Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from a car rental studio. This is the Dave Ramsey Show and it's where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life. Your money, your work, whatever you want to talk about, because all those things are all kind of tied together.

I'm Kurt Coleman, host of the Ken Coleman Show on the Ramsey Solutions Network, joined by my colleague Chris Hogan, who's also the Chris Hogan Show, also part of the Ramsey Solutions Network. And we are here for you. Triple eight eight to five five two two five is the phone number to jump in Tripoli, eight two five five two two five. And Chris, I know that any time we get a chance to do this with Dave or together, you know, we walk away going beats working for a living.

Oh, my gosh. I mean, to get a chance to reach out and help people. I mean, this is I mean, Coleman, you talk about all the time the sweet spot and dream jobs. I mean, I'm living it.

Yeah, we're both there. Yeah. And so what a perfect call to start off this hour with. I mean, these are the kind of fun questions here. Chris is in the tri cities area of our great state of Tennessee. Chris, how can we help?

Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call. You. I've got a good problem, I guess you'd say, to have. I live on a pretty, pretty regular budget for years. And at the end of the month, I'm usually got anywhere from five hundred to twelve hundred dollars extra money after expenses, after bills, spend the money dancing, everything. All right. And my question is what I've been doing. I just got into investing right about the start of the pandemic last March, to be honest, I opened up a well beats robo advisory account just to toy with it, to start with, see how it worked.

Mm hmm. Just a little bit of my savings in it, like three thousand dollars. And since I've been adding to it and my question is what I've been doing is putting about a 30 each month a third of what I have to say in that account and the rest just in my regular savings account. And I'm not sure if I should be putting more being more aggressive in putting more in the investment account or if that's a good formula that I should just stick with what what I'm doing now, you know, put more in my savings account, less an investment account.

OK, so answer this one for my friend.

How much is your your household income per month? Are clear, are clear about four thousand dollars a month. OK, all right, it's just me saying single thing. OK, it's all right. I have I have very little debt.

All right. What debt do you have left?

I have a small mortgage on my condo, like four hundred fifty dollars a month. OK, I have a new car payment, only first and only new car I've ever bought my last. But I felt like I was in a position. I can do it. How much you owe? How much do you own that car?

I still I mean, I just thought it last year, so I still, you know, I'm making payments on it. It's just I guess. Yeah, if I turned down OK. All right. What else? And I have a student loan payment of about two hundred dollars a month. All right.

And you owe how much on the student loan? I just started those about a year or two ago also. OK, 5000 on those. All right.

Well, Chris, here's why I'm saying this. What we have found is when you try to do six or seven things at the same time, you end up being ineffective in all of them. And so what we have figured out is when you zero in and you focus on something, you can make some stuff happen. So I love that you budget number one. That means you're very intentional with your money. You said you have anywhere between five hundred and twelve hundred left over per month.

Here's what I want you to invest in your financial future. And what I mean by that is instead of you investing right now, I would rather you pause that and turn your attention to the threat that's in your life and that's the debt you have. OK, I would tell you to get intentional, like the car payment. How much is that payment per month?

Four hundred dollars. So four hundred. And you got about how much going to the student loans. Two hundred, all right. So I would tell you to take that five hundred to twelve hundred that you have extra and target the debt, you have ADNOC knock out the you said the student loan. You owe about twenty five thousand on. Yes. And then about 30 on the car. I would attack every I take the minimum payment on the car, every other free don brother I'm going to send toward that student loan debt.

Knock that out of your life. That's going to free up two hundred dollars. Now take all the extra, pay it toward the car. You'll have the student loan debt out of your life. You have the car paid off. Then what I would tell you to do is once that's out of your life, I want you to build up a serious emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. Once you have that done now, you can start to invest.

Here's the best tool. Go with 15 percent of your household income from an investing standpoint, OK? You'll have the debt out of your life. You're going to have a pile of money as a cushion for you. Then the only thing you're going to own is your condo or your townhouse, and then you're investing 15 percent. You're going to be in an outstanding position, young man.

Yeah, well, I thought you were very nice about the car.

Well, I mean, it's done. What's done is done now. Could I tell him if you're getting intentional and if he was telling me things were tight, could I tell him to sell it? If he wants to sell intention, he could slap a for sale sign on that thing, got his life and go find a Datsun to A.D.s. Oh I love those nineteen eighty four.

