With great regret, The tractor must be sold.

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I used the tractor to clear snow today, cleared mine and my elderly neighbors (I charge her $35 for the season because she insists on paying), boy oh boy was that cab nice lol. It was 14 degrees outside, wind blowing (gusts 20mph+) and I was actually a bit warm in a light jacket .

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm hoping you can regroup and find a way forward...

I've often found selling realizes less than I thought and buying often costs a little more...

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Dave Ramsey is a moron. He brainwashes people that can't think for themselves.
I did EVERYTHING the opposite of what Ramsey teaches. His thing is eat rice and bean and sleep on the floor with the heat or AC off until your debt free. Although I could have afforded to be debt free but I borrowed money and bought three homes and sold then all for huge profits. Then I borrowed more and purchaed anything and everything and flipped it for PROFIT.
Here's some examples even a three year old can understand.

RAMSY WAY: I am a burger flipper with good credit ratingand listened to the brain washer Ramsey I would eat beans and rice and sleep on the floor for 15 years till I paid off my house and drove around in a 1964 Chevy Biscayne station wagon.

PERSON WITH A BRAINS WAY: I am a burger flipper with good credit rating I take a second mortgage on my home and purchase a second home I fix it up at night and weekends from flipping burgers and I seel that house for $60,000 profit. I continute to not listen to Ramsey and I don't use that $60,000 to be debt free and now I purchase two houses do the same thing and now I have $120,000 in PROFIT and it's taken three years. I keep doing this for the next 15 years and not only am I debt free but I I have 500K in cash instead of doing it Ramsy's way I would only have a house paid for and a crappy car.

Use your brains borrow and INVEST.

Another one. Keep your tractor as you can make money with a tractor so the tractor PAYS FOR ITSELF.

Use your brains.

I purchase equipment that pays for itself and I still own the equipment to sell at a later date.

There are a MILLION ways to make money rather than Ramsy's way.

I’m glad that model has worked out for you. I personally have no interest in going further in debt to flip houses.

You also don’t understand what Ramsey teaches or you greatly over exaggerated for your point but never have I heard him tell someone to eat beans and rice for 15 years. He would tell that person to look at themselves, find a way to boost the income, take a second job, take classes for a better career etc and pay off the debt the fastest way possible.

Never have I heard him promote being content making lower wages.

House flipping is Risky, house flipping with borrowed money is Extremely Risky and is a good way to file for bankruptcy faster than building stable wealth. Some can, good for them but many don’t and go bust.

 

[ultrarunner]

I like Ramsey by-line that a paid off mortgage is the new status symbol...

So many I know that lost their homes kept refinancing and the when prices dropped were stuck... every block in my city of 425,000 had at least one foreclosure.

 

[CADplans]

House flipping is Risky, house flipping with borrowed money is Extremely Risky and is a good way to file for bankruptcy faster than building stable wealth. Some can, good for them but many don稚 and go bust.

My sister in law spent 10 years flipping homes (and selling real estate) until she was in a million dollar home (in Florida) that they could afford the mortgage of,,,

THEN,, over 6 months, and about 3 home flips,, she lost ALL of her money, and the home she was in.

She still sells a little real estate,, but, the loss cured her of "flipping",,, reality sucks,,, (NOT realty,, but, that sucks also,,, :laughing

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

This stood out to me:

"I could make payments and have everything except the house paid off in about 4 years, I can make the payments and I don't struggle to pay them BUT... "

I get that. And Dave Ramsey has lots of great advice. But, he's also kind of geared to folks a little more off the deep end than you sound to be, meaning they don't even grasp the first rule of holes - you find yourself in one, stop digging.


Snip... .

Dang this is a long post lol.

I won’t go into great detail about everything but here are some highlights to answer some of your questions.

• I have never paid for TV, WiFi etc.

• I don’t have kids nor do I have a wife yet.

• I have lived on very little where it comes to daily consumables, food, not eating out etc. I’m relatively cheap when it comes to stuff like that.

• Where I got in trouble was bailing my dad out at the same time as buying a house, I ended up loaning him $6500 over the course of around 6 months just before I had to come up with around $11k for a down payment on my house. That started the carrying debt I couldn’t pay off at the next paycheck.

• Most of what I bought after I bought the house, I bought under market value so I could make money or at the least break even. There was a few not as smart purchases but I did ok on most.

