looking at a couple other options as well. What?
What are those options?
Namely, home inspection, actually. But I've had a couple of family members, not necessarily steer me away from that, but they've given me some reasons to think twice.
What are their.
. Hold on a second.
If you do a whole new career.
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. What are their... Well, first of all, let's start with what you can make. You can do pretty well in home inspection. I'm assuming you've researched that?
Yes, I have.
Okay, what's the number? Give me the number in your area for a talented and somebody who's getting work. What's that look like?
Working for somebody else?
No, no, no, no, no. No, I'm saying as a home inspector, what does that pay look like in your area, Greensboro, North Carolina?
About $80,000 a year, if I were taking the lower average. If I were taking like five inspections a week...
Exactly, and why is it that your family members think you shouldn't do that instead of $18 an hour?
Well, the one family member, he's my uncle. He's a mortgage lender. And he gave me a couple reasons. And of course, I told him like, I'll think twice about this, but I'm...
I just asked, what were the reasons?
He said, so most people aren't looking to move out of their homes these days because nobody really wants to go from.
You're talking to a mortgage broker who's having the worst year he's possibly had in the last 20 years. Of course, he's going to tell you to stay away from anything having to do with the real estate business. He's starving to death. Your uncle's lost weight. He isn't eating well.
Oh my gosh.
Here's why I like it. Here's why I like that move. Isaac, I don't know how good of a cartoonist you are, but here's what I do know. Even if you're really good at it, this is a long haul and you're going to have to show your work. You're going to have to do stuff on the side.
You're going to have to just really be consistent.
It may take you a decade to break out.
That's right. I would take a job like this. It's low stress. Obviously, you got to be careful getting up on some roofs, getting in some crawl spaces, but you can set your own schedule. This would be a type of gig that would support an artistic endeavor, which you're going to need to just put time into.
It's like writing music. So I actually like this move in the short term for you, because it just gives you a real, huge jump financially and gives you some real stability. Let me tell you what I know. And Dave, actually, I think a home inspector is in a premium demand right now. I know that when we sold recent houses, we were trying to get a good one.
It took a while to schedule it.
Yeah, but his uncle is correct. Obviously, real estate volume is down. Well, sure. The number of houses being sold, so the number of houses being inspected is way down. He is correct about that.
But you can do that on the side while being an EMT.
You can do that and you can do your cartooning on the side. And dude, go, make some more money somewhere. that's reasonable and honest. Pile it up. Talk about buying a house.
Then talk about moving in or talking about getting married and moving in. This is the Ramsey Show.
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com.
The countdown is on. Our brand new event is coming up next week. I've never done this before. I'm really having fun prepping for it. Dave Ramsey's Investing Essentials.
Ken, I have gotten the inner nerd out.
Oh boy.
And I, the inner financial nerd.
That's exciting.
The little boy that loved to do math has recovered.
Okay.
And he is doing all these nerd stuff for this investing seminar, because it's the nerd stuff I actually do when I'm personally investing. And so we're going to teach a whole high-end view of actually calculating returns properly on real estate and those kinds of things. So I'm going into how I pick a piece of real estate, how I pick a mutual fund, the principles that we use, that Sharon and I use to invest and have used for 30 plus years.
There's going to be a whiteboard, big screen that you're kind of touching.
Big screen. Jim Cramer, sleeves rolled up. There's no Jim Cramer involved.
I know. See, you doing your thing.
No yelling. This is going to be, as a matter of fact, truthfully, I was talking to the guys today. I said, if we add that other layer, one more layer of this, someone's going to be in a coma. It's so boring, but I love it. It's such nerdy stuff.
So if you want to know Dave Ramsey's and my personal playbook, and you want to go to a place on investing, I've never taken you to people. Some people think I don't know how to do this stuff, of course, which is always humorous to me too. But anyway, we're doing this thing. Several thousand people have already signed up. It's crazy.
It's a virtual event. It's May 21 and 22 in the evening. So Tuesday and Wednesday, next Tuesday, next Wednesday, we're going to be doing this event in the evening. It's $199 for a ticket. Go to ramseysolutions.com slash events.