Those are, those are vintage. And by the way, vintage is back. Well if vintage is back hold on because I want your bottle. But, but when you get serious about getting out of debt and especially from a man Chris, what I think is you start to see that student loan debt get out of your life, then you go, wait a minute, unflatteringly holding on to this car loan. Yeah, I could sell this car, go find a beater car and then remove that four hundred fifty dollar obligation.

That's what happens in phase two of people getting intense. Yeah.

And with a car that's that new that's worth a decent amount of money, you can get it moved. He can move that and you can actually pay cash for something out.

OK, so tips on how to sell a car because I know some people out there. Good. Did some silly go to KB Dotcom, figure out how much you could sell it for. Right. You want to see that dollar amount, contact the bank or the company you have to loan through, get your 30 day payoff on that loan. So you look at what it's worth, look at the 30 day payoff, then you can try to price this thing and get it get it sold.

You want to be proactive, use online things to sell your cars. People will look people will travel to come by your car. So you want to get it out there, take some good pictures of it, get it all detailed, shined up, looking good, take pictures, get those things posted. You can use all kinds of things online, Craigslist, Facebook, marketplace, all these things. But be proactive because there are people out there with cash that'll buy it.

That's exactly right.

By the way, when you take those pictures, make sure that you don't post a picture with your license plate on there. You know, there's a little thing there. You got to be careful these days. Oh, good to know you. Just little a little little marker or whatever you want to do. Or I've seen people literally take a picture of the back of the vehicle and they got their finger in the picture. Yes. Kind of creative it is.

Here's the other thing. You know what's even more important tip when you sell it, take your license plate off of it. Yeah, right. Of course, because I've heard some horror stories of people that forgot to do that. The person continues to drive it. If they get a ticket or something, they can come after you.

Yeah, Chris, I got to tell you, brother, I think you a guy who live below your means, you knock this dead out and you're a guy that can knock it out quickly. You can always go back and get the really nice car. But but, man, to your point, getting the risk out of your life, it's just so important. Get it out. Right. It's like crazy. You don't there's three things you don't want in your life.

Can I tell you this? Can we go to break? Come and do it fast. I like you don't want crazy in your life. You don't want drama in your life. No. And you don't want your life to lead them all three crazy drama debt buy. I'll tell you what you do want more of in your life. That's this great conversation. Me and you're more coalman a little more Hoggett. Yes, a little more of the Dave Ramsey Show.

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Duggie Budget.

Today, Ramsey Show continues on Ken Coleman. He is Chris Hogan, and we are here for you. Eight to five, five two two five. You got a question? We'll dive into it. We're not scared. No, no. Hope is on the other end of the line. Triple eight eight two five five two two five. How many of you out there are miserable in your work but you think you can't change jobs because you're trying to get out of debt?

I got news for you. Call me Chris. I'll talk you through it. You can stay on the baby steps, continue to get out of debt, moving towards financial peace and still change jobs. In fact, for many of you, you need to change jobs. You make more money and make that shovel bigger and get out of debt faster. I want to remind folks that every time I have ever either facilitated a debt free scream when we're cohosting one day or we're hosting together, or I've sat there and watched screams, debt free screams every time their income has gone up.

Have you noticed that when Dave always, you know, we walk that way, OK, how much we make it to the start of the journey? Yeah. How much are you making now? And there's always a sizable oh, we could see significant income increase. And you and I both know why. And it's a it's a function of focus.

It really is. You start looking and you start calling and trying to get yourself out of debt. You'll start thinking differently, you'll start perceiving things differently and you're open to try. And it's amazing when you start to get certain areas of your life in order things happen. Now, hear me. Just because you make more doesn't mean you're going to do more get more progress here. You need a system. Yeah. And speaking of system, if you never feel like you can never save enough or you can't pay off all your debt after year like twenty twenty, most of America feels the exact same way.

But the money shouldn't be the one thing you have to worry about. That's why in twenty twenty one we are hitting reset. That's right. Because no matter what's happening in the world, you can't control your money. You just need the plan. Like I was talking about earlier, Ramzi Plus's our step by step plan that helps you get quick wins so you can make real progress real fast, because once you get all your debt paid off, guess what?

