Dear Dave,
I’m stuck in a dead-end job, and I only have a high school diploma. I’ve never minded long hours and hard work, but I’ve begun to realize I need to have a better career, so I can spend more time with my kids. I feel like I’m missing out on their lives, because I work 65 to 70 hours every week. Do you have any advice on how to change my situation?
Tim
Dear Tim,
Asking questions and exploring your options like this is a much smarter move than simply walking away from an unsatisfying job situation — especially when you have a family to think about. I’m glad you’re wise enough to take a thoughtful look at the situation, instead of making a rash decision that could have a negative impact on you and your family.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to improve yourself in terms of education or your career. But before you do any of that, you’ve got to have a definite direction in mind. You need an in-depth, detailed game plan for the next three or four years that’s designed to put you where you want to be. It may involve going back to school for some classes, additional training in your field, or even getting a full-blown degree. If you identify your long-term goals in detail, it will lead you to some of the short-term goals that will help you arrive at your final destination.
Have you tried talking to your boss about your goals and your situation? See if you can have a sincere conversation with him or her, and discuss your feelings about your career and what’s going on with your family, too. Your company may be very receptive to the idea of increasing your value in the workplace. A good leader will also understand the importance of family.
Also, there’s a great book by Dan Miller that addresses this topic. It’s called 48 Days to the Work You Love. In this book, he lays out the steps to discovering what you really love to do and how to get there.
Best of luck, Tim!
—Dave
* Dave Ramsey is CEO of Ramsey Solutions. He has authored seven best-selling books, including The Total Money Makeover. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 14 million listeners each week on 600 radio stations and multiple digital platforms. Follow Dave on the web at daveramsey.com and on Twitter at @DaveRamsey
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Dear Dave,
I’m stuck in a dead-end job, and I only have a high school diploma. I’ve never minded long hours and hard work, but I’ve begun to realize I need to have a better career, so I can spend more time with my kids. I feel like I’m missing out on their lives, because I work 65 to 70 hours every week. Do you have any advice on how to change my situation?
Tim
Dear Tim,
Asking questions and exploring your options like this is a much smarter move than simply walking away from an unsatisfying job situation — especially when you have a family to think about. I’m glad you’re wise enough to take a thoughtful look at the situation, instead of making a rash decision that could have a negative impact on you and your family.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to improve yourself in terms of education or your career. But before you do any of that, you’ve got to have a definite direction in mind. You need an in-depth, detailed game plan for the next three or four years that’s designed to put you where you want to be. It may involve going back to school for some classes, additional training in your field, or even getting a full-blown degree. If you identify your long-term goals in detail, it will lead you to some of the short-term goals that will help you arrive at your final destination.
Have you tried talking to your boss about your goals and your situation? See if you can have a sincere conversation with him or her, and discuss your feelings about your career and what’s going on with your family, too. Your company may be very receptive to the idea of increasing your value in the workplace. A good leader will also understand the importance of family.
Also, there’s a great book by Dan Miller that addresses this topic. It’s called 48 Days to the Work You Love. In this book, he lays out the steps to discovering what you really love to do and how to get there.
Best of luck, Tim!
—Dave
* Dave Ramsey is CEO of Ramsey Solutions. He has authored seven best-selling books, including The Total Money Makeover. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 14 million listeners each week on 600 radio stations and multiple digital platforms. Follow Dave on the web at daveramsey.com and on Twitter at @DaveRamsey
Dear Dave,
I recently applied for life insurance for the first time with a child rider. The insurance company denied my request for the rider portion because my son has hemophilia. Do you have any suggestions or advice?
Sarah
Dear Sarah,
Unfortunately, you’re going to have a difficult time with this situation. It’s generally pretty hard, for obvious reasons, for hemophiliacs to get life insurance. I hope you understand that’s a statistical statement, not a spiritual statement.
You can always cover him as a child by building an emergency fund over and above the three to six months of expenses I normally recommend. A child rider is just a small policy to cover final expenses and things like that, so you could self-insure by saving up in the event — God forbid — of a worst case scenario. An average funeral today costs around $7,000 to $10,000. You could always spend less, but if you guys have reasonable safeguards this isn’t a situation you should be facing. I mean, there are probably some things he just shouldn’t do from a common sense standpoint, right? But lots of folks have long, wonderful lives with that particular condition.
It might be that as research on the disease progresses and as he gets older, there’s a possibility that he could qualify. Think about this. If you even whispered a word like “cancer” anywhere near your name 25 years ago in the insurance business, you were done — no life insurance of any kind. Nowadays, they look at all the factors involved. You can actually have had cancer and get life insurance.
In short, I think there’s hope for the future. In the meantime, I would cover it with a slightly larger emergency fund. Just add a few thousand to what you would normally set aside for emergencies, because you might face some medical issues, as well.
—
Dear Dave,
What are the long-term effects of declaring bankruptcy?
Brittany
Dear Brittany,
One of the biggest aftershocks of filing bankruptcy is that it stays on your credit report for years afterward. A Chapter 7 filing, which wipes out everything and gives you a clean slate, stays on your report for 10 years. Chapter 13, which is a repayments plan, and Chapter 11, another type of large bankruptcy or business bankruptcy, both stay on your credit bureau report for seven years.