And we're going to go all into 401ks, mutual funds, real estate, what not to do, how not to do investing, how not to view, investing, everything about it, and two whole nights. So it's going to be about four hours of material. And we're taking live question and answer. George Camel's going to be in there helping me.
It's going to be fun.
And George has got out his inner nerd. So it's a couple of nerd boys hanging out. And if you want to come, we'd love to have you.
Yeah, I know this. It's going to be relevant. So if you get questions like, in an inflation-driven economy, should I buy gold? All that's going to be covered. I know it is.
You're just going to cover it all, aren't you?
Yeah, yeah. We're going to go in. It's going to be fun.
It's relevant, and it's worked for a long time.
It has. Alex is in Seattle. Hi, Alex. How are you?
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call.
Sure.
I'm doing well. I have a question. Speaking of investing, two months ago, I seemed to have defaulted to baby step seven. And for two months, I've been trying to figure out what to do next, but I've become a victim of paralysis by analysis. So I'm hoping to get some help.
You paid off your house. Now you've got a pile of money and don't know what to do with it. Is that what you just said?
Sure. You can get there that way.
Is that pretty close or not?
Uh, my grandpa passed away two months ago, and that allowed me to pay off my house with an inheritance.
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but I'm sorry. He's smiling about what you did with it. So how much money do you have now?
I have about $50,000 in cash.
Okay.
But my main question is, I don't make enough to max out my retirement. If I, if I did do that, I'd have like a hundred dollars a month, uh, extra, and that doesn't really give much margin in life.
I have goals, but they're not immediate.
What is your, what is your income, sir?
Uh, $70,000 a year.
Okay. All right. Are you putting 15% of your income away in retirement?
I'm putting 20.
. Yes.
Okay. And you don't have a house payment?
No.
Okay. So what you're saying is, is you don't have any more money to invest other than the 50k. Is that right?
I mean, that includes my emergency fund and yeah.
So you don't have any room in your budget to invest. is what you're saying?
Correct. Correct.
So what is it you're asking me?
I'm trying to figure out, do I max it out or do I?
You can't max it out. You told me that.
Right. I could live on a shoestring budget with it maxed, or I can have a little bit of life.
I'd have, I'd have a little bit of life. I mean, if you say, how old are you?
I'm 32.
Okay. If you save 20% of $75,000, let's call it 15,000 a year. And you do that from 32 to 62, you're going to have a $10 million.
Right. I don't want to waste a blessing that I got from my grandpa. So I'm overthinking everything.
Well, yeah, I think you are. And it's part of you want to honor him. And that's a wonderful, wonderfully noble sentiment. And I think you are honoring him. You paid off your house.
If you can do any more investing first, you would do it in tax advantaged accounts, meaning tax-free Roths or traditionals. If you can do more, but you're telling me you can't do more and have a reasonable life. I'm believing you at this point. Let's sit down and run your budget out. And, you know, I want to put as much in those things as I can put in those things and have a reasonable margin for life.
And then, you know, Dave, I would go back to the give, save, spend to get him out of this paralysis of analysis. Save, like Dave just said, give some of it away. Bless your grandfather. Give something in his name. You get to choose.
It doesn't have to be an enormous number. We're not trying to impress anybody here. Do something that's meaningful with it. And then do something fun with it. Just don't overthink it.
Just be smart. And, by the way, the way you present, I don't think there's any chance you're going to waste your grandfather's money. I don't think that's possible. So give yourself a break. Think of those three buckets, as Dave said, write it out and go with what feels good.
Matthew's in Des Moines, Iowa. Hi, Matthew. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me.
Sure.
My wife and I have $115,000 in student loans. Oh, my God. And she's a first-year resident physician. We currently make $120,000 per year and have $70,000 in savings. Based off of our income.
now, we don't have to pay interest on those student loans. And I'm wondering, is it irresponsible to prioritize further saving, investing, and retirement planning because my wife is attending? Yes. Okay.
You need to clear up a stupid debt as fast as you can. And you need to use a bunch of that $75,000 to do it today.
