BFC Weekly Recap: A $250,000 Catfish Scam, a Reverse Mortgage Mistake, and a Stolen Checkbook

Becoming financially confident.My grandfather on my way on my mother's side, he passed away at age 72.And my grandmother actually lived to be 90 something.So I'm looking at the paper one day and I see my grandfather's name.So I said to my mom, I said, hey, you gotta call grandma right away.And it says that his name was Frank.It says Frank has money, you know, and it didn't even tell me.The institution just said unclaimed money.Frank.My, my, my mother calls my grandmother.My grandmother calls into the state.There was $3,500 that my grandfather had in an old credit union account that when he passed away, so this money had been turned over by the bank to the state.The state did their due diligence and ran this thing.My grandmother was able to submit a copy of her marriage certificate and his death certificate proving that that was her husband.And she got a bonus of $3,500.She wasn't expecting.But this is a big deal.And almost every state has these things.There's one out there called missingmoney.com.Just be careful.There are some fraudsters out here.Well, I think number one is go to the state website.Every state has a dot us or whatever that is for that state.Look for unclaimed property.If they want you to pay a fee, that's a red flag.The state is not going to charge you a fee.My wife and I bought a sleep number bed and those are not cheap.And when we were in the store, I don't usually use these.The lady, the sales lady says, hey, you know, we offer same as cash for 36 months.I'm like, 36 months?That sounds kind of good.But as soon as I got home, I put on my calendar, I took the total balance divided by 36 and I come with a number.I said, nope, here's what I'm going to do.I'm going to take that total amount and divide by 30, and I'm going to pay extra every month so that by the time 30 months come around, it's paid off just in case something happens.But every month I'm looking at that thing.Have they posted my payment?Because I don't want to get hit with that 10.Because here's the thing, a lot of people don't think about this.Let's use that $10,000 example.The interest rate on this thing is 35%.So 35% on $10,000 is $3,500 a year.Multiply that times three.That $10,000 bill just cost me $20,000.

Yeah.

If you don't pay it to the zero balance number.And that's what they're banking on.They want you to fail.Yeah, I know that sounds sinister.I know that sounds icky, but that's how they make money.Now, you can use these to your advantage, but you've got to have the discipline ahead of time.And unfortunately, I agree with you.I think these are predatory.But here's the part a lot of.

People don't know about.

You've ruined your credit.And wait to hear this one.They will then send you a 1099 at the end of the year for forgiveness of debt that you have to pay tax on.So let's use that example.So let's say you have a $5,000 credit card balance and you say, I can't afford to pay.And they say, okay, we understand.They don't pay us.So you don't pay them for six months.Your credit score goes ba ding, ba ding, ba ding.But it's get bad.But then at some point, you get a loader, a letter in the mail, and they say, hey, what?We're getting ready to charge this off.Then you pick up the phone and you call them and you say to them, hey, will you accept the settlement?And they'll say, yep, if you can send us $1,000, get paid, charged up, fine, do it.Here's what happens next, though.They then send a tax form at the end of the year that says, we just wrote off $4,000.You understand my example?Five minus the one is four.That becomes income to you.The IRS sees that as income.Now, here's the thing.Understand?But you're still better off because you're still not paying the 4,000.You're paying a percentage of the 4,000.If you're in a 22% tax bracket, it's going to cost you 800 bucks.But you still save 4,000.So you're still ahead $3,200.

Right, right, right.

