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What a Cash-Out Refinance Really Costs You · Becoming Financially Confident

• 0:07
  Happy Friday.
• 0:08
  Child care is considered affordable if it's at 7% of your income, but parents are actually spending closer to 20%.
• 0:16
  Plus two dates.
• 0:17
  You need to know if you buy your own health insurance.
• 0:20
  And we're looking at why your first paycheck might not actually cover a living wage.
• 0:26
  Yeah.
• 0:26
  It's Friday, which means it's time to check on this week's money move.
• 0:29
  Did you freeze your credit at all three credit bureaus?
• 0:32
  And later, we're going to talk about a listener question about refinances.
• 0:36
  We got a great question from a listener named Mark and his wife Krista.
• 0:40
  So we're going to talk about if you pull equity out of your home, is that money taxable?
• 0:44
  And I'm going to go a little deeper and share some things that they hadn't actually asked but are really important.
• 0:49
  And then we're going to wrap up with wins of the week.
• 0:53
  Becoming financially confident.
• 1:01
  Welcome to becoming financially confident.
• 1:03
  Breaking free from money Shame.
• 1:04
  One conversation at a time.
• 1:06
  I have something in my throat.
• 1:07
  Ralph, these things happen when you do live.
• 1:10
  It's okay, my friend.
• 1:12
  Yeah.
• 1:13
  We are live every Monday through Friday from 11:30am to 12:30pm Eastern.
• 1:19
  And I'm Ralph Estepp Jr.
• 1:20
  I'm a licensed public accountant.
• 1:21
  And I'm the guy over here with 30 years of experience.
• 1:25
  And I'm Julia, and I don't have that experience.
• 1:27
  I'm just a regular person asking Ralph all of the questions.
• 1:30
  Because you may have them, too.
• 1:32
  Yeah.
• 1:32
  Which means we're two very different people having conversations about the things that affect our money.
• 1:36
  And do you know what?
• 1:37
  Interesting.
• 1:38
  Julie and I were talking about this before the show.
• 1:40
  We're probably the only show out there that actually does this.
• 1:43
  So this is Ralph's little plug.
• 1:45
  If you know somebody that's looking for help with.
• 1:47
  With their finances and they're tired of somebody just pontificating and just speaking at them, send them over to our show because we're doing it differently than everybody else.
• 1:56
  Which leads me to our house rules for today.
• 1:58
  And these are house rules every day.
• 2:00
  This show is not about shaming anybody about money.
• 2:04
  Nobody is ever going to be judged on this show for what they didn't know.
• 2:07
  That's the whole point of this show.
• 2:08
  We're going to show you how to do things better.
• 2:10
  We're going to educate.
• 2:11
  We're going to inform.
• 2:13
  And those times when I get stuck in accounting jargon, hey, Juliet's going to say, wait a minute, Ralph.
• 2:18
  What's the real answer here?
• 2:20
  Yeah.
• 2:20
  So if you have a question that you want us to discuss on this show about, send it to us@becoming financiallyconfident.com no question is off limits.
• 2:29
  Yeah.
• 2:30
  Because wherever you are on your financial journey and listen, we're all on a financial journey.
• 2:34
  I want you to know you're not alone and there's no shame in where you are today.
• 2:42
  Our first headline for today, the federal government says childcare is affordable if it costs you 7,7% of your income.
• 2:49
  But the average parent is paying for childcare says that they're spending closer to 20%.
• 2:54
  And the average cost of raising a child is about 16,857 a year per child.
• 3:01
  Ralph, how did we get here?
• 3:04
  Yeah, I'm just going to correct something you said and I don't think you meant to say it.
• 3:07
  That's just the cost of daycare alone.
• 3:09
  $16,857 a year per child.
• 3:15
  And it's, I, I see this all the time in my tax practice because people come in and get their taxes done and one of the things they can do is what's called a dependent care expense.
• 3:23
  They can do flexible spending.
• 3:25
  These numbers are getting huge.
• 3:27
  Like I've got clients between two kids that are paying a mortgage or, or more.
• 3:32
  So what we're really talking about here is the government has said that affordable.
• 3:37
  When the government says affordable, I always go, yeah, maybe not.
• 3:40
  But the government is saying affordable is about 7% of income.
• 3:44
  But what they're finding is the average person like you and me and other people now my kids are grown, they're 25 and 29.
• 3:50
  But those of you in the audience that have younger children or maybe you have grandchildren, that number is three times that.
• 3:57
  We're talking about 20% plus.
• 4:00
  And I see this all the time in my practice because it happens to clients.
• 4:05
  You know, they decide they want to have a family, which is a beautiful thing.
• 4:08
  And then, you know, with two parents having to work now so they can afford things because the economy is not easy to get through with the, then you got to make that difficult decision to put kids in daycare.
• 4:17
  And that number is huge.
