The Ramsey Show - App - I Was Involved in a Crypo-Romance Scam (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I am your host, Jade Warshaw. I am joined by your co-host, George Campbell. We're hosting together, so give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. We'll take calls all afternoon about your life and your money. Let's go straight to the phone lines where we've got Brian from Des Moines, Iowa.

What's going on, Brian? Hi. Yeah, I'd emailed you guys a little while ago, three, four weeks ago, about lost a bunch of money in a cryptocurrency romance scam. And my current state is I've had to, as part of my divorce decree, I had to pay my wife a property equalization payment of almost $98,000, which I was able to do last week. I ended up having to get three loans to cover it, and now I am saddled with almost $98,000 in loan debt. Got it. Okay. Are these personal loans? How'd you get the debt? One's a personal loan, one is an un unsecured loan and one is a loan against my my pickup oh boy wow okay um so tell us more about your financial situation what are you

bringing home what's your income is is there anybody tell tell us more um I make about $80,000 a year. My take-home is, I think it's 2011, it's bi-weekly. Four grand a month? Yeah. So help us understand how the crypto romance scam plays into all of this? Well, my intention for emailing you guys was just to find out, is there any resources for scam victims? I mean, is there any, you know, support groups, you know, where you can talk with other victims and, you know,

to share your feelings and what have you? Is there any financial help? Well, so how long ago did it happen? Let's kind of get our bearings around it. How long ago was it? It took place over between September of 2022 and it concluded, you know, late January last year, 2023. And how much money was involved? Over $230,000. Whoa. Oh, my goodness. And I'm guessing this is over a period of time where it was just a little more and a little more?

Yes. Wow. Gracious. So you're out the $230,000 plus the $98,000 for your ex-wife. Yeah. I mean, you know, I started off with a couple hundred bucks investing into what turned out to be a fake site. I mean, it was just flat out stolen. Oh my goodness. And then I went from $200,000 to $1,000 to $3,000 and I just kept putting more in there. And I pulled that out of my retirement funds and 401ks and what have you.

And so you just drained your entire life to keep up this house of cards. Yeah. And so obviously it's like if you, the normal things to do, right? You notify your bank, you file a complaint with FTC. When you did all those things, what came of that? I didn't do those things. When I realized that it was a scam, the first thing I did was I contacted my divorce attorney and he reached out to his network of attorneys and see if there was somebody that knew anything about crypto investing and recovery and what have you.

And they did find a guy in Des Moines that traced my funds. All of it ended up over, instead of going to this crypto site, it ended up at an exchange in Singapore. Okay. And along with a lot of other victims' funds, there was, he said it was over a million dollars in this account at the time when he traced it. So he put together all the information.

So it's all well documented. Yeah, yeah. And he actually filed a federal lawsuit against, we don't know who was involved with this, but there was a lawsuit in process, you know, against the unknown scammers. It's the first one of its kind in Iowa, is what he told me, so.

So what are the next, what's he telling you are the next steps? Basically, just to wait and be patient. The process of serving documents and waiting for responses is ongoing. He thinks it'll conclude sometime late this summer, early fall, probably around Labor Day, I'm guessing. So you feel like legally there's kind of a handle on it. And so now you're really just looking for emotional support. Is that? Yeah, I think he's got a handle on it legally. But yeah, I mean, just the whole process is there. I was mainly inquiring, is there any organizations out there? I know there are fund recovery places. There are some that are scams that will take advantage of you.

There's some other ones that actually do try to help victims. I see one on here by FINRA. It's just, let's see, it's fightcybercrime.org. You can go on there. And it literally is a romance scam recovery group. So that's literally what it's for. So you could check into that. And again, that's fightcybercrime.org.