Another big problem is that it can follow you around when it comes to applications or when you apply for different types of licenses. Many of these ask if you’ve ever filed bankruptcy. It doesn’t ask if it’s still on your credit report; it will ask if you’ve ever filed bankruptcy. If you have, you’ll have instances for the rest of your life when you have to admit it and explain it all over again. So, it’s an emotional scar that follows you around for a long, long time.
Too many bankruptcy filers never really recover from their financial distress because they never learn new and better ways to manage their money. That’s why I recommend people do everything they can to avoid bankruptcy. It’s not an easy do-over; it’s a last-resort kind of thing. And in the vast majority of situations it’s just not necessary.
—Dave
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Dear Dave,
My wife and I go to a small church where we tithe. The church is continually asking for contributions to other charities and causes, and we don’t have the money to give to them all while we’re sticking to our budget and getting out of debt. The worst part is that we get pretty aggressive pushback when we say no. What can we do?
Michael
Dear Michael,
I don’t react well to that kind of pushback. I would probably be nice a couple of times, but after that my response might sound something like, “Mind your own business.”
Seriously, I’d probably be a little gentler than that. But basically when it reaches that point, they’re saying, “I want your money.” And that’s really over the top. If it goes even further, and it becomes a question of you “digging deep” or not having enough faith, I might get un-gentle in a hurry.
Your first job is to provide for your family and take care of those kinds of responsibilities — which is a very scriptural stance. Once you’ve done that, then you’ll hopefully have the financial ability to move beyond tithes and into offerings, which are completely different concepts. Tithes are first fruits off the top, while offerings are from surplus — meaning that you and your family are doing well financially.
Another thing to consider is this: Does this church turn every impulse they have into pressure to donate or buy something, because they didn’t plan for this kind of stuff in the church budget? I’d start having a problem with the leadership if this turned out to be the case, because it’s a sign they’re not planning and leading well.
Hopefully, you can explain to these folks the reason why you can’t contribute to additional things at the moment and they’ll understand. If not, and it were me in your shoes, I think I’d have to find another church.
—Dave
(Stick with mutual funds)
Word count: 244
Dear Dave,
I’ve been following your plan, and I have my emergency fund in place and am investing in mutual funds. Recently, a financial planner recommended bonds to me. What is your opinion on this?
Becky
Dear Becky,
I don’t recommend bonds at all right now. I’m not a fan of them, and I don’t own any. The bond market is almost as volatile as the stock market, and it doesn’t pay nearly as much on average.
On top of all that, bond prices work at an inverse of interest rates. In other words, as interest rates rise, bond prices go down. Long-term interest rates are still really low. If you were to buy a bunch of bonds right now, and interest rates went up even one percent, you could lose a lot!
I recommend mutual funds and good growth stock mutual funds. There are always some bonds mixed in with a growth and income fund, and I’m not opposed to that to some degree, but it’s not my favorite. So, if I were ever going to buy bonds — and I’m not going to — it definitely wouldn’t be right now. It doesn’t take much of a move in interest rates for bond prices to go down dramatically.
—Dave
* Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He has authored five New York Times best-selling books. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 8.5 million listeners each week on more than 550 radio stations. Dave’s latest project, EveryDollar, provides a free online budget tool. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com
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Dear Dave,
I was recently notified that I am one of the beneficiaries of a class action lawsuit against a previous employer. The amount I can receive is just $200, but I don’t feel like this past employer wronged me in any way. Everyone around me is urging me to take the money, but I feel kind of weird about accepting anything under the circumstances. What do you think I should do?
Randy
Dear Randy,
I don’t know all the details of the episode you’re talking about, or what happened with this particular company. But I don’t agree with the idea that we’re supposed to beat up anyone we can, or milk everything we can get out of every company or human being we come across. Some people are just incredibly opportunistic. They live like it’s anarchy, and they have no sense of fairness or decorum. But you do.
The people who are telling you to take the cash don’t think the way you do. They’re the kind who would take any money, no matter the reason. But you sound like the kind of person who wouldn’t do that, so you shouldn’t be taking advice from those people.
I think your heart has already told you what to do, Randy. God is whispering in your ear. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t take it. If it were $100,000, I wouldn’t take it. You were not wronged, and that money is for someone who was wronged.
You have a sense of dignity and pride about yourself and your behavior, and I respect that. My advice is to listen to your heart.
—Dave
(Mortgage or save?)
Word count: 234
Dear Dave,
I just became debt-free, and I live in an apartment. I’m also 28 and single, and I make about $75,000 a year. Do you think I should get a mortgage and go back into debt, or save up and pay cash for a house? I’d like to keep the price of a new home around $200,000, and I think I can save about $15,000 a year.
Kevin
Dear Kevin,
Congratulations on becoming debt-free! It feels awesome, doesn’t it?
When it comes to saving, how about rounding that figure up to $20,000 a year? Going that route, you’re only 10 years away from a nice, new paid-for home, and you’re still debt-free. That’s one way to do it.
I don’t borrow money, Kevin. And I don’t tell people to do things I won’t do. The one exception to that is I don’t yell at people for taking out a 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage, where the payments are no more than 25 percent of your monthly take home pay. You could save like crazy for a couple of years and put down a really strong down payment on a home in the price range you’re talking about. Then, you could pay off that house in 15 years max — or even sooner.
I don’t have a big problem with it either way. But wouldn’t it be great to be only 38 years old and still be completely debt-free?
—Dave
* Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He has authored five New York Times best-selling books. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 8.5 million listeners each week on more than 550 radio stations. Dave’s latest project, EveryDollar, provides a free online budget tool. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com