Then you might have to talk about bankruptcy.That's one more thing we don't talk a lot about.Bankruptcy is there to help people who can't get out of the debt they're in things like 401ks, IRAs, some brokerage accounts have what's called a named beneficiary.If there's no named beneficiary, this causes a huge potential tax problem.Here's your thing that I'm going to encourage you to do.Make a list of every account that would pay if something happened to you.Log into each one and find the word beneficiaries.So let's say you have a 401k at work.God forbid something happens to you.Your employer needs to have a beneficiary listed to where that money goes.There's still tax consequences.But here's what happens if there isn't.If there isn't, it goes through the probate process, and it goes into an estate.Why that's a problem is because the estate tax rates start at 35%.So instead of paying as low as 12% personal income tax on a retirement distribution, right from the jump, it starts at 35.I had a dear older client a few years ago that ran into this exact situation.Her husband passed away, and he had missed one of the IRA accounts listing a beneficiary.He had listed them on all the other ones, but on one particular one, he didn't.And this happened to be one that had about a half a million dollars of money in it.So what she was faced with of these distributions had to go into an estate, and then there was a 35% tax before she could get the money out of that.Now, we were able to develop a program to cut back on a lot of that, but you can fix that now.So go log in.Make sure all of your accounts have beneficiaries.If they're blank, fix that.Add a backup name underneath of that.It's free.It'll take you less than 15 minutes, and it'll give you peace of mind.And that's the thing we need to understand is we are all going to have seasons of our life where things don't go in the way we expected them.

It's so weird, because I know I've talked on this show that I'm making a pivot and becoming an entrepreneur, but every time I still hear that, I'm gonna be on it.Oh, oh.There's, like, a little tear in my voice right now because I'm making this pivot.There's still a very small voice inside of me that's like, oh, I think you failed.I think you failed in the corporate world.Right.Which isn't true.Which isn't true.Right.There's.I think Ralph and I, we've talked behind the scene, behind the stage, how entrepreneurship feels more comfortable to me, and it feels more like part of my identity.

I want to speak to that, and I want to speak to that from a level you weren't expecting.As you know, I'm a Christian guy, and I.And I'll Put my faith on the shelf.Yeah, but honestly, Juliet, I think things happen in our life that open and close doors for a purpose.Yeah, but maybe there's a plan that you don't even see right now.

Yeah.

You know, and that's the thing.Like, it's so easy to get stuck on identifying ourselves with our career, identifying ourselves with our job.I love the fact of the journey you're on, and I'm sure it's not comfortable.

Yeah.

But don't ever consider yourself a failure.So if you feel right now that you're not where you should be, God has you exactly where he wants you to be.All of these things have put you in a place of where you are now.Remember, I said 18 months at $200 a month.18 Months, $200 a month.Yeah.So let's just say you want to pay it off in 18 months.$200 A month.You know how much that is a day?It's $6.60 a day.

Oh, that feels like a more doable number.

You need to do the same thing in your head.What does this equal a day?Because think about $6.60 a day.Does that mean you don't go to Starbucks?Does that mean you brown bag your lunch instead of eating out?

And I think the mindset here, right.It's like when the dream is too big.When we started talking about the dream, and I was sharing my dream, and you're sharing your dream.Right.Those are really, really big dreams.And so sometimes when you don't break it down into small milestones or smaller goals, it just feels like it's going to not never happen.But then when once you got down to, oh, that's $6.50 a day, I'm like, oh, that makes sense, because I can.I can already feel.Do I actually spend 6:50 a day?If I do, then I can make adjustments.If I don't spend that money because I'm, you know, working from home or something like that, I'm just like, oh, I. I do have that Runway.I can do that.

You know, and to think about it, we envision this dream.Well, envision $6.60 every day.Where do you find it?I would venture to guess that most people can find $6.60 a day, but it helps you make better decisions because you've narrowed it down.I remember my first job.I worked at Roy Rogers.My job was I came in, and I stood at the front counter, and I took orders.That was my job.Somebody walked up, I typed it into the Computer.And I'll tell you a funny story while we're here.So the guy that hires me says, always be doing something.You always be moving and doing.So it's funny, three of my friends from high school all started working here.We had the shiniest counter in Roy Rogers because all three of us, when there was anybody there, we just sit there and rub like this, keeping this.But he said, always be doing something.That job didn't last long, but we understood the job.Your money needs to work the same way.

Yeah.I will say something is like when I first heard about the dollar job framework from Ralph, I thought it would be, it would make people feel empowered because it's, it's basically saying any money that comes to you, you have to give it a job.So in some way it does, you have control over your money.And it, I think there are some people who easily say, well, you know, FOMO or I wanted, I, I just had to, I felt really bad or you know, something like that.But when you say if, when you assign every single dollar that comes into your pocketbook a job, that means you.

