Should I Relocate for My Boyfriend and My Business (I'm 19)

A 19-year-old caller named Madison wants to move three hours away to live with her boyfriend and build a nail salon clientele in his town. She is about to get her license and has a commission-only job lined up at a salon there. She also wants to leave a difficult family situation. Dave Ramsey stops her cold.

The central problem Ramsey identifies is not the move itself, but the way she is tying her business and financial future to a man she is not married to. He warns that if the business takes off slowly, she will become financially dependent on a boyfriend. If the relationship sours, she will be less likely to leave because her livelihood is tangled up with his. If he kicks her out, she will be homeless. Ramsey frames this as a dangerous, vulnerable position for any young woman to put herself in, regardless of how good the guy seems.

The conversation quickly reveals a deeper financial fragility. Madison has only $1,000 saved. The job she is moving for has no base pay—it is entirely commission and chair rental. She has no plan for how she will eat while building a client base from scratch in a new town where she knows no one. Ramsey calls this "a nightmare looking for a place to happen."