We don't endorse them or support them. It was just, I just kind of looked it up real quick. So I don't know anything about the group. It's just something that popped up. So to answer your question, and there's a couple others out here that I can see. So to answer your question, they are out there. There's another one called,

if you go to againstscams.org, Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams, SCARS is the acronym. You can look that one up. Again, we don't have affiliation. We're just Googling like the rest of you. But I think we have to just start to rebuild, Brian, and go, let's pretend we never get this money back because the chances of you getting this money back, slim to none, and it hurts. And you're going to have to let go of the shame and guilt and the fact that your life has imploded over the last few years. That's a very, very difficult thing. I would highly suggest you get one-on-one counseling and therapy

to deal with this regardless of what happens with the groups. And we would recommend BetterHelp for that. That's a great online one. I'm already involved with BetterHelp for this right now. Okay. And on the financial side, I wouldn't try to, you know, no one's going to just go give you $100,000 because you were a victim here. So you're going to have to figure out how am I going to get rid of this debt as fast as possible? How do I get my income up in order to knock this out as fast as possible? I'm guessing this $100,000 isn't the only debt you have?

Currently, yeah, currently it is. I have no credit card debt because I use debit cards. Okay. Okay. So was the pickup paid off and you took a loan against it? No, I had a balance of about $5,700 on it. I just had to borrow more against it to cover that equalization payment. So I already know you guys are going to tell me to sell the truck, get out from under the one loan, and drive something cheap for a while while I work on the next one. Yeah. How much is borrowed against the truck specifically? $13,500, and I think it's valued about $17,000-something. Okay. So you're underwater by a little bit? No, it's valued more than what I owe on it.

Because you owe the $5,700 still on top of the $13,500, or is that total? $13,500 is total. Okay. Great. So that'll give you a little bit, a chunk of change to get something, a beater car to drive around.

That'll lower your debt by a little bit. Yeah. And then just focus on attacking these debts. I mean, I think you can get out of this within, my guess is two and a half years max with some hustle and then just rebuild and get the help you need uh this is a hard lesson to learn i appreciate you sharing with everyone with all of america to warn them that this stuff is real never send anyone bitcoin whether you know them or not never never never these games are real it hurts my heart i know my heart goes out to him. That's so much money. That was no doubt his retirement. I mean, he was in, gosh, almost $400,000

on this. That's painful, painful stuff. Oof. This is The Ramsey Show. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. All right, so I was born and raised in Texas, and I love the myth of the lone cowboy. You know, the guy who doesn't need anyone or anything. It's a fun story, and it's a lie. In our self-obsessed society, we're obsessed about our own diets, our own workout routines, our own jobs, our own social media feeds, everything. It's easy to forget that no one can do life alone. And I don't care if you're an introvert, an extrovert, or whatever you want to call yourself, we all have to have a community

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just fill out a short online survey to get matched with a licensed therapist. And if it's not the right fit, you can switch therapists at any time for no extra cost. This month, start to build your support system with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash Ramsey Radio to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Ramsey Radio. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw, your host. You are joined by George Campbell, your other host, author of Breaking Free from Broke, bestselling author. Love that, George. All right. I'm excited.

It's not very often that I get to announce the 20th anniversary edition of the Total Money Makeover. It's now available, guys. Let me tell you something. This is the book that changed my life. It has changed millions of people's lives over seven million sold the total money makeover i'm telling you it's the simplest most straightforward and proven plan to change your finances you can solve your hardest problem with the least complicated money book you'll ever read that's right i love it i love that they updated the font but not dave's face so he still looks 20 years younger on that cover. It's like a time machine. That was a nice editorial choice by Dave to go, nah, keep the old photo.

I look great. But it really is. It's what we all recognize, though. It's the same heart, but we've updated and expanded the stats in there, the advice on mortgages, car loans, investing for retirement, paying for college, buy now, pay later, all of these more recent traps that have popped up over 20 years. And here's the best part that I'm excited about. What's that? Dave re-recorded the audio book. Love that. So for the first time ever, it's crispier. He's a little older, a little more rugged, a little more wise. Yeah, a little bit of a little rasp in the voice.