Are in control, you're being intentional.And here's the best part of this framework.If you want to go do other stuff, you want to go have fun with your money, I am totally cool with that.It's your money.You get to pick the job.Every single dollar that comes in gets a job.There's no leftovers.There's nobody that doesn't.Every dollar gets a job.And if it doesn' job, guess what happens?So it gets lost.

Yeah.

So that's why we had to be so intentional about this.

So let's say you get $50 a night on the top Rover.The platform takes 20%.So now you're at $40.And then on top of that you have to do self employment tax and then your federal and state tax.Still with from that 40, right?

Yeah, correct.And I didn't even factor in a state income tax.I'm just saying the per, the federal tax and the self employment tax and that, that's pushed down to $30 because a lot of people do the math and they say, oh, this is great for 10 nights I can watch this dog.I'm going to make 500 bucks.But that's not true.You're going to make, you're going to keep $300.But here's the part you also have to think about.What are the supplies you're going to need, what are the utility costs, what is the mileage going back and forth.

Right.

So the real answer, in my perception, is a little less than $30 for each night.I'll tell you a funny story, Julie.There was one point when my credit was really bad because I made really bad decisions.And I used to chuckle.I was like, I would love somebody to steal my identity because they would try to apply for something.They'd be like, what?I can't believe your credit score is that low.It's kind of like my little digging.I'm like, you want to come get me?Good luck with that.Because my credit score is in the toilet, so you're not getting it anywhere anyway.That's just a little funny.Yeah.These are the places where the credit bureau is telling you how they came to your credit score.They're telling you about how they're handling information on your credit report.They give you what's called a summary of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.That's the federal law that governs all of this.So understand all the things we talked about is governed by federal law.So you can go out there and Google, search the Fair Credit Reporting act and understand what your rights are.And you should do that.You should know what your rights are.Because so many decisions are made based on your credit.And the obvious ones are you go get a loan, you go get a credit card.But what a lot of people don't know is they use this for employment screening.They use this for insurance pricing, your credit, and specifically your credit score, but your credit is what's building that credit score.My oldest son just moved to New York, and he bought his washer and dryer for his apartment while he was in Texas.

Okay?

So he went to the same Home Depot in New York because he needed a hose for it.Guess what, Julia?That same washer and dryer in New York was $300 more.

Whoa.In.

In New York versus Texas.Now, some of that.Again, that's not exactly what we're talking about here, but.But if you do this online, you can see that there are some differences.So if you want to comment about this, you can go out to regulations.gov this is actually FT FTC 2026, 1057.So if you feel strongly about it, then you should go out there and do that.Because the whole reason that the FTC exists is to protect the consumer.And if you don't say anything, this is just gonna continue.So elderly client comes to me one tax season and says, guess what, Ralph?I decided that I'm going to do a reverse mortgage on my house.A reverse Mortgage is like.So what that means is instead of you paying a mortgage, you own your house.Outri.And then you say, hey, give me money.And then when I die, you can take the house.It's basically what a reverse mortgage is.

I didn't know that existed.

Yeah, it's a whole thing.You see a lot less of those now.But this particular older fellow, he did a reverse mortgage.And I said, okay, so what did you do with the money?He says, ralph, I'm scared of the banks.And I said, okay, okay, it's in my mattress.

Put the money in the ground.

It's in my Mattress.He took $150,000 in a reverse mortgage, put it under his mattress.And I just looked at him.I just looked at him, and I'm like, julie, I thought to myself, like, dude, seriously.Now, that particular scenario was interesting because this reverse mortgage force.Oh, this is going to be safe, you know, you don't have to worry about it.And it's like, dude, you just made your life great, super complicated.Because now you owe money on this reverse mortgage.And the way it works is they advance you the money, but you still pay interest on that.I used to work at the credit union.So this one day, it's a Friday, busy day at the credit union.And I'm sitting at my desk, and all of a sudden I hear this fracas going on on the teller line.And this one of our tellers is out there screaming.She's carrying on.So I go running.I don't know if we were getting robbed or what, but she was working in the drive up, and I walk back to her, and she has a check in her hand.She's going, look, Ralph, look, look, look, look.Look at this check.I'm.And she goes, the check, it's mine, it's mine.And I said, what do you mean, it's yours?So come to find out, this particular person had stolen a box of checks from this teller's mailbox.

