Your Goals Need Numbers, Not Wishes

**Dave Ramsey** (0:04)
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Normal is broken, common sense is weird, so we're here to help you transform your life from the Ramsey Network, send the credit, FAIRWINDS Credit Union Studio. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruze, Ramsey Personality, number one best selling author, co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour on the Ramsey Network, and my daughter is my co-host today. Ryan is with us in Chicago.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:41)
So my question is, can I save more than $1,000 before baby step two?

**Rachel Cruze** (0:51)
What's the purpose of something happening? Is there going to be a job change?

**SPEAKER_4** (0:56)
Are you guys expecting a baby?

**Rachel Cruze** (0:58)
What's the reason?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:59)
So no problem. So I'm 34 years old, no mortgage, no kids, no personal loans. I did just transfer to another location, same job, to move towards my family.
So I have about, I'm just thinking about, do I pay off debt before, you know, saving or try to do-

**SPEAKER_5** (1:23)
I'm misunderstood.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:24)
You said you had no personal loans.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:27)
No, I meant, I'm sorry, like actually from a lender, but I do have two personal loans, student and car, my apologies.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:34)
Oh, okay. How much in student loans?

**Dave Ramsey** (1:35)
Those are personal loans, okay.

**Dr. John Delony** (1:36)
How much in student loan debt is it?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:39)
23,000.

**Rachel Cruze** (1:40)
Okay.

**SPEAKER_7** (1:41)
How much on the car?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:43)
23,000.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:44)
Both?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:46)
Yes, each.

**Dave Ramsey** (1:47)
23,000 each, okay. And what do you make?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:51)
Take home is 2,800 a month.

**Rachel Cruze** (1:53)
Okay. And you already made the move, so you're settled or you're about to?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:01)
I'm about to in about two weeks.

**Rachel Cruze** (2:03)
Okay, gotcha. And how much do you have in savings?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:08)
I have $90,000 in 401K and $3,000 in investments, nothing in savings.

**Rachel Cruze** (2:14)
What's the investments? What's the $3,000? Is that retirement, like a Roth, or is it just a brokerage account?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:19)
No, just a brokerage account.

**Rachel Cruze** (2:21)
Okay. How are you planning on cash flowing the move with?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:27)
Well, fortunately, it actually won't cost me any money to move. My family is going to help me. So, the moving is actually not going to be difficult, and I'm actually going to get paid the same. I'm going to start there just like kind of a lateral move.

**Rachel Cruze** (2:44)
Okay. So, they're jumping in, helping with the physical move, and you're moving from where to where?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:53)
Northern Wisconsin to Illinois.

**Rachel Cruze** (2:55)
Okay. Gotcha. I mean, if I were you, Ryan, I'm okay if you don't do anything for two weeks when it comes to the baby steps. I mean, if I get moved, start the new job, settle in, and then once everything is there, then yeah, I would start with taking $2,000 out of that investment account and throwing it at this debt, and you're making $2,800 a month. Is that what you said?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:17)
Yes.

**Rachel Cruze** (3:17)
Yeah. So, it'll be, your income is going to be a major factor in you getting out of this debt. I mean, it's, yeah, $46,000, and so you finding any margin, you probably are not, you're not going to have a ton of margin, I'm assuming, after rents and food and everything.

**Dave Ramsey** (3:35)
Is the trajectory on this job going to take this income up pretty quickly because you're not making much?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:42)
I understand. The trajectory is actually a lateral move.

**Dave Ramsey** (3:47)
No, I mean, after you make the move, are you going to be making double this in two years or something?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:53)
That is my goal. I am planning to kind of do some studying and internally with my company and hopefully move up to another position.

**Rachel Cruze** (4:03)
What kind of job is that, Ryan?

**SPEAKER_2** (4:05)
Ironically, low-level finance position.

**Rachel Cruze** (4:08)
Okay.

**Dave Ramsey** (4:09)
Okay. Yeah. Well, there's another thing coming into play too here is you have a car you can't afford.
I mean, you make $40,000 a year, you have a $23,000 car. That's just ridiculous.
So unless your income is going to come up pretty dramatically, pretty quickly over the next two or three years, this car is going to really hold you back. And I'm going to, if I'm you, I'm going to look at selling that car. Not this week and not anything like that. But I mean, six months from now, you're settling in. You're going to see that what Rachel said is true. There's not a lot of wiggle room in this math to be able to aggressively attack this debt. And I don't want you hanging out in this debt for like three years or five years or something. So I'm going to take extra jobs. I'm going to move up through the company. We're going to get this income up to double pretty quick with side hustles or whatever, and start really chunking on this. Because then the $1,000 doesn't become a thing. Because we're not suggesting people keep $1,000 as a permanent plan. This is just while you're getting rid of your debt and totally focusing on your debt. And honestly, the difference in 3,000 and 1,000 is nothing.