That's right. I like that. All right. Plus every book includes three months of every dollar premium for free. The best budgeting app ever also included. I love that. New users only. Good call out here. Yeah. Yeah. If you're already on there, you don't get to stack it. So if you're a new user to EveryDollar, take advantage of that. But I'm excited about this. I'm excited to get my hands on that audio book and follow along in the book. That's my favorite way to read.

I love it. I'll definitely listen to it again. It's a banger. It never gets old. All right. So go to ramseysolutions.com and get the Total Money Makeover 20th Anniversary Edition so that you can become one of the millions who have said goodbye to debt and finally learned about it and read it listen I never actually bought the total money makeover I bought the workbook the total money makeover workbook and it's like you can fill in all the things listen when you go through when you're in debt and you go through and you put in your income and then all the debt not gonna lie you feel a little bit sad it gets real the hope is on the other side so amen there you have it let's go straight to the phone lines. We've got Aaron in Toledo, Ohio. What's going on, Aaron? Hey, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my call.

For sure. How can I help? My wife and I are in a position to purchase an investment home property at 25% of home market value. Our question is, what would be the best loan option to purchase this investment property? We do have the cash in hand to pay this 25%, but that would totally liquidate

our funds in the bank account and put us at net zero in checking the savings account. How urgent is this purchase? I'm sorry, what's that? How urgent is this purchase? I'm sorry, what's that? How urgent is this purchase? Like, if you don't do it today, is it over? Can this be done six months from now?

It's going to be probably, I have it done in the next probably one to three months. Is your personal residence paid off? Yes. Awesome. So you're saying in order to do this, you'd be liquidating all of your three to six months of expenses? Correct. Plus some. What's the number on this? What's this place going to cost? $55,000. Why are they selling at 25% of the value? My wife and I acquired 75% of the home based on a family's death, where we're purchasing the

25% from another family member. Oh, you're buying the house for... Correct. That makes more sense. So you're not really getting it at 25% of the value. You just still, you're putting in the extra 25% to own it free and clear. Correct. Cool. Okay. How about this? Because there's no urgency on this, I would love for you guys to maintain three months of expenses, then make the purchase once you have the money beyond that. How long would it take you to save up another basically three months to put with this as cash?

Quickly. I mean, we have no car payments, no debt, no home payments. So for us, that's three or six months of bills paid off, we would have that done pretty quickly in six to eight weeks. I love that. So that's the plan. Is there a reason that wouldn't work? I would talk to the family and say, hey, here's the plan.

Three months, 90 days from now, we're ready to do this deal. We'll have the cash at closing. It's going to make things simpler. It's not going to put you guys backwards into debt. Because what happens is you take on this loan loan and then all of a sudden you have this pile of money in the bank and you go, ooh, what else could we do with this money? And so that's what worries me about taking on the debt even for a short time. So I would try to avoid that at all costs. And it sounds like you can. They've got the income where they can do that. And so very

logical. I love it. I'm happy for them. It's a good deal. I was like, are they about to get scammed? Who's selling 25% of market value I'm happy for them. It's a good deal. I was like, are they about to get scammed? Who's selling 25% of market value? That makes more sense. It does make more sense. Love that. All right. Well, let's go to Will, who's in Birmingham, Alabama. Will, how can we help you out? Hey, guys. I just want to say thanks so much for taking my call. I've listened for a long time, and I'm glad to be here. We're glad you're here. How can we help?

Um, so, you know, I have a million questions, but obviously I can just ask one. My main question is I have, my wife and I have $111,000 in student loans. Um, but $75,000 of that is high interest and it's 8% and 14 and a half percent. And I was wondering, yeah, I know. Sorry, dude. Yeah, you're not kidding. I found out right after I told her I wanted to marry her. She didn't know. Her parents took it out. Yeah, it's been a huge trial.