• 4:20
  So something that you mentioned is the dependent care fsa, right.
• 4:25
  My question is, is that only available to parents who have a, like a day job that offers that or is that available to anybody?
• 4:35
  So there's really two things we're talking about here.
• 4:37
  If you're fortunate enough to work for a company that offers flexible spending, then you can defer a certain amount of money in pre tax dollars to pay for childcare.
• 4:47
  So that's Number one, you have that ability at your employer.
• 4:49
  You can do that.
• 4:50
  If you don't have that, you're still entitled to a dependent care credit when you file your tax return.
• 4:56
  But the deferral as an FSA is a much better deal.
• 5:00
  You get to defer more income.
• 5:02
  So if you have either one of those things works.
• 5:05
  Now I just want to throw something else out there too because one of the things that a lot of clients ask me, they'll say, ralph, my wife and I, we're going to have a child.
• 5:13
  You know, does it make sense for one of us to quit our job and just be the full time provider?
• 5:18
  And, and look, there's, there's moral issues in that.
• 5:21
  There's all kinds of discussions about that.
• 5:22
  But the thing a lot of people don't think about, I just want to dwell here for a second.
• 5:26
  It's not just the income.
• 5:29
  The income is one part, but it's the benefits you receive as well.
• 5:34
  Does your spouse cover your health insurance?
• 5:36
  Does your spouse get, have the ability to contribute to, like we talked about this FSA or can they contribute to a retirement account?
• 5:43
  So don't just think about it in terms of, well, you know, but if my wife doesn't work, and I don't mean to be sexist and saying this, but if my wife decides to stay home and take care of
• 5:51
  the children and she doesn't work anymore, it's not just the salary you're foregoing, it's the benefits, it's those other things.
• 5:59
  So it's real easy to get stuck on.
• 6:01
  Well, the numbers just don't jive.
• 6:03
  So you have to factor all that because that's real money.
• 6:05
  I like the way that you mentioned that.
• 6:07
  So if I could do a quick summary as the non expert here.
• 6:11
  So take a look, no matter who you are at what, what coverage your employer offers you.
• 6:17
  You know, take a look at the dependent care fsa, see how much that benefits you.
• 6:22
  And then if you are having a child, you know, family planning, take everything into consideration, not only the income lost, but then what additional things you need to have.
• 6:33
  Health care coverage, other coverage.
• 6:37
  And then I'm going to add, add to that because one of my friends just had a child.
• 6:41
  Take a look at other benefits that your employer gives you for family planning.
• 6:46
  Like she was able to find.
• 6:48
  There's like a new, I forget what, what company it's called, but they provide nanny services for the first three to six months or something like that.
• 6:57
  So definitely look into those benefits.
• 6:59
  Whatever your employer offers you.
• 7:01
  Yeah.
• 7:01
  And Just understand with these FSA things, there's an open enrollment period, so make sure you check with your employer.
• 7:07
  There could be a certain amount of time during the year or so many days after a child is born.
• 7:12
  So make sure you're aware of those things because that's something you can check right now.
• 7:17
  That's one of the things that you can really, because it does help you a lot of money because you think about it like this.
• 7:21
  I'm going to go, I'm going to put on my tax hat for a second.
• 7:23
  If you're in a 24% tax bracket, if you can defer $5,000 by pay because you're going to pay for it anyway, we just said the number is $16,000 a year, that's going to save you well over $1,500 in
• 7:38
  tax.
• 7:38
  I mean, it's a big number and that's real tax dollars.
• 7:41
  But make sure you're aware of the deadlines.
• 7:44
  Make sure you're aware of all those enrollment things.
• 7:46
  And I agree with what ju.
• 7:48
  I was fortunate enough.
• 7:48
  We just had our first grandchild born.
• 7:50
  It's been three months ago and my son's in the Coast Guard and he took advantage of all those things.
• 7:54
  Like he got so many days off.
• 7:56
  Now his wife is a school teacher.
• 7:57
  She's going to take a break from teaching.
• 7:59
  So they're going down to one income.
• 8:01
  So they're living this right now.
• 8:02
  So I'll be happy to report on the show how this is all going because the conversations between the two of them is really funny because they were working two jobs, you know, each of them working, and now they're
• 8:12
  having to have difficult discussions as a married couple and say, okay, well, now we're going to have to do this and now we're going to have to do that.
• 8:18
  So I'll make sure.
• 8:19
  Because, you know, I over share on the show.
• 8:21
  I'm going to tell you about what's really going on.
• 8:22
  But how about we get into the next headline?
• 8:24
  Let's.
• 8:24
  Julie, unless you've got another question on this one.
• 8:26
  Oh, I just wanted to say, you know, if these conversations are helpful, definitely share it with people in your lives that you know potentially could benefit hearing these conversations.
• 8:35
  Absolutely.