Your money gets to stay with you in your bank account. That means you can finally start spending and saving your money without worry and get the security that you need right now. So here's our challenge to you. Decide on a total money reset this year, then start Ramsey. Plus, real simple, commit to working hard in the first 90 days and watch those small daily winds turn into lifelong habits. Then you'll never feel out of control with your money again.

So here's what you do to start your Ramsey plus for free. And it is free. People go to Dave Ramsey dot com reset again. That's Dave Ramsey, dot com slash reset and you can get on a plane today. Don't think you can't because you can. You just need to try. It's time to go make the move. You'll never regret it. Triple eight eight two five five two two five. Let's go to Athens, Georgia, where Derrick joins us.

Derrick, how cold.

Hey, how are you doing? We are living the dream. What's going on? Here, I got a quick question kind of from my wife. She's about to know that she got about two to 20 K saved up. She's thirty eight. She'll be retiring in two years. We're having our first baby. So before you know she won't be working, she'll be spending all day full time on that kind of deal. By that time, she'll have four fifty five hundred saved up.

Like I say, we have no debt. So my question is I'll start to get a little older and I'm wondering with her mother and her income and everything. So I've saved up at that point. What I do is that you have to where to put that money safely, you know, in case something happens to me. First of all, I don't I don't really believe in the stock market and all that stuff, just kind of whatever ideas you got out of the box as far as that goes before you dive into that.

He's saying something very interesting. I've picked up on it, Derek. I just need a little bit more light shed on the situation. You keep calling it her money. Her money.

Money. Well, what do you mean? Where's the our money part? I'm a little confused. Why are you calling it her money? So we have separate we don't miss our money. Why? Well, to be brutally honest, when we met, I had a lot more than her and I still do, and I don't want her to feel that that's she's dependent on that. I'll tell her, you know, I'll help you make yours and yours resource.

Obviously, you know, I pay for everything.

I just didn't have that, you know.

So, Derek, how long have you been married? We've been together almost six years, been married about two, OK, and you all have kids now that the first lady of Florida. OK, first babies on the way. All right. So, well, two years. Yes. OK. All right.

Well, here's the deal. Go ahead, Coleman. I feel you twitching over here. Go well.

No, no, no, no, I'm not. Listen, we're not I'm not going to beat up on you. But but but we believe that that it's your money that both of you as a unified couple should have a unified bank account. And I'm not I'm not here to attack, you know, your reasoning behind that. But, you know, I never want her to feel like she was dependent on me. Well, I think you've made your point.

I think she's done a good job. But I think it's time for we I mean, Chris, you're the one that always says we need to speak speak French, French, speak French.

We work. I've never been to France, but I know how to speak it. And it's we speak, don't we? Don't say me speak weak. Here's why I say this. You obviously care about this lady. She's getting ready to be the mother of your kids and that mindset of you working hard and your work ethic and your diligence, you want to kind of pull that together and have that full on mental process of you guys working together as a team.

And I can tell by the sound of your voice, you grew up playing sports, didn't you? Oh, yeah. What was your favorite sport? Football, not a big golfer, but football. When I was able to see what side of the ball do you play, offense or defense? Oh, I defer.

Well, it's much simpler to tackle the man with the ball.

I hear your brother were cut from the same cloth. He likes running to score. I love hitting people. Yeah, but here's the thing. I want you to tackle this life stuff together with her. And I think working together on your finances and, you know, it sounds like you may have been burned at some point in time or had something happen financially and working together as a team. You're going to get to where you want to go a lot faster now.

Real quick, I want to shift on that. And you guys may need to do some marriage counseling on this, you know, before you have a kid so you can find out what is that thing that's blocking you. And marriage counseling is not a bad thing or therapy is not a negative. It's a help. It's a fine tuner. But you said something else I want to hit on. You said you don't believe in the stock market. Yeah, why?

Well, I'll tell you just real quick, when I retired, I thought to my stock market buddy and he said, why don't you go in there and ask the guy what he's worth and you tell him, what's your work and what sense does it make to give a guy worth 100000 hundred thousand dollars, a million dollars?

No, I agree. I agree. And so it's not about the market. That's about an individual.

