I Did What I Was Told and Now I Can't Find a Job

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. I am calling in. It's really just focused on this affordability crisis we're all dealing with. It's no secret. But I'm a young adult and I just feel stuck in so many different aspects of having to navigate it. And I just kind of wanted to maybe touch on some things with you guys and see what you think. Yeah, let's zoom in. Affordability crisis is like a great headline for the news, but it doesn't speak to the daily reality. Are we talking I can't afford DoorDash or I'm going to be evicted from my apartment? There's a big difference. No, no, no. So I live at home still and I am trying to navigate the next steps of a relationship, moving out into my own place. Do I rent? Do I buy? Next steps of my career, it hasn't expanded as fast as I thought it would having the degrees that I do. I graduated with my bachelor's in 21 and then my master's in 22. What's your master's in? I have my MBA and I work in human resources and I did that as a concentration in school. And every job that I apply to, it's like, oh, this is an entry level position. And then they want three to five years of experience. And it just boggles my mind. It's like, what are we doing? I don't want to be an old guy because the affordability crisis, things are much more expensive. There's no question about it. But what I'll tell you is as a guy who got his master's degree and then got my first PhD, I had the exact same experience. And what I think that has shifted is I went in knowing I've got to work this job. And I did it at university. I got to go get this associate dean of students job. And I got adjunct at three different colleges in the evenings and on Saturdays. And I got to work on a PhD at the same time. That was just what I knew to be true. And what I hear now is I don't want to do the other stuff. I thought that when I got this thing, the gravy train would roll out. And I think that's new. I've never not lived with a roommate, ever. Even before I got married. That was just what we did. And even when we had a nice apartment, there were several of us living there. And so it's you saying, okay, I had this dream. And maybe somebody told you this. And they did. I will say this. You were sold a bill of goods. If you just get an MBA, you're going to make $250,000 and you can do whatever you want. You'll buy a house as soon as you're out. That's not true. That's not true. And it was much easier for me. Don't wait for the interest rate to be perfect before buying or refinancing a home. Talk to Churchill Mortgage. Smart buyers buy the home they can afford now and then refinance later if rates improve. Churchill helps you make decisions with confidence instead of guessing. And Churchill Mortgage has a webpage with special offers just for our audience. Go to churchillmortgage.com slash Ramsey Offer. This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. It was much easier for me, relatively speaking, to go buy a house. No question. The math was in John's favor. Correct. A little more. But the work ethic and the, I got to get roommates. I got to get friends. I'm going to live in an apartment. I'm going to have a good life and I'm going to have to work in the evenings and the weekends so that when I get my three or five years, I'm going to be super far ahead of the next person in the interview line. Right? So it's both ends. Yeah. Yeah. And I wouldn't even necessarily disagree with you. I definitely think that's where my headspace was at. Like, I have certain expectations for myself and I had expectations for myself at that time. I don't know if it was just with the way that the pandemic rolled out and the timing of when I did it. It was awful. Absolutely. And I mean, I fortunately, I was commuting to a school that was right down the street from me. And I don't have any student loan debt. I was able to work through school and pay my way through it. Pay my way through my master's. So what are you looking at? What are you unable to do right this second besides go buy a big, nice house? Right? Yeah. And by the way, I didn't have a house without Formica countertops. Until just like a house or two ago. Right? So what are you not able to do right this second? That not that you realize, I wish I could do it and I just can't. What are you not able to do right now that you think you're getting ripped off? That isn't fair? You know, I... Do you get the difference of the question? A little bit. Yeah, for sure. And I'm glad you can kind of re-navigate me here. I've got notes here and all these things I wanted to talk about, but for me, it definitely feels more like I'm feeling stuck in what I'm doing. Maybe I'm not making enough to start my life. Fortunately, I'm not in a debt situation. My parents are fortunately not charging me rent right now. So I'm able to save as much as I can and I have a nice little nest egg going. But, you know, I can't afford these rates. I can't afford to put, you know, a mortgage, you know, just by myself. And my girlfriend has a lease until April. So there's a timeline here. But for me, it's like, do we... Is it smarter to rent by that time? Is it smarter to buy and be putting equity into an asset? And am I... Because I'm only making, you know, like $40,000 a year in my current job. How old are you? I'm 28 years old. Okay. Given my education background, given, you know, how motivated I am to grow in my career, am I in the right career? You know, I... Well, you've got a concentration in human resources, you said, right? Right. So you want to be in leadership and human resources, if I snap my fingers. Yeah. Do you still like that job? It's going to take five years of doing what you're doing to get into the leadership role that gets you to the next leadership role. So just know, they don't hand out leadership roles just because you got the MBA. It's going to take a grind. But it may not be as long as you think. I mean, you're a sharp guy. This could happen a lot sooner for you than most people. But let's focus on a one-year goal versus the, well, I really wanted to have the six-figure job with a house tomorrow and be married. Let's just focus on one thing at a time. So you have no debt. You're making 40 grand a year. And how much do you have in savings? My savings account right now is about 23. Great. So let's call that your emergency fund plus some. Maybe it's a future down payment. Maybe it's an engagement ring. Who knows? You got a lot going on in the next couple of years. Sure. So I would not be like, I got to be investing and I need to be saving. I think you're trying to do a lot of good things at once and you're not making progress. And part of it is your income. You're right. You should be making more as a guy with a couple of degrees by 28. So then you go, all right, is this company not paying me enough? What is the market rate for this kind of position? Should I try to be applying for other companies? Or do you have to have a heart? I just recently talked to a friend of mine who's a tenured professor and we're walking through their finances. This is just a personal call. And I said, I hate to break your heart here, but you would make more money if you became the manager of a Starbucks. And you want to do this job. You want to talk about this particular subject with new students. It's fun. It's awesome. It's a great life, but you're making a choice to not go make more money and have a different kind of life because you want to do this thing. It's kind of ironic because I, you know, like daily I'm jumping on LinkedIn and Indeed and I'm looking up career advice coach. And here I am on the call with you guys, or I don't know if you've heard of like strawberry. It's like another, you know, website or something. But I worked with a great career advisor and I'm connected with her and it's fantastic. But like, like the fulfillment that I get from having conversations sometimes with people about their career aspirations and their finances and things like that, like I would love to be in you guys' seat. You know what I mean? Like, it's just like, it's just ironic that here I am in this like crisis, you know, I'm here with all these notes and I'm like, okay, well what's my next step? And maybe it's just because I overthink everything, but it's like, yes, there's that. Most people in their twenties are on the struggle bus trying to figure it out. So just know you're not the only one going like, I'm not where I want to be yet. You shouldn't be in your twenties. Most people my age are still trying to get where they're where they're going. You're lucky you're figuring this out in your twenties and not in your forties or fifties. Yes. So you're actually in a really good spot. If we just find a better job, half of your problems are solved. Or if you stay in that job and you do some adjacent things, like if you go, I went and ran with the crisis team and helped out police officers in the middle of the night. And I got paid like seven bucks an hour to do that. Right. And then on the side, I went, you have a master's degree. You could teach, you could adjunct business classes online for a company, right, for a university. And then when your three to five year window comes through and you've been in human resources, then all of a sudden you've got a really nice resume where you've sat with hurting people, like big time hurting people. And you've been doing the thing day in and day out. And you've got some education where you're back in the classroom. Now you've got a wide portfolio, but some of this, like George, you just nailed it. No one is going to put you in charge of a thing unless you've done that thing for a while. They shouldn't at least. And so you can out degree your experience and you're just going to have to ride that out. But bro, you're in a way better position than you think you are. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.