• 8:35
  That's why we're here every day at 11:30 Eastern.
• 8:41
  All right, second headline.
• 8:43
  If you buy your own health insurance through the federal exchange, there's a shorter window to choose your plan this year.
• 8:49
  Open enrollment starts November 1st, 1st and ends December 15th.
• 8:53
  I just want to emphasize this.
• 8:55
  Yesterday we talked about health insurance through the marketplace.
• 8:58
  Today, we're talking about your own health insurance.
• 9:01
  So, Ralph, talk us through this.
• 9:03
  What has changed and what do people need to know before they choose a plan?
• 9:07
  Yeah, so here's what we're talking about here.
• 9:08
  If you're covered by your employer, this does not affect you.
• 9:12
  This is if you're going out to the marketplace, which is exactly what we talked about the other day.
• 9:16
  Remember, we had the discussion about my client that was getting the benefits and he owed all that money at tax time.
• 9:21
  That's exactly what we're talking about about here.
• 9:24
  Every year you have the ability, what's called open enrollment through the health insurance marketplace.
• 9:30
  There are basically two dates that you need to be aware of.
• 9:33
  The first date is November 1st.
• 9:35
  That's when you can go and shop different rates.
• 9:37
  You can go shop different plans.
• 9:39
  What you have right now is what you have.
• 9:42
  It's going to automatically renew if you don't do anything.
• 9:45
  So once November 1st comes, you can go to the health insurance marketplace.
• 9:49
  If this affects you, if it's with your employer, ask your employer the same question.
• 9:53
  A lot of times employers have that open enrollment.
• 9:55
  It's just not through the marketplace, and say to them, hey, is there some better plan?
• 9:59
  Can you increase your deductibles?
• 10:01
  There are different things you can do.
• 10:02
  So that's date number one, November 15th.
• 10:05
  The second date is the one that changed, and that's December 15th.
• 10:09
  You've got from November 1st to December 15th to lock in any changes.
• 10:14
  Now, the state exchanges might have run different, longer, but here's what changed.
• 10:18
  It used to be you had till January 15, so they've cut a whole nother month off of this.
• 10:24
  Now I'm going to tell you why I think that's the case.
• 10:26
  And this, you're not going to find this in the headlines.
• 10:28
  The reason this is changing is because the price of health insurance is going through the roof.
• 10:33
  And I'm going to use my personal example here.
• 10:36
  Like I said on this show, I'm going to tell you like I.
• 10:38
  I'm going to call it like I see it.
• 10:39
  My wife and I get our insurance through the marketplace because my business is not big enough to offer group health insurance.
• 10:47
  When we first started doing this two or three years ago.
• 10:49
  Now, my wife and I are about the same age.
• 10:51
  We're Both in our mid-50s when we first started doing this, Juliet, a couple years ago for our policy.
• 10:57
  And it's a better policy.
• 10:58
  In other words, we have lower deductibles, lower co pays was about $1,500 a month.
• 11:05
  Per month.
• 11:05
  For two people.
• 11:06
  For two people.
• 11:07
  Well, guess what?
• 11:07
  Last year it went to $2,600 a month.
• 11:11
  Now they're talking about the increase for this year, projected to be about 25% more.
• 11:19
  What the heck.
• 11:21
  So now we're talking about.
• 11:22
  If you do the math on my fingers and toes, because I got a few of those, we're talking about close to $3,000 a month for two.
• 11:29
  And the honest to goodness truth is, my wife and I are both the healthiest we've ever been in our lives.
• 11:33
  I've told you about my health journey.
• 11:34
  My wife's been on the same journey.
• 11:37
  But the insurance just continues to go up and up and up.
• 11:42
  One of the reasons I think they're making this window smaller is they're trying to figure out how many people are going to drop out of this insurance because it gets to a point they call it affordable care.
• 11:52
  And I'm not going to get political, but there are very few people that can afford it.
• 11:56
  And so just.
• 11:57
  I wanted to be clear about these dates today, because these are big deals.
• 12:00
  November 1st, go shop around.
• 12:02
  Don't just accept whatever offer they throw at you.
• 12:05
  You can change from a gold plan to a bronze plan.
• 12:08
  You can change your deductibles.
• 12:09
  You can change your co pays depending upon your health.
• 12:13
  Yeah.
• 12:13
  And then realize you gotta lock something in by December 15th.
• 12:17
  If you miss that window, one of two things can happen.
• 12:20
  Thing number one is you're gonna automatically get what they gave you.
• 12:23
  Or thing number two, you're not gonna have any insurance at all, which is not a good thing.
• 12:29
  Yeah.
• 12:29
  Yeah.
• 12:30
  Duchess of New Jersey, she said, welcome to getting older.
• 12:34
  That's a crazy increase.
• 12:35
  Yeah.
• 12:35
  I'm freaking out over here because I'm like, I.