So which is not understand. But I'm a physical asset just like me. I know if I put forward a thousand dollars in a property, that property is their property value is going to go up. Nothing's going to happen to it. But if I give anybody money, well, it's going to be by 9:00 tonight. It may be in Japan at the bottom line. I don't trust other people with my money.

OK, now that's where we are. And that's a real that's a real thing. That's real. And I would also have got to ask you, Derek, do you I mean this do you trust your wife 100 percent?

OK, listen, I understand the question. All right. Listen to me.

But because I think you're a guy who doesn't give trust easily, and I don't think that's a negative, my man. You're a man of principle for years to get it. Yes, sir, I get it.

But listen to me, brother. The amount of money that she's got, the amount of the money that you guys got, if you put it together and you do a Chris, Chris, take over these mutual funds and you're a smart investor, my man.

Listen to me. You got to loosen up a little bit. You're going to thank us for it.

Well, and the reason I'm asking you about that is I think, you know, it is a matter of working with an individual that's going to help you grow that money. You can be a fiscal asset. God, you can. But you and I both know a physical asset is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Right. You can have a property and you can say, hey, I'm going to list this thing for sale at four fifty.

If it's in a terrible area, it's about property. It's not going to sell. So you in the mindset of diversification, I'd like the mindset of you. Obviously, if you're going to buy real estate, my thought is you only want to do it with cash. First and foremost, you don't want you taking on mortgages and all that other stuff. You're going to invest. You do it with cash. The other side of it is diversify yourself, Derek.

Let's put some of that money in some growth stock mutual funds. I'm not talking about buying Bitcoin and crypto Grupp tree, all that old crazy stuff. No, put it in a growth stock. Mutual funds. This way, this money is going to work for you. I know you work hard to make this money, make your money work. Do me a favor. Get in connection with the smart Vesterbro, have a conversation, lay out your dreams and goals and let's see what they can do for you.

Interview them.

How much are they managing? They'll look at their personal salary. What have they done. Make them show you the scoreboard. Your scoreboard guy. I like that man you got to learn to trust but do homework, trust and verify. Hey, don't move. More of your calls coming up. This is the day show. The Dave Ramsey Show continues, I've kept Coleman Rave's personality, host of Ken Coleman show on the Ramsey network, joined by fellow Ramsey personality Chris Hogan and host of The Chris Hogan Show, a part of the Ramsey network as well.

Hey, you need to find out yourself why Blind's Dotcom is the number one online retailer of custom window covering. You get free samples, free shipping and what the new promos they run every month. You'll save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. Rules and restrictions apply. OK, so today's question comes from John in Kentucky. He says, My wife and I are debt free and work for a non-profit. We are paid a base salary of about thirty thousand and have a 401k with our company.

We are reimbursed for housing and transportation roughly around 20000. Should we be putting 15 percent of our base pay the 30000 into the 401k or 15 percent of the total? The 50000.

So, OK, great question, John. Here's the reality. The 20000 that you guys are getting in the transportation and housing is income that's going to count as income. So what you want to do is invest 15 percent on that total dollar amount of the 50000, the 30000 in tbsp plus the 20000 and the transportation and housing reimbursement to 15000 up the excuse me, 15 percent of your household income is what you guys want to be saving for retirement. Now, listen, a lot of people out there have questions on retirement, questions on investing.

Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go to Chris 360 dot com. You can click on the dream team button. And once you hit that button, you can locate a smart Vesterbro that's in your area. I want you to interview them, find somebody you trust that you believe in, and they can help you. They can review your 401k. They can take a look, you can get an endorsement provide to help you with your insurance.

You can get a tax LP to help you with taxes because tax season is coming up. The goal is don't go it alone. You definitely want to get a professional in your corner.

Eight eight two five five two two five eight eight five five two to five. With a few phone lines still open, you can get in. Let's go to Jimmy in Anchorage, Alaska. Jimmy, how can we help?

Hey, guys, long time listener, first time caller. Right. I super appreciate you guys. I just love you. I hate that. And I teach it to all my employees.

It's all good for you. Yes. How can we help at a young age? So young age? My dad's company was going under. He was making about eight hundred a thousand dollars a month with expenses going through the roof. And then he let me take over and work for him every day and together. Well, with mostly me, I and most of my decisions, I grew the company into making anywhere from one hundred and fifty to to eighty thousand a month.