Should we mobilize that immediately?
Yes, today.
Okay.
Yeah, I'd take almost all that money and throw it at that student loan today. And let's get rid of it. Here's how I know that. How old are you, Matthew?
We're both 28.
Okay. When you're 48, you don't want to be sitting around looking at this stupid thing because it's 0% interest, and call yourself sophisticated.
This doesn't age well, this analysis of 0% that you're doing. It feels good in the moment, but when you push it out two decades, it really looks stupid. So clean it up as fast as you can. Does that make sense? Yes, sir.
Yeah, it doesn't age well. And if you'll take some of these things you guys are doing with analysis out there on your mathematics, and you'll do two things. One is put actual dollars to the theory that you're screwing around with. And then it's laughable. You can't buy a Big Mac with the spread you're making.
For sure, you can't buy a Big Mac, but they're expensive.
And the second thing is just think, okay, if I'm keeping this around because it's wise, proud, I did that 20 years from now. And you look at it and go, no, I feel dirty. Well, yeah, it's because it's dumb. So get rid of it. Get rid of as fast as you possibly can.
It's not a pet. It's not an investment vehicle. It's a student freaking loan. Get rid of it. That's the answer to all your questions out there regarding this stuff.
So, Ken, that same thing comes up of, Dave, I'm going to refinance my credit card, which is $8,000, from 18% to zero. What do you think? And I'm thinking, okay, what is 18% of $8,000?? Everybody help me with this. A Big Mac.
Well, Dave, a special sauce, lettuce, cheese, you know, it's a premium these days.
Yeah. So, you know, when you actually do the actual math of what you did, it was nothing.
That's right.
It was bogus. So pay off the $8,000..
That's correct. Well, you're giving yourself an excuse to kick the can down the road.
You're screwing around, trying to fix something. That's what happens. If you were doing math, you wouldn't be in this mess.
That's a good point.
It's not a math problem.
But you feel you're doing something good. That's what, that's the trap. Everything's through making a smart decision and they just allows them to keep extending, extending, extending. Here's the thing, coming out of that income, I mean, out of that, out of that internship, when she gets in there and she's full-time, they're going to be crushing it instead of stressed out over that debt. That's the other reason they use that 75 now.
I've been young and I've been old, and I've never seen a government program that made me happy.
Amen to that.
Just think about it. If the government, if I say I'm from the government and I'm here to help, run. This is the Ramsey Show.
Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225.. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. Alexander is with us in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Hi, Alexander. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Hello, gentlemen. How are we doing today?
Better than we deserve, sir. How can we help?
I love to hear. Well, I wish I was calling under better circumstances here, but let's do with the facts here real quick. I'm 33 years old. I make about $105,000 a year. I just recently finished paying off $20,000 worth of credit card debt and I have about $11,000 left on a car payment.
I seem to be finding myself incredibly behind in where I thought I was going to be at this stage of my life. And I find myself keep wanting to find different ways on how I can increase my net worth, different businesses, different jobs, et cetera. And as I'm saying this, I was listening to the ad deal we're running and, Rachel, she posted an ad about loving her life, this new book she put out. So I was kind of laughing to myself about that. So my question for you all is, how do I ensure that I'm maximizing my time, my effort, and my money to reach the point of what I personally deem to be financial success?
Um, one thing I think that keeps robbing me of this is, um, the, uh, the comparison that I make towards others, um, that are much further ahead and within, you know, my social circle, whether it be friends or family. Um, and it seems to be a vicious cycle of, uh,
Alexander, you're 33.
. You've already figured out that no matter where you are, there's somebody got a nicer car, a bigger house for the rest of your life.
Bill Gates even has that. As soon as Bill Gates thinks he's got something, he meets the Shah or the Saudi prince. He figures out he's got nothing, right? I mean, there's always somebody that's got you whooped in any of these things you compare to. So you, and you know that already.
A question for you, Alexander. Is this making you take some, some silly risks? Are you a little bit more risky? and thus you're, you're kind of, uh, reaping what you're sowing there because you're trying to catch up so quick, or are you afraid you're going?
to, or you're afraid?
