Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Normal is broke and common sense is weird. That's why we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio, this is the Ramsey Show. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. 888-825-5225. I'm going to warn the audience. This is a good warning, but I got a little extra juice today.
So as a man of the people and alongside the most fly co-host a man could have, Jade Warshaw. What a high honor, Ken. You got the Lulu sweatsuit on in full effect. If you're not watching, you need to head over to YouTube because... I always say she's fabulous. And today you put the all caps fab in there. So you got the late eighties, early nineties track suit vibe. So you're ready.
I don't even have to ask. Are you ready? I thought I was. And then I walked in, I think I had a little extra juice now. So a little extra energy, and I'm excited about it because Noah starts us off in Detroit, the Motor City, the home of my mother, Barb. How about that? I love Detroit. Let's go, Noah. How can we help today? Hey, Ken. How are you doing? Well, you can tell. A little fired up today.
How can I help? I'm looking for some advice. I'm in my third year of college right now, going for a mechanical engineering degree, and... I'm wondering if it's time to maybe switch pads and go into the family business and stop pursuing mechanical engineering. Okay. Now, I'm going to get right to this. Is this a heart question, Noah, or is this a head question?
And let me explain before you answer. If it's a heart question... Not too long in the past, you started thinking about the business, the family. You want to be a part of the legacy. There's something pulling you in, and it's a positive emotion. Or if it's a head question, whatever. I got into college, pursued mechanical engineering. I don't think it's my jam. Not sure what I want to do, Jade.
I think I'll do a fallback because I know that the nest is warm. So with that being a probably too long setup, Noah, is this a head question or a heart question? So I think it's more of a head question, but I'd say I wouldn't be doing it as a fallback. It would be more of looking at it as a...
I've kind of thought of the business maybe as it would be a fallback, but I'm looking at my parents and they're doing really well from the business and doing well than I think I would be able to do as an engineer. and thinking that it could be an opportunity that I look past. All right. I appreciate the honesty. I really do. And I'm going to challenge this.
First of all, this is not a bad decision. Good head decisions work out. The reason I always delineate it that way, Jade knows this, is because what I don't want is for you to wake up 10, 12, 15 years from now And you're running the family business. And it's been great financially. Yeah. Come on, Ken. Get into it. You know where I'm going. I do know. And you're doing well.
You serve mom and dad well. They're proud of you. You got a good life. Dare I say great life on paper. But inside, your soul has slowly seeped out of your body over the last 15 years because you took a sound, a smart financial choice. That's why I always put it out that way. So, again, OK, if you go do it.
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Chapter 2: What should I consider before leaving college for a family business?
Okay. Um, so, but that's just starting out, but, um, I think starting out as a machinist, it would probably be similar pay. I think that the opportunity for that pay to increase is a lot bigger when you own your own business. Okay, so you were listening to Jade and I. I was preaching, she was amening. I appreciate that, by the way. How did you receive that? You're a young guy.
You're early 20s, or is that right? Yeah, I'm 20. All right, so what do you think in the long term? When I said that, did it register, and what was your head response? What was your heart response? My heart response was that I think no matter what I do, whether I did engineering or engineering Worked at the machine shop. I think that I would have to find that fulfillment outside of work.
Yeah, I had that sense. Let me ask this question.
Chapter 3: How do I determine if my decision is based on heart or head?
What if you let's pretend you get off this call and you're like, you know what, I'm going to work for the family business. You start working five years from now. You look up and you say, hey, this is just not hitting the way I thought. What would happen with the relationship dynamic? Let's play that out. If you were to go to mom and dad and say, you know what? I know I'm here.
I know you guys depend on me. I got to go my separate ways. How do you foresee that, something like that playing out? Would it mess up the relationship? Oh, no, I don't think so. I think if I... Without me stepping in and sort of trying to maybe become like the next generation, I think they would probably end up closing when they retired anyway. So I don't think it would strain the relationship.
All right, just for fun, okay? And just for fun, I mean this. What would you pick just as a big professional, if I told you that you would be successful at it? Right now, what would you do? Non-mechanical engineering, not running mom and dad's shop. What would you do? You like that? Yeah, I do. I do that on purpose. Take you to a happy place.