Wow. Oh. Every month, time and time again. And with that I was about fourteen I. We grew that company and we just completed a 30 plex and get free. And now we're at a point where my dad, who has been promised me the company for the last 18 years doing this. And we're at a point where I bought the property across the street from the 30 plex just because I thought there might be an issue. And personally and I have about one hundred seventy five thousand dead on it.

I'm doing a biweekly payments, 15 year loan. Can't stress enough to anybody listening. It's amazing. But we're at a fork on the road where my dad is got promised me the companies all these years. And for the first time I can say you keep promising it. But if you want my signature to complete the 30 Bolex because we ran into a problem building the 30 plex and he made to take over my property across the street, I'm asking him to put me on the deed of the property because this property is in his personal name, not in the corporation's name.

And I'm also not on the corporation itself because he has a problem with greed, unfortunately. Hmm. So I'm I'm kind of. Yeah, I'm I'm at a point where do I walk away? Or do I give him the signature and then walk away, or do I just keep hoping and delaying the 30 plus on until because this is the first delay? If I don't sign by by Monday, which is a delay of 30 days, which is thirty thousand dollars a month potentially.

But yeah, I'm just I'm to be honest, we did do this over the years. However, most of my purchases are twenty five to thirty thousand dollars. And I do put it on credit cards, but I do have a credit card account. I can pay off the limit of the credit card every single month and I replenish that every time I pay off the credit card. And I because of my industry, I have 18 months of savings in the corporation because he has we work in tourism every year.

You never know if you're going to have a major problem. And my banker told me 12 years ago saying if you if you if there's no fish in the water, you can't make any money. And same with tourism if there's no one coming to allow.

Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, we got a lot of details here, but let me get really nervous. No, you're doing great. Listen, we're trying to help you. We've got limited time. So I want to ask you a question.

Yep. You give us I think I heard three scenarios in there, a lot of details around this. What do you think you want to do before Christiani? Weigh in. Before you called, you were leaning a direction. There's nobody that I've met like you who doesn't have an idea what they want to do. And you want Xanthi to weigh in on that option. I want to know where your guts out, because there's some tension between you and your dad.

And one of those options I could tell you should be off the table. And that is delaying this thing because he's waiting for a signature. It's going to create more tension if I'm understanding this. Well, what are you leaning towards doing before you call?

Yeah, I don't want to walk away. I mean, I sunk eighteen years since I was 14. I don't want to be.

I didn't think so either. So what do you really want? If you could wave a pencil, a magic pencil in the air and solve this thing, what would you want to be the conclusion.

All I want is beyond the deal, I have guaranteed to have no or no more or am I going to am I going to get those things I was promised or not? All I want is the promise. And I've had this discussion and it did not end well. We had a session with other people, with the family members, the trust and CPAs, the lawyers, everything. And he just like he has an it yet. OK, so that was just like that was my next question.

I know what you want, but you've already floated this and dad say no. So now we got ourselves a game of chicken.

Mm hmm. Yeah, you really do. And Jimmy, you know, as you look at this, one of the things I really want to caution you on is, you know, any time you makes money and family, things can get tense. You. Yeah, without a shadow of a doubt. From what you've told me and told us, you've got a lot of sweat equity into this thing. You have grown it. You have approached it like it was your own business.

And with the mindset of the promise that you were told. The thing that I realized is that if it's not in writing, it's not real. And I think, you know, for you, I want to encourage you to do a couple of things, is to try to remove as much emotion from it as you can initially looking at the business side, but also thinking about, hey, what is your out? Because what you don't want to do is fill like a hostage.

Right. You want to. And so what do you think your dad's hangup is if he's saying you haven't earned it? You said he's greedy. Is he greedy or is he meti does he not do well with money? So he's got to have this.

Yeah, he does he the running joke is, don't tell me when he makes a purchase, it's a running joke on the company because I can cover it. It's just it just annoys me when he doesn't make a planned, calculated decision. What happens, love? I respect money.

Hey, Jimmy, we got to answer this quick. What happens if you you play poker on this and you don't sign or you don't do the deal with him because he won't sign your name on the deed? Was this how is this going to affect the company? It eventually will go under. He does he doesn't even know how to do anything in the company. He's been retired for eight years, but he has met and retired. OK, so here he goes.