Are these Parent PLUS loans? Are these in her name and she had terrible credit? How do you even get a 14% student loan? Well, I mean, as you all know, they like to screw, you know, anyone they can. And so what it was, at the time, her mom literally Googled and just picked the first student loan she found. It's a private loan. Yeah, so it's private. And so she borrowed more than she needed to to pay for housing, food. Cover your lifestyle. I did the same thing. Here's the good

news. The good news is with private loans, you do have a little bit more leeway and wiggle room because they're not, it's not the federal government, right? So if you come in here and you try to make a deal with them, many times they have the ability to make deals on payments. So what my husband and I did, because the last bit of debt that we paid off was all private loans. And so what we did is we stacked up a good percentage. We stacked up about 60% of what the real value was and we offered it in cash and they took it. There's an idea. Okay, well, I guess then my question is, so, man, we got married in January and, you know, your boy saved up a lot of money. And we knocked, all in all, both of our debts was $181,000. Okay, what was the $81,000?

$111,000. Oh, so you knocked it down already yeah I mean we've we've knocked 60k down and we've only been married for five months and not only that I've got 37,000 dollars in um stock and half of it's short term half of it's long term but but had a ton of gains. My dad wants me to keep it and I'm tempted to sell it. But then, you know, we won't really have a nest egg. And, you know, I'm preaching the choir here with you guys. Yeah, but that's not your nest egg. George and I, you know, I know your dad wants you to keep it, but I can speak for George. He doesn't pay your bills. George and I want you to sell it. Number one, that's not the place where a nest egg would

lie in single stocks. So that's thing number one. And thing two is you need this money. You're at eight and 14% interest. You're losing money hand over fist. Like you got to get something in there to knock that out, you know? I'm not worried about you getting another 37,000 in investments one day. We'll get there. But right now we need a priority of getting this debt knocked out. And I'll tell you, Will, I did the same thing, not at this scale, but I had some Apple stocks when I worked at the retail store back in my day and I sold them and I used it to pay down my debt. And, you know, I had people going, dude, are you serious? That money could have turned into, I know you can play the what

if game all day long about what your investments could be, but I'll tell you, you have a guaranteed return when you get rid of this debt and get it out of your life. That's so true. The thing to remember here is when it comes to getting out of debt, I mean, we just talked about the total money makeover. When it comes to getting out of debt, there's a way to do this. And it's walking those baby steps in order. Baby step one, you get the $1,000 saved. If you had money saved, you knock it down to $1,000 so that you can do baby step two, which is you're paying off all of your debt using the debt snowball method. It's smallest to largest guys by balance. We're not talking about the interest rate, although it could be tempting in a situation like this. You do the smallest loan first and then you turn around and you stack back

up that three to six months of savings. But here's the thing. We're not putting it in single stocks. We're not putting it in the stock market at all. We're putting it in a high yield savings account. It's liquid. You can get to it. And it's great that right now they've got pretty high interest rates. And so that's the way this works. Those isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981.

And CHM has also helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Well, what's going on, everybody? You're listening to The Ramsey Show.

I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is George Camel. And if you ever come and visit us here at Franklin, Tennessee, you will come into a beautiful lobby. We will greet you with warm cookies and coffee and probably the nicest human beings you'll ever meet out there. And you'll see the debt-free stage, which is where people come from far and wide to do their debt-free scream. And that's what's going on today. Today on the debt-free scream stage, we've got Raphael and Candice. Good to have you guys here. Where are

you from? Dallas, Oregon. Dallas, Oregon? There's a Dallas in Oregon. What's that next to? Salem. Salem. Oh, okay. I know Salem. Very, very cool. And you're here to do your debt-free scream.

So the people want to know how much did you pay off? We paid off $281,038.74. I like it. I like the detail. That'll do. I love that. How long did it take you to pay off this debt? 49 months. 49 months. Okay. I like it. I like the detail. I love that. How long did it take you to pay off this debt? 49 months. 49 months. Okay. I'm tracking. And what were you earning during that period?