• the reason I would get out of debt is to avoid the interest I would pay on existing debt which would be around 8k. If I was out of debt tomorrow that’s what I would save vs making payments for another 4 years.

So far I have been combating that interests with as Ramsey puts it “side hustles”, for awhile I bought up anything and everything I could to make money on. Tractors, tillers, cattle, you name it, did side jobs to earn extra money also, I have been doing this for around 3 years, last year I didn’t really do any, was more focused on selling (besides getting into hay). Because of that I have been able to pay down a little debt and keep interest at bay. But I’m just kinda tired of it. I can mainly get off of debt just by selling the trucks, tractor, and finishing up all the projects and getting them sold. I would be left with about 6k of debt is all that was sold, I could pay that off in about 6 months, deff less than a year.

My house payment is more than most financial advisers Advise. They say the payment should be around 1/4 your take home pay. Mine is around 1/2 my take home. One year it was over 50% because they screwed up my taxes the year before so they had to catch me up. I knew going into buying this house that I had to pinch pennies so I cut the fat out of the Daily consumables at day 1. Many months I had to rely on credit cards to keep going, my paycheck wasn’t enough. But I’m past those days, I have equity built up in the house, we dropped PMI last year, I have had steady yearly pay raises, I’m around 1/3 of my take home now.

I have had a room mate in my house prob 2-3 of the 4 years I have owned, one guy paid me $500 per month (he’s gone), my sister needed a place and now rents that same room for $400 per month (she set that price, I wouldn’t care if she didn’t pay rent). I make a little money from cattle, plus HVAC side jobs and projects like fixing up lawn mowers, buying and selling seasonal things for profit like tillers, golf carts and zero turns. I have never tracked what my total income is including all the side stuff. I have wanted to get a second job in the past but my schedule bounces around too much.

If I had just the house payment and no other debts I would put the money into further education and look for another job for more pay. I have been at my current job for 6 years and I’m scared to leave, scared because if I left here and the next place didn’t work out, I would be forced to find a job making what I do now or I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills. I have a steady and reliable job now and debt has kept me here. I have nobody to bail me out, nobody in my fam has money, I AM the guy who bails our other family members lol. My sister lives at my place, my dad just now paid me back (so he says, I never kept track of it for diff reasons) the money I loaned him 7 years ago when he was out of work for 6 months. My mom lives in another spare bedroom during the winter every year because my place is 10 mins from her work vs the 65 mins she drives and it saves her in utilities because she doesn’t have to heat her place much above freezing, I don’t charge her anything for rent. My dad had one full barn full of his stuff 16x26 building so he doesn’t pay storage fees (I strictly told him it wasn’t a open invitation and I agreed to 1/2 a year, that was 3 1/2 years ago lol). But I don’t have enough stuff to need that barn anyway so I don’t push it.

 

[two_bit_score]

That clears up a lot! You are correct to clean up the baggage of the debt. Good Luck! When you get it cleaned up and get some money ahead you can start branching out judiciously and carefully taking risks that will make money for you.

Helping family is one thing and sometimes you just have to say no. It might be best if they don't know that you are debt free when you get it paid off.

I have seen people that I KNEW were flush with cash that complained all the time in front of their family that they were strapped and nearly broke just to keep the family from hitting them up for loans.


.

 

[Doofy]

That clears up a lot! You are correct to clean up the baggage of the debt. Good Luck! When you get it cleaned up and get some money ahead you can start branching out judiciously and carefully taking risks that will make money for you.

Helping family is one thing and sometimes you just have to say no. It might be best if they don't know that you are debt free when you get it paid off.

I have seen people that I KNEW were flush with cash that complained all the time in front of their family that they were strapped and nearly broke just to keep the family from hitting them up for loans.


.

Well, Heck. Been telling my kids that for 30 years. They won't ask for $$ unless there is no other option.

 

[coobie]

One thing I learned many years ago NEVER bail out family members.It bites you in the arse overtime

 

[R_Walter]

Well I知 not sure that was the right thing. If someone has no relatives to give it to and I found it than who really should have it? What did the state do? They致e been taking their share his whole life. In either case too late now. It wasn稚 really free and clear mine though or it definitely would have been. 5 million or more wouldn稚 have been a bad return on investment on a 150k house.

Are you saying that with the records you found you could have diverted the $5million to your accounts somehow. Seems to me it would have taken a lot of fraud for that to happen.