Oh, my God.

And talk about how unlucky this thief was.Then went to the credit union to cash a check.And the person working at the teller line is the person's check that she stole.

That's crazy.

So I said to the teller, I said, have that lady come around because we don't have enough money to give out in the.In the drive.You need to come around.So this lady, I would have been gone.I'd have been out of there.The lady comes, stands in the lobby.Now the lobby is busy.So I call a friend of mine.Who's a local policeman.And he comes down to the credit union.She's done.And he walks in the door.He already knew her.Her name was Peaches.And he says, well, I guess we got you again, Peaches.Moral of the story, know what's coming into your mailbox.Because this was the craziest thing.Like think about the likelihood of you steal somebody's check and then you go to the very place where that person is working.And not only do you go to that place, the person who's working is the person that's waiting on you.So there is someone that I know who went through a real.And she just passed away.So I can talk about this story and I won't be offending anybody.She was a client of mine for probably 15 years and she's a single lady.Didn't have anybody in her life besides a couple of family members.And she got cancer.And when she got cancer, she went through a really tough time of dealing with cancer.Well, she ended up befriending somebody online that she thought was a professional, like multi platinum winning singer.And this person made a relationship with this person.And.And $250,000 later, you heard me right?

Yeah.

This client realized that she had been scammed.But here's how she realized she had been scammed.And they actually were getting fraudulent mortgage back loans.And they were.And they were saying to this particular client, hey, can you sign for these documents?She did.She ended up giving criminal charges from the state.And that's how she became aware of this.The.The catfish.It's like the definition of this.And you know, and the sad part of it is it takes people when they're in an emotionally drained position.Like this particular lady.She was literally dying of cancer.And this no good rat, I'm going to say, that took advantage of this woman.$250,000, Right.And here's the thing.She should have known better.I can't tell you what she did for a living, but she did stuff for a living that she should have known better.

Imagine you have 104 payments towards student loan forgiveness with 16 left to go.You log in one morning and it says 97.What the heck happened?Public service loan forgiveness is supposed to wipe out what's left on your federal student loans after 120 qualifying payments while you work full time for the government or a qualifying nonprofit.The education department recalculated those counts this summer.And some people watched months of credit disappear.The department says it is fixing counter.It was fixing counter code Errors going back to 2024.

So what we're talking about here is there are certain jobs, if you agree to do 10 years of service, basically 120 months, they will forgive your student loans.And here's the part that's important to understand.A lot of people took these jobs.They're lower paying jobs, but they're looking at the benefit down the road of how these student loans are going to pay it off, are going to get paid off.Now, the thing I don't like about this headline is this was a silent thing.They didn't send out any letters, they didn't pay any attention to any of these things.So here's what you do to fix this.If you log into student aid.gov again, that studentaid.gov type it in yourself again, find your qualifying payment count and write the number down with today's date next to it and then compare it to your own records.Look at your old pay stubs, look at your old bank records.This may be one of those things where the government made a mistake.Look at your statements.Don't assume that they're correct because there's a lot of things that could be going into making that a problem for you.Here's what I tell everybody.You're going to lose about 40% of whatever you're taking out in tax.

Yeah, that's crazy.

So that's a big deal now with my son who came to me and said, Dad, I have $1,700 in this.I said to him, I said, here's your options.He didn't have a new 401k.I said, you can put the money into an IRA.I knew my son wasn't going to do that.He wasn't going to take the time to go set up the account.And Honestly, he was 23 at the time.I said, take the money, pay the tax and put it into your emergency savings account.So for him, the amount of money, it made sense to do that.Sure, he lost some money, but it wasn't as dramatic for him because he was in a lower tax bracket.So he had to pay 12% federal tax and 10% state and an 8%, excuse me, 12% state, 10% penalty, 8% stage.So he paid about 30%.So he did take a haircut.It's kind of funny.He's a barber now, so he took a haircut.But in his case, it made sense.For most people, though, it doesn't make sense because of that.And I've even had people say to me, but Ralph, I'M paying a lot on credit cards.I get that.But if you're going to lose 40% right from the jump, I don't know of too many credit cards that are charging you 40% interest.