Yeah. Well, that's what I'm trying to understand. what's happening.
Yeah. I think that's a good statement. there. I believe it's, I think I'm going to, um, I, I started two businesses just to tack on to my, uh, day job, so that I can kind of reach, um, this point of, uh, financial success and.
start, as you guys say, you know, having the fastest way to get rich quick is don't.
Yeah. Have you lost money on those ventures? or are they just, they fizzled out and they just didn't yield what you wanted to? What is it?
Yeah. They just haven't yielded what I wanted to yet.
What's that number?
Give us a number.
Yeah. So my, my day job, um, I make, uh, 94,600..
No, no, no, no. I'm asking you, I'm asking you, you started off the call. I'm not where I thought I'd be. What is the number that would have not made this call happen? 33..
I have this much net worth. Give us a number. I'm curious.
Yeah. My, the number I have in mind, it's, um, about 300,000.. I, I think that would, um, support the lifestyle of as much as experience.
Income?
Income or net worth? I'm, I'm asking the net worth question.
Ooh, that's a, that's a great question.
So you're not even there. Okay. This helps us. No, no, no. This helps, Dave, and I understand where your head's at.
You're what you're saying. I thought you were thinking net worth. You're going, I want to make 300 grand a year. And that's based on a lifestyle you've got in your mind. And I think you've, I think you're doing this the wrong way.
I would be looking at. not, I want to make 300,000 at 33.. I'd be looking at. what do I want my life to look like in 30 years from now? And I love the idea of hanging around really wealthy people who are 30 years ahead of me and learning what they did and paying attention to what worked for them.
And, like Dave said, this is a patient's play. This is, this is activity, but patience is also an activity. I get up and I bust it. I do what I have to do so that later I can do what I want to do. And, and so patience at 33 is really hard.
And, and so you've got to understand, that's an active thing, not a sit around and wait. I hustle, I plant, I tend to the crop, if you will, using the farmer analogy, and I wait for the harvest. And so, in your situation, I would be asking, where do I want to be 30 years from now? And then start to back into, okay, what steps do I need to take? And I think you'll find that that $300,000 number is the wrong goal.
Yeah.
Dave, have I said anything that you think is off?
So comparison is the thief of joy.
And the wealthy people that I've met, that have high quality lives and a built wealth, and I've met a bunch of thousands of them,
they really just don't measure themselves against other people at all. They're, they're only measuring themselves against themselves. Um, I started playing golf six years ago. I still suck, but I'm a lot better than I was six years ago, which is a low bar, but I'm a lot better than I was six years ago. But I have figured out with the people I've gotten the pleasure of playing with around, um, around the country, around the world, that I will never reach a point in that game where there is not a bazillion people that are better than me.
So I've got to just enjoy my day out in this beautiful green golf course with my friends and occasionally hit a good shot and I enjoy the shot. Um, but I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna make a living doing that. I'm not going to be that good at 63.. I don't think, I don't think it's going to happen, and I'm not, nor, nor is it the goal. So the secret to happiness there is not comparing myself to PGA players.
Um, that are half my age, or a third my age, for that matter. Um, uh, I, you know, I don't, I, it's not, so I'm, I'm not, it's not why I'm there. And so what is it that, what is it that's going to make you happy and fulfilled? Uh, and if you'll find that and go create a great income doing something that you're passionate about on the Ken Coleman spectrum, you're, you're going to be fine. Uh, the, the good news is, you're ambitious and I want you to keep that.
I do not want your ambition to tip over the edge into, uh, desperation.
Yes, that's exactly the word.
And if it tips over into desperation, that's when you're getting ready to sign up for. get rich, quick crap and lose your butt. That's right. And, uh, because you're chasing something too fast, you become the, the hair rather than the tortoise. And every time I read the book, the tortoise wins.
So you want to be the tortoise. and the tortoise really wasn't stopping and taking a poll. He wasn't asking his broke friends or his rich friends what he should do. He was just kept moving. He just kept moving.
He just kept moving. And of course we all know the story. The sops fable. He gets to the end of the race and wins while the hair is distracted and all over the place. And then at the end, is desperate to try to catch up.
