Chapter 1: What money questions are answered in this episode?
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Normal is broken. Common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life from the Ramsey Network in the Fair Ones Credit Union studio. It's the Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me, Dr. John Deloney on the ones and twos. Let's get it going. All right, going straight to the phone lines. We've got Ryan, who's in Tacoma, Washington. What's going on, Ryan? How can we help today?
Hi.
Hi. I'm calling on behalf of my father. I'm very concerned for him. He's 79 years old. And he's very financially gullible. He has just been recently scammed out of $3,600. The transaction just went through yesterday. I stopped a scam last year. There was that involved him. He has a timeshare, of course, in Mexico that he was contacted about and somebody wanted to buy it from him.
And he's getting a call from somebody claiming to be a bank manager in Mexico that has an account with a large amount of money in it. And he, he's believing everybody, but he's not believing me.
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Chapter 2: How can I help my father who is being scammed?
And I'm so concerned for him. He's, he's a widower. Um, he's alone home with his dog and a little bit lonely. And, and he just, I'm trying to find a way, and I'm calling for help. Are there resources available to me that I can help my father see that this is a scam, that these things are not true, that it is too good to be true?
The one that he was just scammed out of, he was told he started an e-commerce business. And it is a website. It's a live website.
And he paid these people a large amount of money to build him this website where they will basically put up these products and then they'll get shipped directly to and he can sit back and just comfortably gain 30 percent profit margin on everything without leaving his chair.
Does he recognize the scope of this latest scam?
I still don't think he does. I, I, he's concerned. He's been very quiet about it. Yeah. And he, he's, I think he's a little embarrassed, but he won't be completely open with me.
Okay. Have you ever, have you ever been scammed? No. Okay. Um, no. Have you ever made a mistake? And here's what I'm looking at looking for. Um, There may be resources, but I can't think of a better resource than a father's, like the love of a son for his father. And so I don't know there's going to be a website or a, a new article like the scams against aging.
Our aging population has increased so much. It's a multi multi-billion dollar business and they're robbing seniors blind and you nailed it. It's a group of people who are increasingly lonely, don't have resources and who are being fed, um, rage and anger and fear all day long. And then somebody comes along and says, hey, I can give you a bit of this, right?
The reason I was asking if you've ever been a part of a scam is for your dad, nothing's going to be more embarrassing than falling for something. And this same group of people who stole this $3,600 is going to loop back with a different scam and say, have you been scammed? Give us $500 and we'll make sure it never happens again. He'll fall for that one too.
This whole thing, you're working with pros. And so if you have ever made a mistake with money, been scammed out of something, leading with that first is often a way to mitigate shame. It's why Dave Ramsey always leads with the story of, hey, I promise you I've blown my life up financially more than any of y'all have. It gives everybody else permission to say, oh, you had $4 million in debt.
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Chapter 3: What are the signs of financial scams targeting seniors?
Because if you are, my dad's dealing with it. Maybe you guys can talk some sense into him. Because at the end of the day, yeah, you can do all the things. You can freeze credit. You can make sure your name is on the accounts. It already sounds like it's that way. It sounds like until you have full control over this and you're more so distributing money to him, sadly, this could continue to go on.
And it's huge, John, you hit on it before, but the latest statistic is adults 60 years old and older have lost $3.4 billion to scams in a single year. Like in a single year, that's crazy. So maybe, I don't know what kind of guy your dad is. Maybe he's an analytical guy. And it's just like, maybe you print out some crazy stats and you just slide it over on the table and say, hey, just read this.
Just please read this. And it's not you talking, but you let somebody else do the talking for you. Maybe you send him this episode. And you say, dad, I was really concerned. I called a few experts just to see. And what they said really bothered, like it was really troubling me. And I wanted you to hear it too. And so Ryan's dad, if you're listening, you got to let Ryan help you out.
This thing is bigger than you.
And for all aging parents.
Yeah, it's bigger than you.
If your kids come to you with some expertise or some care and love, man, let them love you.
Let them love you. They want nothing for you but to help you. They gain nothing for it. And remember, the scammer is the one asking you for money, not your sons and your daughters who are saying, hey, please don't do this thing.
At Ramsey, we don't partner with companies chasing trends or pushing gimmicks. Trust is earned. And that's why we send people to Fairwinds Credit Union. See, a lot of banks rely on teaser rates, marketing hype, and fine print. But that's not how Fairwinds operates. They've been serving members for 75 years, and you don't last that long by cutting corners. You last by serving people well.