What would you try if you knew you couldn't fail and you knew you'd be successful at it and you knew you could change your mind? What would that be? Fill in the blank. Go. Instantly, I'd go be a cattle rancher. Oh, my God. Okay. I should have asked this question a lot sooner. All right. So we got about a minute. Here we go. Really quick answers.
What's keeping you from pursuing being a cattle rancher? I think the unknown. I don't know anyone who's done it. Great. You ready? I'm going to give you four questions. You got something to write with? Yeah. Here we go. Four questions you got to answer in the next week. And this will take away the fear of the unknown. Number one, what do I have to learn?
That's what's the qualification process to eventually become a cattle rancher? What do I need to do? What's the experience piece? The first one is the education question. What do I need to learn? Second is what I need to do. That's the experience piece. I've got to start out on the ranch, right? The whole nine yards. What do I got to do to get in? Third question is, what is it going to cost me?
What is that education and experience? The first two questions, what is it going to cost me? And then based on the cost, Noah, fourth question is the expectation question. How long will it take? So here we go. Quick review. A lot of people need this today. What do I need to learn? What do I need to do? How much will it cost? How long will it take? Jade, let me tell you something.
Those four questions. Take away the fear of the unknown and it helps you decide to move forward. Everywhere you turn this time of year, someone's telling you to swipe a card now and pay later. But that mindset always leads straight to debt and post-holiday stress. Fairwinds Credit Union takes a different approach. They're here to help you win with money. Fairwinds doesn't push credit cards.
They help you build savings and stay debt-free, just like we teach, with the baby steps. And to do that, Fairwinds created the Smart Bundle with Ramsey fans in mind. It's more than a bank account. It's a tool to help you live better. with intention.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of running a family business?
Because I knew at that point, you know how to prioritize and you know what's important to you and you go for that. So for me, I'm going to tell you, I'm like, figure it out. Do one car until you pay off this $13,000. It's not that much. What are you going to be making at this new job? So with this new job, we're going to be making $72,000 with this new one.
How quickly can you pay off $13,000 with you doing a new job, maybe picking up a little side hustle, maybe your wife doing a little something on the side as well? How quickly could you do that? Yeah, we'll probably do it pretty quickly in a couple months. Yeah, then you can save up cash and you can buy something in cash. And then, of course, you know how it works. You save up some cash.
Maybe you buy yourself a little beater, $5,000 or $7,000. And then the way this works, guys, when you buy cars that are that cheap, by the way, Ken, they're not losing a lot of value super fast. They're kind of worth what they're worth at that point. 100%. You know? Yeah. And then what happens is in a year, you save up a little bit more.
You put it with that cash and now you're driving a $10,000 car. And if it's a priority, you save a little bit more and you put another $3,000 before you know it, you're driving a $13,000 car. That's how this works. And if I'm going to be quite frank for the listening audience, Ken, when I first started listening to Dave Ramsey back in 2005, 2007, when I heard him say the idea of
stopping with the car payments and paying cash for cars. That was probably one of two things that he used to teach that really, I wondered if the guy was all there. I was like, is what he's saying true? I had a hard time wrapping my brain around it because you don't hear that every day. Over 40% of Americans have car payments. There's part of that that it's like, wait, what are you saying?
Have a one-car family pay off my car and then pay cash for the other one? Jaden, Ken, are you smoking something? No, we're not. No. Well, in this case, first of all, I love the advice. I was going to go that direction. I think in this case, because of the public transportation, because they have such little debt – I love the idea of a young couple going in there, learning how to adapt.
And I think the hour train ride both ways, I would use that as a little bit of penance to kind of keep me motivated to get the 13 knocked out to then save up for something. And I would use that to learn. I'd use that to journal. I would really use that time and learn the art. I think it's an art form to learn the mental and emotional art of patience. Yes.
And I think that's what I love so much about you and Sam and your story is that you figured it out. And it reminds me of the old phrase. This is for the entire audience, whether your situation is different, but you're trying to get out of debt, trying to pay for a car, to save up, to make life a little bit more convenient. Here's the takeaway. Where there is a will, you know how it goes.
There's a way. And I think that that is grandma wisdom. I think it's right. I think you and Sam proved it. Yes, but let's be honest with the people and tell them it's very easy to sit from our positions and say that, but for the person who's receiving that, it's emotional.