Right.

So I am not a huge fan of taking no.And that's what you think about.But the bigger thing, and this person didn't ask about this, if you leave an employer, don't forget about those things.Don't forget about that retirement account that you have.Because so many people walk away.What I have seen, most lenders are between 500 and 1000.Once you go over a thousand, the lender's like, no.And here's what happens if that happens.The lender gets a little report card from the insurance company.The insurance company will send a postcard and says, hey, this particular driver that you have a loan for, because they're going to register with each other, change their deductible, and then what happens?A lender is going to reach out to you and say, juliet, hey, we love having you as a customer, but we got a problem here.

Yeah.

When you signed a contract for us to lend you money for the car loan, you agreed that you would make your deductible no more than 500.

Right.

And we just found out it's now $2,000.So you have two choices, Juliet.You can either go back to your insurance company and fix this, or we're going to do something called forced placed insurance.Forced placed insurance is the lender actually goes out and buys a policy that is not for your benefit and they charge you for it.

In that case, if I get, like a forced placed insurance, does that mean I have two insurances?

Well, you don't have two insurances.The lender has bought insurance to make sure they're covered.Correct.And they're gonna charge you for it, and it's gonna cost five times what it will cost you.Wins of the week.I'm super excited because in the next hour or so, I'm gonna see my grandson.He is coming down from New York, so we are going to spend a weekend together.My oldest son and I are going to a University of Delaware football game tomorrow.I guess my big win of the week is.I'm really enjoying this show.I'm really enjoying the time I'm spending with Juliet, with Abby behind the scenes, and with all of you, and Duchess of NJ and the other people who have joined us.This is what I want to do.And I really appreciate every one of you because there are things that you do in life because you have to.And there's things that you do because you want to.And this is a want to for me.And you guys are making my dreams come true with this.And I mean that from my heart is one of the things that I want to do in this next chapter of my life.Because I'm not a spring chicken.Hit 54, I guess it was last week.I want to be able to do this for people to make an impact on their lives.And I want to thank every single one of you involved with this show because you're helping me be impactful to other people, and that's making me grow as a human being.So that's my win for the week,.

And I'm just going to continue that.First of all, shout out to Duchess of nj girl.I am a shoe girly, too.Okay, we can talk about that later.

I'm a shoe guy, too.You don't want to know how many pairs of shoes I have.

We will talk about that one day as well.So as you guys can know, you know, the.The show is really early on and we're trying to build a community, but we really want insights from you guys.Like, what do you guys want from.What do you guys need, you know, on top of just me and Ralph shooting?I don't think I can say that on air, but, you know, like, shooting the breeze.Right?

Shooting the breeze.That's fair to say.On air.I got no issue with that.

Yeah, but like, what do you guys.What do you guys want?What kind of conversations do you want to see?How do you want to be in community with one another?Let us know, because we are here to make sure everybody feels financially confident, not just, you know, conversation between us.

That's the goal.I mean, every day, when I think about what do I want this show to do today, it's to make people feel financially confident.And as I say on the show all the time, it's a journey.All of us are on this journey together.Some of us are in different places on the journey, But I can assure you all of us are on this journey and we're not alone in that.We're all together in this.And that's why I love this community.So thank you, Juliet.Thank you, Abby behind the scenes.Thank you everybody who joined us.And again, that's the show for today.I'm Ralph Estepp Jr. And I'm Juliet.And again, if you've got questions for the show, just like the two voicemails we got today, go to our website.It's becomingfinanciallyconfident.com you can talk about more of the stuff on the show.Make sure you join us Monday for the live show.And please invite other people to either join us live or just send them a link to the show.Because we want to grow this.We want to reach more people because our goal here every single day is breaking free from money.Shame.One conversation at a time.So have a great weekend.I'm going to go spend some time with my grandson Carson.I can't wait.

Sat.