We started out with $188,000 and then we're currently at $220,000. What do you guys do for a living? I'm in security engineering. And I'm a public school administrator. Okay. So can we ask what kind of debt this is? So this was everything. We were very normal. We had a 401k loan. We had credit cards, personal loans, a horse trailer. A horse trailer.

Yes. Okay. Which I'm guessing there's a horse involved somewhere. And a mountain of student loans. Wow. How much student loans? $200,000. Yay! Wow.

My goodness. So the question everybody wants to know is you you sold the horse trailer did you get to keep the horse we we kept the horse trailer we paid it off kept the horses love it oh multiple horses yes yes it's wow so now the whole is the whole farm paid off now the mortgage is not paid off yet that's the next next to go. Correct. I love it. You got to make some serious headway in 49 months. What was life like before this? Like take us back four plus years ago. Yeah, we were really a little reckless with our spending.

We made good money. And so we continually just tried to live and spend that. We sat down one day and we were looking at our budget. And Raphael said, what are we going to do about all of this debt? And I said, well, we could do that that Ramsey stuff and he's like what are you talking about and I was like oh yeah well I know about it but I haven't done it I had been listening to Dave for about 10 years but I would actually turn off the debt-free screams because I felt like I would never was it too convicting be in that space and I would tear up and be sad wow so you went this will never be

me why even get my hopes up and listen to these stories yeah oh my goodness and so to be here is just the most amazing so well what changed that made you go I am going to listen to this and I am maybe I can be that person I having a partner and a husband on this journey with me who said we can do this right we can do with me who said, we can do this, right? We can do anything. We're amazing together. We can tackle this. And so we've been married for four years and just started this journey.

Oh, so you were newlyweds at the time. Yes. And you combined all of your debts. You're like, oh my gosh, how are we going to live? Yes. Yeah, and this was during pre-COVID. I was actually traveling from California. So I moved up from California.

And I used to travel back and forth from California to Oregon every week for eight months. And so all the airplane flights, the lodging, the food, I mean, my company wasn't paying for it because I made the choice to move to Oregon. It wasn't like, hey, would you like to move to Oregon? So we were paying out of pocket with all this. And so I just started seeing the bills just stack up and stack up and I didn't even finish when she told me about the total money makeover I didn't even finish the book I think I got through the first chapter and when I landed and she picked me up I'm like sweetheart we're gonna do this you're like we gotta go I can't take it it's one chapter and you're like I got it let's go game on that's right that's right and

the first year we were pretty Dave-ish we a couple of things still we were doing and trying to still live, but kind of do the plan. Yeah. And then we started financial peace and we were the second class in and he was like, we can't be Davis anymore. This is it. We've got to completely commit. Tell us what was your Davis thing? Cause everybody's, everybody got this something. Everybody's got something. So tell us what's your Davish. We definitely ate out quite a bit and we would still do vacations. And, you know, we'd set aside, well, this is enough going to the debt. We're okay.

Instead of committing and saying everything extra goes to the debt. So was there a day when you were like, we're going all in? Yes. What was the biggest sacrifice during that time? You remember going, oh, that was a hard thing, but it was the best thing. I think for me, well, during the whole Baby Step 2 period, the hardest part for me is I'm not, so I'm the nerd, obviously. But I have a free spirit in me. And it only comes out with my beautiful wife here.

And so there are times where I wanted to be like, sweetheart, you need new shoes or like you need new pants or, you know, let's, let's, I just wanted to just throw things at her. But at the same time, I'm like, no, I can't because we're going to do it. Okay, all this is good. So you could justify in your mind because you're like, I'm being a good, I'm a hero.

She needs new shoes. Or really it was just your way of getting your inner child out to spend some more money. And you hushed the inner child and you guys did some hard things for, I mean, four years is a long time for a lot of people to sacrifice. Yes, it was a long time. What was the hardest part? The horse trailer. That was the hardest thing to get rid of?

