Aug 2, 2024
Nate from Richmond, Virginia, finds himself in a conundrum. He holds a college degree from an “expensive” school, but it hasn’t helped him achieve the high-paying career he anticipated. It’s having an effect on both his finances and relationships at work, he told radio personality Dave Ramsey on an episode of “The Ramsey Show” July 16.
“I have almost $100,000 in student loan debt,” the 26-year-old said. “I don't really need the degree that I have to be in the job that I'm in, so a lot of my co-workers are saving $500, $600 or just have that much money to play with.”
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Ramsey had a blunt response: “Who gives a crap!?”
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Here’s why the radio host believes envy is counterproductive.
Stop comparing
In previous calls with younger Americans, Ramsey has encountered a sense of envy. He believes it’s an issue that’s being supercharged by social media.
“The problem [is] that … your generation was one of the first ones to really, really struggle with it,” Ramsey told another caller in a previous episode.
He had a similar remark for Nate: “My co-worker has hair and I don’t but it doesn’t really affect me,” he joked.
More than 6 in 10 Gen Zers say they feel some financial pressure to keep up with others, according to a survey commissioned by LendingTree. Over half (51%) of Americans, meanwhile, admitted to spending beyond their means just to impress someone.
Instead of comparing himself with his co-workers, Ramsey believes Nate can make significant progress by working on his own career.
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Perseverance
Nate graduated in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with degrees in marketing and management. He has since struggled to find a marketing job and has settled into a job as a leasing consultant for a property management firm.
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His hefty debt load has strained his finances. As of June 30, around 870,000 Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 have student loan balances over $100,000, according to Federal Student Aid data. Ramsey believes part of Nate’s unfortunate situation is the result of false promises about what a college degree can do.
“You were lied to when they told you that getting the degree was going to make it easy,” Ramsey explained. “It doesn't make it easy, it just puts a tool in your belt. You just have a big old hammer, but, buddy, you’ve got to get calluses swinging the hammer.”
The best way to start swinging the hammer is to take advantage of his degree and get an entry-level job in marketing. Co-host George Kamel says he started as an intern at Ramsey’s company, Ramsey Solutions, before working his way up.
Ramsey added: “I'm going to encourage you to do, as the old guy in the room, to persevere and really lean into this and go, ‘Okay I'm going to lay out a five-year game plan where I'm making $150,000 a year as a world-class marketer five years from now.’”
It doesn’t matter how old you are, Ramsey noted, you’ve got to learn to adapt and lean into current-day trends.
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Vishesh Raisinghani is a financial journalist covering personal finance, investing and the global economy. He's also the founder of Sharpe Ascension Inc., a content marketing agency focused on investment firms. His work has appeared in Moneywise, Yahoo Finance!, Motley Fool, Seeking Alpha, Mergers & Acquisitions Magazine and Piggybank.