Here's why I ask that question. You got to understand the stakes.

You don't want to walk away, but you also don't want to do this deal without your name being on the deed. But you got to decide if if my dad doubles down and he has no idea how bad things could get.

What you just said, you could unintentionally submarine sabotage the very thing that you want to keep. This may be one of those where you punt and figure out which battles worth fighting right now. This is not an easy answer. No, it's not. It it's not because you got family involved in the other team members involved. But I'm going to tell you, I'm going to encourage you to meet up with your pastor and get connected so you can get some guidance.

Think big picture the right decision. But this is the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hope is on the other end of a phone call, this is the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague Chris Hogan. As we take your calls about your life, your work, your money, you need a bigger shovel. All right. I'll talk to you about that. I'll teach you how to get promoted. You need some financial peace. What we're going to tackle those topics as well. As a matter of fact, Chris, we went to break and very, very complex call.

Yet we really we just had with a young man. And you weren't done with that. You got a little something else you wanted to say. Yeah, we were talking to Jim in Anchorage, and he's got a he's in the family business. He and his dad are pushing back and forth right now. Jimmy wants it to be and writing that he is going to inherit and be able to take over the business as they get ready to do a deal right now that needs a signature.

And what I was telling Jimmy and we were guiding him, this is a complex situation. You've got the young buck, the son and the old buck right now are butting heads, kind of fighting over territory. And I think the more important thing for for everybody in that situation to remember is you also have team members that are working for the company and you got customers that you serve. And there's a mama involved in the middle of this as well, and probably other family members.

And so I think it's imperative that you all reach out, get connected with your pastor to begin to sit down and talk about the true things that are going on and then begin, Jimmy, to talk about, hey, what's the long range plan? What's the what's going to happen in the next year to two years? And to talk about what happens if something happens to your dad, is this something you would inherit and have that? And I think it's just you need some communication right now.

You guys are butting heads. And I don't want you to do make an emotional decision that's going to have a ripple effect inside that family for many years to come. So I just want everyone to take a deep breath, get connected with your pastor, get connected with somebody that you all trust, a mentor, somebody, and sit down and have a conversation as a group.

Yeah, I'm glad you brought this up. You know, the thing that I would share with our audience, because I think there are other people that are listening today that are in some type of a family struggle. There's there's money involved, whatever it is. And this would be the advice that young man believe deeply in what he had done to build the company. He he believes deeply in the company itself and wants to run it, wants to own it.

But, you know, I wish I had had this thought when he was on the line, but I would have said, listen to me, don't lose the war over the battle.

And you've got to sometimes go, what happens if I dig in and I make my stand right here right now?

Now, there are times where you take the stand. That's right. There is no turning back. That's right. But as I asked him the question right before we went to the break, I said, what happens if you and Dad don't figure this out? And this thing turns into a stalemate? He goes the company probably goes under. And that's a situation where that's the last thing he wants is the last thing dad wants. And so I would just tell you all that when you're in these tough emotional struggles, sometimes what people think about the war, step back a little bit and go, what's the big picture?

And there are times where we've got to retreat and technically, maybe we lose the battle or the battle is forfeited or it is a tie. Use whatever analogy you want to use there. Be very, very careful about sometimes digging in and taking a moral relationship loss. Yeah.

And if there's other baggage and I know there is because it's called family, but, you know, if there are other issues that are left unresolved or other things that are adding to this, you don't want that to add fuel to this now flame that it has other people's lives at stake. That's right. So you got to be intentional and I'll be praying for you. Like I said, get someone in so that can mediate and talk with you guys, can talk with each other with the emotions dial down.

All right.

Let's go to Richmond, Virginia, where Debi joins us. Debbie, how can we help?

Hi, thanks so much for taking my call. You say. You bet. What's going on? I mean, I'm calling about a question about college money. I have three kids. One of them is in college and was cash flying and using his savings we had for him. The second one is a senior. And his funds and his education, I think did really, really well last year. And I'm a little nervous about keeping it in an aggressive fund.

So my question is, should I move it like money market or. Something like, you know, should I move it? OK, you said it did well, how much is in there, Debbie? About 40 something thousand.