Well, it was a month into when we got serious, really got serious and stopped doing Davies. It was a month into it. All of a sudden, I hear that there's a horse trailer coming. There needs to be a trailer when you have horses. That's the problem with horses. They need a lot of accoutrements. That's right. Land and trailers.

How much was the trailer? It was only $5,500 out of this big mountain. Okay. But it was already a big mountain. But it was more emotional than financial. It's the principle of it. Another five grand we got to pay off this horse trailer right so it took it took us getting on the same page together and really being committed to our goal what we wanted to to change all those behaviors and to change that pattern of how we were acting and so what

would you say to that person that was you you know know, you've got $281,000 of debt, 200 of it student loans. You're listening to people like yourself now on the radio going, oh, I know they're doing it, but this is not for me. What would you say to them real quick? That it's possible. This is, it feels like a mountain when that student loan debt is so big and you think I'm just going to have this forever. But you just start taking steps a little bit at a time and it starts to go away. And then you build momentum

and you feel this energy. And all of a sudden you believe at some point through it that it can really happen. I think it also takes love too. I mean, her and I used to talk about when it was the last thing that we had was that student loan because that was the biggest you know just the way she would talk about it i knew there was a little bit of guilt and shame behind it but she would tell me how she used the money and everything and i'm like you know what i would have done the same thing if i were in your your shoes and but it's okay so we are you know because it's it's our debt like we're just going to get rid of it i love it i love the language it's ours everything's ours and we i love it guys all right let's get ready to do this thing we've got ralph and candace from salem oregon you guys paid off 281 000 in 49 months

making 188 000 to 220 000 let's count it down let's hear that debt free scream three two one we're dead free that's a good one what a sweet couple raphael and candace are they're an inspiration and we also have a gift for them jade we've got two every dollar premium subscriptions that they can use they can pass it on to the person who says it's not going to happen for me. Pass it on. It can happen. I love stories like this because all the time we get people who call in the show, George, and they say, you know, I'm just being buried. I don't think that I can pay off my debt. Can I really do it? Can I really do it? And this right here, you know, Raphael and Candace, they are, you know, the epitome. You can see that this is possible. Yes. And you support each other i

love how rafael was like i know that i'm a nerd but there's a free spirit somewhere inside of me and they kind of really just complement each other and that's the way this works it's two hundred thousand dollars of student that's amazing and i don't know how i mean they're the sweetest couple they may have been like this from day one but it seems like there is a a connectivity that happens once you go through this process together that makes their marriage even sweeter. I feel like they're in a new newlywed phase again. Yes. In this debt freedom phase. And let me tell you guys out there, there's nothing more romantic than debt freedom. Okay. The last thing she wants is you to rack up some more debt to get her more

crap, get rid of the debt and see if that doesn't increase the joy and love in your life. That's a fact. I love that. I love that so much. It just goes to show changing your habits. You do the work to change your mind and you can change your completely change your life, change your family tree. That's what they've done. No shortcuts. Don't tell me you can't pay off these student loans. Don't tell me it's not possible. You can tell me. And if you live in La Vida Loca, it's time to hold your horses and make some changes before you go further into debt. Live in La Vida Loca, it's time to hold your horses and make some changes before you go further into debt. Live in La Vida Loca, huh? Haven't heard that in a while.

I always try to bring it back. Don't forget about Ricky. I love it. This is The Ramsey Show. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm your host, Jade Warshaw, joined by George Campbell. We're taking your calls all afternoon long. We're talking about your life and your money.

So be sure to give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. Hit us up and we'll help you out. All right, let's go to Tampa, Florida. We've got Desiree on the line. What's going on, Desiree? Hey, thank you for taking my call. No problem.