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Chapter 5: What are the key issues affecting affordable housing, student loans, and healthcare?
Both parties are on the hook. And we the people are on the hook to say, wait a second. Let's take these three issues alone, affordable housing, the student loans and the tuition crisis, and healthcare costs, and let's do something about it. And we've got to make our voices heard.
I'm not talking about violence, but I am talking about the one thing that these politicians care most about is their preservation, Jade. They just want to keep getting reelected.
Chapter 6: How can we make our voices heard on political issues?
They just want to get voted in. So at some point, this is coming to a head. And I don't want our audience to get sucked into what the Mom Donnie election means and what millennials flirting or liking socialism means. Don't get fearful. Get active. Because I can tell you this, if anything unites the American people, it would be those three issues. Yeah, we can all agree that it's outlandish.
That's a big tent. I think we could all say, how many in this giant audience think that housing affordability should be lower?
Chapter 7: What steps can I take to overcome a spending addiction?
Everybody's raising their hands. How many in this audience think that health care should be more affordable and better coverage? That's everybody in this audience. How many people think that the rising tuition in America is out of control and the student loan thing is a crisis and we should get out of the student loan business?
How many think that maybe these universities should raise their own freaking dollars? Oh, Oregon. Use what's already in those giant endowments and pay for bright young students to get educated. Every hand in the audience goes up. I'm not running for anything. I'm just pointing out that what could break our great nation is this affordability issue, and it's solvable.
And I will say to our large audience, Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, Conservative, Liberal, we probably should unite on these issues and say, let's make our public servants do better on policy, Jade. to make these things better. And I bet you we'd have a far greater union, a far less stressed country, a far less pissed off electorate. I just I'm throwing it out there.
Ladies and gentlemen, Ken freaking Coleman on the topic.
Chapter 8: How can I effectively manage my finances while dealing with trauma?
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Homebuyer Edge and Seller Guarantee are available for qualifying borrowers and select loan types only and not available in all states or locations. NMLS ID 1591. NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Eagle Housing Lender. All right, this is fun. We're going to go to a video call from Breanne. I hope I'm saying that right, in Portland, Oregon. Breanne, hi, how are you? Hi, guys. Thanks for having me on.
Oh, we're thrilled to have you on. You look fabulous, by the way. So fun. Love the video call. What's going on? How can we help today? I have a spending addiction that I just can't seem to get over. I've been trying to follow the baby steps, but it's really hard for me. So I'm just kind of looking for your advice on that. Tell us a little bit more. What is this?
What can you or what do you feel comfortable telling us about this particular addiction? Is it just across the board spending or is it one or two categories or one thing? What is it? Yeah, so it's. Fast food because I have such a busy schedule that I don't plan for making dinner. So I spend money on fast food. I spend a lot of money on my daughter. I spend money on other people.
And then like at the bottom of the list is splurging on my own stuff. Okay. And what give us an idea? Have you been tracking how much you're spending in all these categories on a monthly basis? Yeah, I use every dollar. So it's probably about $1,000 to $1,200 a month. Wow. And what's your total income for a month? It's about, oh, for a month, it's probably $4,800.
Oh, so ma'am, you don't have the margin to be splurging like this. Right. No. I mean, that's like if you do have a $2,000 a month, that's half your income. Yeah. Do you have debt as well? I do. I have a total of probably $90,000 in debt. Whoa. Okay. You know we're going to break this down. Give us the list, smallest to largest. Yeah. My medical debt is a little over $4,000. Credit cards, $9,100.
And then personal loans, $51,600. And my student loans are $20,000. Who are these personal loans to? So before I found you guys, I had a debt consolidation loan. And then we got pipes on our house back when I was with my ex. And we're still paying that off. And then a car. So if I shoot straight with you, I mean, I'm wondering if I already heard it when you were talking about your ex.
What do you think is behind this? Because there's always something behind it. It's trauma. Definitely trauma. And I'm trying to work through that, but I'm trying to figure out how to stop this overspending while I'm working on my trauma history. Are you, when you say working on the trauma history, you seeing a professional? I am, yeah. Great. And you feel like you're making progress?
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