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Chapter 4: How can I approach my father about his financial decisions?
I make about $4,500. Okay, and what portion? After tax. Okay, after tax. And how much is the rent or mortgage?
Well, the house we just bought is $2,150. Okay. And we're currently staying in half of a duplex that we own. And the remainder to cover that mortgage is about $500.
Are you renting out the other side?
We are, and we have renters lined up for this side when we move out in the month and a half.
To go to the new house?
Correct. Was the duplex another one of his scams?
No, no. I think it was a wise investment.
Okay, okay. What about daycare? Do you pay for daycare? Yeah.
Okay. We do pay for daycare. It's about $230 a week for our one child that's in daycare.
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Chapter 5: What is the significance of baby step two in debt management?
It's step two. The only debt I have is my mortgage. It's $155K. House value is about $250K, $270K. And I have a roof loan, $15K debt that I really stupidly signed up for a 20-year loan on.
Chapter 6: How can I effectively save on interest while managing a roof loan?
I just wasn't, I don't know.
You weren't thinking, yeah.
I wasn't aware of everything three years ago, and now I am. Sure, sure. And I've run some calculators and I can save about $15,000 in interest if I attack it going forward. So that's my plan. Okay. So your $15,000 from the roof is really your baby step two because we don't count your house inside a baby step two. So it's really just that $15,000 roof.
Do you have any other savings besides this $27,000 that's in your 401k?
No.
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Chapter 7: What strategies can I use to increase my income for debt repayment?
No, it's been week to week for my entire adult life. Oh, wow. Wow. Single income. Oh, 66K. So, you know, it's not terrible. I've just been... The sole financial provider for a couple of – well, they're not kids anymore. Technically, they're 18 and – well, 32. And she did do – I had my daughter in private school – high school.
She went to public school K through 8, but it was just a much – A better fit for high school. So anyway. Yes. OK, so what I would tell you, Beth, is, yeah, the yeah, you'll probably still be working, I would say, for the next foreseeable future. Are you in a pretty steady position of your job? Like if you had to work another 10 years, are you? Yeah. Oh, I'm so fortunate.
I work from home for a major insurance company, so it's quite secure. Okay, great. So you are paycheck to paycheck, so there's not a lot of margin that you have to throw at this $15,000. So that's the first...
Chapter 8: How can I balance paying off debt with planning for future investments?
goal I would have for you is to get $1,000, put that aside in a high yield savings account. You can open up with Fairwinds actually, like there's a smart bundle. And so they have a great high yield savings account in that smart bundle. So Fairwinds is a good spot. You can just put your $1,000 over there and that high yield savings. And then we got to figure out, okay, how do we work extra?
What expenses can we cut? There may not be a lot to cut. So it's probably going to be from the income side, which actually Ken probably could speak to some of that. But getting your income up and having a goal. I mean, Beth, if you could have a goal to make an extra... I don't know, two grand or something.
You know, you just think by the end of this calendar year, if that $15,000 is paid off and it's done, then we can really start looking to cash flow and emergency fund and start throwing a ton at retirement because that's going to be huge. But the faster you get out of this $15,000 roof loan, the quicker you can get to saving more for retirement in that 401k.
One of the things I wanted to know is you said you've been living kind of paycheck to paycheck. And so I'm wondering, is there anything you can cut? And I'm not going to make you list it out for us, but it's more of a general question. Do you feel like you could be tighter or are you as tight as you can be on spending?
Well, I personally, for myself as the mom, I'm very frugal. But I do give in quite often to my teenage daughter, especially the first two years of high school. You know, their eyes are big as foster plates for everything they see on social media. But I just finally wised up to myself. And for the past two years, you know, she's pretty much paid for anything.
But anyway, since she's 18, just to be honest, once that'll be a huge.
So what kind of OK, so let's just run some quick numbers. You don't have to lock these in. But what kind of margin would you now have? Even if we just said today, you're not other than the basics. How much could you put extra towards the snowball?
Well, I'm planning like once she's kind of not, once high school tuition is gone and I'm not spending on her, I can probably put $800 to the roof loan monthly. And then after my other expenses, I think I would have about... Three or five hundred left.
OK, so let's just say for conversation. OK, and again, you need to do your own exercise on this after the call. But let's just say we we came up with a thousand dollars a month and I think we can find it in those numbers you just gave us.
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