How can we help? Hey, so my parents recently passed away, and they left me with a house and two cars, and I don't really know what to do from here. My dad really wanted me to sell the house and have money set me up for my future, but I know a lot of people at my age would kill to have a paid-off house in their name, so I was just calling for advice on what I should do next.

Goodness gracious, Desiree. I'm sorry to hear about your loss. Awful. How recent was this? My dad had passed away about, like, two weeks ago, and my mom passed away when I was younger. So it was just me and my dad for a while. Oh, I'm so sorry. Was this sudden?

He had been, like, diagnosed with cancer cancer so he was given about like a couple months to live so like we knew it was coming we just didn't really know like how soon it would be and yeah so it was sudden but i had time to like process it well it's still fresh and i want you to be able to grieve and not make any big financial decisions now. So we'll help you take the right next step, but I want to give you permission to not do anything as well. Okay. There's no urgency here. There's nothing on fire, right? No.

You're living in the house? Yeah, I'm living in the house. I still have to pay the bills and stuff like that. And as far as settling the estate, do you have help with all of that? Did he have a will? Yeah, he had like a will and all that stuff. It was all left to me. There's nothing really to deal with the courts about it. I know it's going to be a little bit of paperwork, but it was pretty much clear and done that it was all for me. Okay. And there were no debts or anything like that? All of this is, you will be getting all of this? He did have about 8k in credit card debt

that does need to be paid off and I was thinking about just paying that from my savings or selling the house and using that to help pay off the debt as well. What about the cars? What are they worth? I have a 2017 Jeep that's probably worth about like 1515,000 to $20,000 now in that range. And then there's like an older model BMW that I don't think I'd get more than like $3,000 or $4,000 for. And you said you might sell the house to pay off that little bit of debt. Why not one of the cars? Just because I don't really know if at this age I could like be a homeowner. I'm only 21 and I only make about

25k a year and I know in the area of Tampa I live in you have like a required flood insurance and that's like a couple grand a year plus like property taxes and all that stuff. I just don't know if I'd be able to afford like living in a home at my age. Yeah the insurance and taxes alone. Yeah. Okay well what George said is true. I mean, if you have the money to kind of keep things as they are, you don't have to make any decisions right away. But if you're finding that, okay, you know, I need to start thinking about what's going to happen, who's going to take care of these taxes, who's going to take care of this insurance, that sort of thing, then at what point

do you think you might be starting to feel it? I really have no idea maybe about like a couple months I've already had to like start like setting up all the bills in my name and then I have to go to the DMV and get the titles transferred and all that stuff so it would probably be like about a couple months until everything's like said and done but I don't really know for sure exactly. Have you notified the lender that your debt has passed? I don't believe so. Okay. I would do that, and I don't want you to go rush and pay this

because you may not be responsible for this. The credit card debt is unsecured, and therefore they're not going to liquidate your car or home in order to pay this. They'll just have to eat that cost most likely. So I would look into the laws in your state and what will be required, but I would at least notify them that he's deceased. Okay. I gotcha. Is the home paid off completely? Yeah, it's completely paid off.

What does it cost per month to keep this home afloat with all the insurance, property taxes that are involved? I know the bills come out to be about like $800 a month, but I haven't really done the math on like the property taxes and insurance, but I know that would add about like $10,000 to $15,000 a year. Okay. That's the math I want you to do to see if this is reasonable for you to stay, because there's no reason to go out and rent for $1,500 if keeping this house afloat and you staying there is going to be $1,200 a month. So I would crunch the numbers on that. And if it's unsustainable, if it's much bigger than 25% of your take-home pay, which I personally hope your income goes up very soon, because you're making about $12 an hour right now? $15, but yeah, pretty much. Okay. So if we can get your income up to $30, $40, $50, $60, now this becomes a much more reasonable expense in your life. Okay.