Desperate. When people say I'm desperate to catch up, I'm too far behind. That's true. These are phrases that people say right before they lose a lot of money. That's right.
Stepping into manure up to their eyeballs. Um, cause some of the dumbest business deals I've ever done were ones I got in a hurry. I thought it was a one, I thought it was a silver bullet. I thought, if I get this, it's going to be the thing. It's going to be the breakthrough.
It's going to be the one.
And, and I, and I just walked straight into a mess and I've done it. I haven't done it lately. It's been a while since I've done that. But the dumbest stuff I've done is when I felt like there was scarcity. Like I had to rush.
Yep. Like I was desperate. Like I'm scared. Like I was behind. I had to catch up.
I'm scratching and I'm clawing, and that's when ambition flips over into desperation and you're getting ready to screw yourself then.
Well, when you put a number like $300,000 on being enough, you're going to find out when you get to 300,000.
. That has nothing to do with it. It's not even close. One of the things I'd love to give him, Dave, let's give him the Get Clear assessment with the new book, Find the Work You're Wired to Do. I think Alexander figured it out.
Give him Rachel's book he heard about too.
That's right.
Hey. Love Your Life, Not Theirs.
You win a book and you win a book. It's going to be great, Alexander. Go for it.
We're going to give you a lot to read. This is The Ramsey Show.
Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host. Veronica is in Tucson. Hi, Veronica. Welcome to The Ramsey Show.
Hello. Thanks for taking my question. Sure. What's up? I appreciate it.
So this is a question I've had for a few months now. It's been bugging me. It's not really that question for me, but rather someone else, if someone else is willing. I'm 37 and have a dog-based business with a lot of services. My husband and I got out of most debt, except for a credit card that we use for traveling.
It only has like $2,500 on it.
I'm wanting to know if seller financing is something that people want to do right now. I want to sell my business, but I know that right now a lot of people don't qualify for loans. And if seller financing is something I should advertise as an option for selling my business?
Probably not.
Okay.
Because you could end up with the business back, which defeats the point of selling it.
Like, if they don't pay. Okay. And when they don't pay, by the way, it's because they ran your business into the dirt.
Mm-hmm.
And so what used to be a thriving, going concern is now a mess with angry customers.
and lost customers and lost revenue. And now you're supposed to take it back over and rebuild it. It's just hard to find the energy to do that.
Oh, okay. Okay.
Now, if you're going to do it, there's a guy I used to do, you know, 40 years ago, did some real estate deals with a guy who used to buy mortgage notes. And he had a saying that applies to this situation. He said, if you're going to carry back a paper on a house you're selling, or a piece of land, you're selling same kind of thing, right?
Then he said, you want to do it where you're happy, happy. And I said, how does happy, happy work? He said, well, you get a huge down payment. And then you're happy if they don't pay, because you're getting that down payment in your pocket and your property back. So you're happy if they default.
Okay. And you get a huge interest rate. So you're happy if they pay.
So I'm happy if they pay and I'm happy if they don't pay. So you kind of got to structure it that way. To where they put so much down, and maybe you, I'll be crazy. What would your business sell for?
I got a quote for, not a quote, but rather someone came and evaluated everything and it would go for $350,000.
. Okay.
All right. So, you know, put $100,000 down and I'll take a quarter of a million dollar lien against your family farm. That's worth a million.
Okay.
Then I'll finance your business and hope you don't pay. Cause I get a million dollar farm in the foreclosure.
Follow me? Yeah. Sounds kind of brutal. All right. But the problem is, but the problem is, the problem is, if it goes bad and you're not in a position that feels like that, then you're the one that got screwed.
So you said you're in the doggie business. What do you do?
I have a self-serve dog wash, grooming, boarding, and daycare. And then we transport, we transport dogs cross country too.
So your passion for caring for animals properly and your love of animals, and, for that matter, even people that love animals, has caused you to build a customer base that trusts you and the processes that you have put in place. If someone comes in and violates that trust, they will destroy the value of this business and then you get to take it back.
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