OK, if you were to move that 40 to something much more conservative, is that going to be enough to get the sick child number two through college? Yeah, OK, now, and that's the reason I ask that is because right now what it's doing is you've got it invested in the way that it's gaining some growth. So if you're looking to gear that down or shift it, I like that idea a lot better than just moving it out altogether.

Now, base investing is based on risk tolerance, time and your goal. And so if you all have hit the goal, though, what I would do is connect with your investment professional to try to talk about, hey, now we want to go more in preservation mode. We're wanting to preserve what we've grown because we've got what we need. But the beauty with the FSA is that if you don't use it, all right, if it continues to grow and you don't use it all, you can move that to child number three.

So you've got options. You know, I just think the big thing is, is being aware. A lot of people are asking me a lot of questions. They're calling into my show, the Chris Hogan Show, asking me about the stock market and what's going to happen at this and now that the election is over and this and this. And I'm like, listen, this stock market is a living, breathing thing, right? If someone hiccups, it responds.

But the reality is it's a roller coaster ride. It's going to go up. It's going to go down. Look at what happened. Pre pandemic, right. We were sailing high. We get into March and all of a sudden now we had a dress that get incredible drop. But as we hit in September and October, it was back up and then it was higher than it was back in February. So that shows the resiliency of the market that it is real.

But the most important thing is understanding. It's going to be that ride. How much of a ride are you looking to take? We have to grow money, Ken, because this thing called inflation is real. It is absolute cost of living is going up. So if inflation is hovering between two and three percent or higher and you've got your money slapped over into a savings account, getting a quarter percent, your money is shrinking. That's what we mean by shrinking money.

You don't want that. You want your money to grow. So we have to invest it the right way.

Writes in on Facebook, Chris and I get this question a lot, and this is fun. I want you to hear this, Ken. I'm 42 years old. I've worked hard to become debt free. I don't like my job, but I feel really stupid for trying to start a career at my age. My kids are in high school and their college is funded. My house is paid off. You see how ridiculous this is getting?

Yes, but I love my guy. Seth, tell me what to do. I want to love my life, but I can't while I'm stuck in the job I'm in.

Hey, Seth, you're desperate for permission.

I'm giving it to you, brother. You have worked hard. You're only forty two. How about we say you're forty two years young? No. One. No. Two, you're financially in great shape.

You don't have to make a risky move here. We tell you what's going on. This is a Facebook question. So I don't have the luxury of going back and forth, I think, but really diving into the fear here.

And here's the fear. The fear is, is that he loses all of his financial worth, that he fails miserably if he tries to do something different at forty two. Wait a second. Wait a second. That's the wrong narrative. The narrative should be I'm forty two. I'm in great financial shape. What is it that I really want to do? And just let's start with that. Here's the answer thing. Once we get that answer, then we go, what is it going to take for me to get qualified to do that?

There's the experience question and the education question. What do I need to learn?

Certification, some new degree in some cases, and how much is it going to cost me?

How long is it going to take the experience question, the education question, the economic question and the expectation question? Once you get the answer to those questions, we've got ourselves a plan. Yeah, but absent of the knowledge of those answers, those four questions, Chris, it's scary. And he goes, I feel really stupid. The other thing is, is pride going on there because he doesn't want anybody to go. You got a really nice job guarantee.

He's got a nice job. He's got a good job, and he doesn't want any of his friends and family to go, what do you do? And leave in that the golden handcuffs. And that's pride.

We're worried about what other people think. So therein lies the issue. Seth, call the Ken Coleman show. Let's dive deep on this. We'll get to it. Hey, I want to thank my colleague Chris Hogan for hanging out with me. I want to thank our producer, James Söder, associate producer Kelley Daniel.

And most of all, we want to thank you, America, for hanging out with us and having these all important conversations. Remember, this is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to be your debt free scream live on the show, make sure you visit Dave Ramsey, dot com slash show register. We would love for you to come to Nashville, tell Dave your story.

Hey, if you've got questions about retirement investing and becoming an everyday millionaire, go bigger and broader with my man Chris Hogan on the Chris Hogan Show. I am excited to be able to talk to you all week in and week out. We're going to focus on your calls and it's going to focus on building wealth investing and how to become an everyday millionaire. Subscribe to the Chris Hogan Show wherever you listen to podcast.

Hey, it's James, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but check the episode notes for links to products and services you've heard about during this episode. Thanks for listening.