What's the house worth if it were to sell? If it were to sell, it'd probably sell for about $350. I'd probably gross about like $300 after like I'm paying off everything. Okay. Was there any other accounts involved here that you were a beneficiary of, retirement or otherwise? Bank accounts? No, he just had debt that he had to pay off. He didn't have any like money to his name and that's why I heard like it's going to get taken out of the estate for his like credit card debt. So that's what I was worried it's going to get taken out of the estate for his like credit card debt so that's what I was worried about what's the situation with your personal vehicle uh well I was driving a car under his name and now it's like now it's mine so it's okay so that's the yeah is that the jeep or is that the other one that's the jeep okay so you'll keep the jeep

it's paid off uh I mean when you're ready the car, I'd probably go ahead and let that go because the longer it sits, it's just losing value. So I'd probably sell that one off sooner than later whenever you feel up to it and just kind of clear that out and simplify this a little bit. Now you got a house and a car that your dad left you both paid for. Really, really great gift. Really great. Do you have any community?

Do you have any other family or friends in the area? Yeah, I had friends a while, like a little bit away, that were offering to move me in for $575 a month. And I thought that was like a pretty good deal because it'd be less than my monthly expenses, like owning a house. Yeah. I just know that like, you know, owning property at 21 is a pretty big deal. And I would regret selling it if it wasn't the right decision. Sure. But if you sold this and you put that like, you know, owning property at 21 is a pretty big deal. And I would regret selling it

if it wasn't the right decision. Sure. But if you sold this and you put that money, let's say in a high yield savings account for two years to kind of just restart your life and go live with friends and have that community, I think that's well, that's money well spent to do that. And you're still going to have a giant chunk of change to go spend on a house later on when you're ready, when you're in that next phase of life, maybe you get married. And so I don't want you to feel like this is kind of a golden handcuffs. It's a huge blessing to have a paid for house that you get to live in. But I also know there's a lot of emotions attached to it. Yeah, I don't think, I mean, I don't know your dad, but my guess is that he wasn't thinking you're going to live in

this house for the rest of your life or you have to live in this house. He left it to you as a gift and you get to decide what you want to do with that. I like George's idea. I think that this is a really cool gift. It allows you a certain level of freedom and you let that money grow and you'll be able to buy the home that you want, that you're ready for when the time comes. And if you want to get connected with a trusted, Ramsey trusted real estate agent, you can do that at ramsesey solutions.com. They can help you list this, get top dollar for it. So it'll set you up for the next house in the best way possible. But Desiree, I'm so sorry you're going through this. That's not something any 21 year old should have to suffer through and losing both parents. I can't imagine. Did we help you out? Did we answer everything?

Yeah, I really appreciate you guys taking my call. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you so much for the call. We're going to give to you a year of Financial Peace University to kind of give you financial literacy as you head into adulthood at 21. And there's going to be a lot of traps. And you're going to be a target because you have no debt and you've got money to spend. And as you get your income up, I want to make sure that you do the right things with it to build wealth with confidence. So hang on the line. Eboo will pick up. We'll get you a year of Financial Peace University on us.

That's great. And that includes EveryDollar, by the way, which is the best budgeting app out there. I love EveryDollar so much, I have to say. It's changed my life. It's a game changer. It just gives me peace to look at the numbers. So I'm not just stuck with emotions and opinions and what I think is going to happen with my money. It puts the roadmap right there in front of me. That's very good. It takes it out of your head and gets it on paper, which I love. Every dollar is the best way to make the most of your money. And you do that by creating and sticking to a monthly budget. Every dollar makes it simple to plan and track spending. You track your expenses and you can save for what matters most to you all in an easy to use app that fits into your busy lifestyle. I also love that it fits in your

pocket because it's an app on your phone. You can do the desktop version, but I love the phone and it helps you keep a pulse on your spending and make progress on your money goals. And you can do that with every dollar. So if you don't have it, get it. You can download every dollar for free in the app store or Google Play today. That's every dollar. All right, thanks for hanging with us. That does it for this hour, but we'll see you next hour here on The Ramsey Show. Thank you.