Next Steps: • 💸 Start eliminating debt for free with EveryDollar - https://ramsey.solutions/vujbgh • 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 weekdays from 2–5 p.m. ET or send us an email.
A woman named Samantha seeks advice on how long she should financially support her husband, whose \"dream business\" in sports training and gym ownership has failed to generate income for four years. With a second child on the way and the burden of financial support falling entirely on her, the discussion focuses on the difference between a viable business and an expensive hobby.
Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today.
My husband has been doing his dream business for almost four years now and I just want to know
because he hasn't really brought in any income from it. How long is enough for me to
support him in this? You have a business that you ran for four years that doesn't make money.
That's not a dream business. That's a nightmare. Yes. In my perspective, it hasn't. No. In his
perspective. I mean, it's a business. It's not a hobby. We're supposed to make money.
Yeah. So what kind of business? He's doing a couple of sports training. He's part of the gym
ownership and they've just been putting lots of effort. Even his partner's been doing some
investments in it, but nothing yet. They have projections, but I'm tired of looking at projections
of what could be. He's thinking of this business as our way out in the future, but it's hard to
see in the future when right now, for years, we've been kind of struggling, right? For sure. Are you
working, Samantha? Yes. So for the past, throughout the duration of our marriage, I've been the
financial supporter and I was okay doing that. But once we had our first son three years, two and a
half years ago, I'm still working. Yes. In a completely different perspective. And then I have
to go work back right away. And we've had many conversations of why is the burden on me when
and then we come up with compromises, but it still feels like, and then we're having our second.
And then now my worry is that we're back in a situation where we were with our first.
And I'm, I'm going, I'm still at work. I'm doing, we made some compromises, but rather than
situations, we could keep a cost down. We're at my parents. So we're not really paying, you know,
for rent. Okay. So here's what needs to happen, right? He needs to sit down with his partners
and proper business acumen would dictate that we see a pattern of growth in the revenue and
the profits to get us to where we can eat out of this thing in a short period of time.
So we need to see some directional move in the numbers that give us hope. He needs to do that,
not you. And he doesn't need to do it for you. It needs to do it because it's good business.
Okay. The by-product is it's good for you because you get some hope too.
No, she's saying that they've been doing that.
I know they've been doing projections, but projections that aren't hit. Okay. And so
that's not, if we have a business unit at Ramsey that sets projections and they don't hit them,
then we assess, okay, how much longer do we go with not hitting projections? And then we close it.
If it doesn't hit projections, you know, if you, if you don't have a reason to believe
other than just, I hope I wish, but in business, you need to see some things move. I need to see
some, I need to see some trend lines in my sales. I need to see some.
Yeah. My fear is that they've been, they've been propping themselves up,
thinking all these things and then it's not been real.
But here's the difference. Here's the difference. You need to set a deadline.
He needs to set a deadline.
With you, Samantha.
And he needs to come back and say, all right, we're going to go until this date.
Summer gets busy fast between vacations, camps, and travel plans. The last thing you need is
another thing to manage. That is why I love DeleteMe. DeleteMe removes your personal information
from hundreds of data broker sites that can leave you vulnerable to spammers and scammers.
And they keep monitoring it all year long. And honestly, it feels good knowing that someone
is handling it for me. And you can get 20% off an annual plan at joindeleteme.com slash Ramsey.
That's joindeleteme.com slash Ramsey.
And at this date, we're going to see some profit.
And we're going to see some trend lines towards that date between now and then.
What's killing you guys is this sense that there's no end to this.
And you got a second baby on the way.
Well, that's, that's her.
Does he not have any, I know, but he's the dude.
A part of me is not, I mean, I don't want to offend your husband, Samantha, but I'm like,
good God, go mulch lawns. Like go do something to bring in income for your wife and your baby
and your soon to be baby. Like that's wild to me for four years, not making anything.
Does he have any of that in him? Like, is he, is he mad about it? And he's angry and
he wants to change this and that, or is he just like, I love it. It's been great.
I don't know. We'll see where it goes. We're hoping the next thing's going to hit.
So the compromise that we had, because he wants to work around his schedule with the gym,
he had to be pretty flexible is that he went back to school and in here in Canada,
the majority of the grants, like we don't even have to take a loan
with our income because I went back to school to do what, um, he went back to school just
to getting some grants so that you can just sustain us a little bit. That's not an income.
The boy needs a job. Yeah. He needs to Rachel's right. He needs to go make some money and they
need to set a deadline by which this gym and this member, this, this dream is profitable.
Otherwise it's not, it's not going to stay open. I'm not going to challenge them and be like,
Hey, yeah, we have six months or whatever you guys decide. Six months comes to mind.
And I want to see two big changes in the business. Like what are two
drastically different things you're going to do to be, if I own the gym,
you're going to have to do something that makes me want to keep it open six more months,
or I'm going to fire all of you and we're going to close the thing.
I'm sorry, Samantha. I'm sorry. That's tough. That's a,
he needs to do that. And it's being exasperated by the fact that you are carrying a child
and you're living with your parents and you're living with your parents. I mean, all of it.
It's a lot. Um, and you, you have the rights. This needs to be, this needs to end. Yes.
To fill urgencies. It needs an end date. It needs an end date. If it's not profitable now,
create your free, every dollar budget today, the simplest way to budget for your life.