• 12:38
  This is my first year getting into the marketplace, so I gotta put that on my to do list.
• 12:43
  Well, the good is for you, Juliet, to be blunt, is the fact that you're much younger than I am is going to give you a better place.
• 12:49
  But even in general, they're going up.
• 12:53
  I mean, they're definitely going up.
• 12:54
  And this ties back into that whole discussion we had the other day.
• 12:57
  So as you're going through this, go look at your income and make sure your income is correct, because what you don't want to have happen is this thing we talked about the other day where you're getting these insurance
• 13:07
  premium credits.
• 13:08
  Turn around.
• 13:09
  You owe that money at tax time.
• 13:10
  So this is a great time to check two things.
• 13:12
  Number one, do you have the insurance you Want number two, have you put your income correctly?
• 13:18
  I can definitely come back with some updates because I'm going to do some more research to figure out how to buy, make healthcare affordable for me.
• 13:27
  So you're going to be going through this personally is what you're saying?
• 13:30
  Yeah.
• 13:31
  Well, that sounds like a whole nother episode of Juliet's adventure into the Affordable Care Marketplace.
• 13:38
  I'm pre stressed right now, but want to go into the.
• 13:42
  You want to go into the third headline?
• 13:43
  Let's do that.
• 13:48
  We've got another really cruel scam that's running right now.
• 13:51
  So you have already been taken once.
• 13:54
  Maybe you got tricked.
• 13:55
  Then somebody calls and says, hey, you can actually get your money back.
• 13:58
  I'm sorry for tricking you, but you can get your money back, but you have to pay a fee.
• 14:02
  Ralph, talk us through this scam.
• 14:05
  You can't be serious.
• 14:07
  Yeah, this is a deal.
• 14:08
  Like, think about this.
• 14:10
  This is like the, what they call that, making it worse, like salt on a wound, I think is the one that I was trying to get to.
• 14:17
  But so what's going on here is people are saying that they're government agencies, they're saying they're a law firm, they're saying there's some consumer group.
• 14:26
  And they're saying to you, we realize that you were the victim of a scam.
• 14:29
  And they're saying to you, you know what, if you'll send us a small retainer or if you'll send us a processing fee or what they call an administrative fee, we can help you get your money back.
• 14:40
  And then the next thing they ask you for is your bank information.
• 14:44
  Not a good thing.
• 14:46
  You can forget that.
• 14:47
  You know, you just, there's no reason to, to do this.
• 14:51
  And I'm going to tell you, I'm going to use a mean word here.
• 14:54
  And what we're talking about here is sucker lists, because that's really what we're talking about here.
• 15:00
  People are getting hit once, getting put on the target on your back.
• 15:03
  So they're coming after you again.
• 15:06
  Yeah, here's the rule for this.
• 15:08
  And there's no exceptions to this rule 0.
• 15:12
  No legitimate recovery service is going to ask you for money up front to get your own money back.
• 15:18
  Yeah.
• 15:18
  So start there.
• 15:19
  If for some reason they say to you, where is your money?
• 15:24
  Then number one thing doesn't exist.
• 15:27
  Stop.
• 15:28
  Second thing, there are places you can report this and I'm going to encourage you to do it.
• 15:32
  You can go to report fraud.ftc.gov and we'll put that in the show notes.
• 15:38
  Also, if you unfortunately were the victim of this, get on the phone and talk to your bank, report it to your bank's fraud department.
• 15:46
  And then finally, the third thing, go to your state attorney general's office and file a complaint there.
• 15:53
  Yeah.
• 15:54
  That way, you know, because the FTC is never going to tell you to move money.
• 15:58
  They're never going to tell you to withdraw cash or buy gold or send them gift cards or any other crazy things we've talked about about this.
• 16:05
  It's just so sad when you think about this.
• 16:07
  Juliet is like, here is somebody that's already gotten scanned and taken advantage of, and they probably got on the, what I called the sucker list.
• 16:15
  I hate to be so v, you know, broad about it, but it's the truth.
• 16:19
  And now it's like, well, let me go after this person again, because they're kind of an easy mark, as they would say.
• 16:24
  Yeah.
• 16:24
  I mean, we've talked about a lot of different scams on the show.
• 16:28
  Even yesterday, I talked about the few ways I have been scammed, slash almost scammed.
• 16:33
  And I think one of the big things why people stay quiet when they do get scammed is that feeling of shame.
• 16:39
  And so not only is it important to, you know, listen to what Ralph is saying.
• 16:42
  Report, go to report fraud.ftc.gov Talk to your bank's fraud department and then also the state ag but try to get a little bit more comfortable talking about these things, because if a scam is going to hit you, it's
• 16:56
  probably going to hit somebody that you know as well.
• 16:58
  I bet you there's so many people in this audience right now that have been scammed and you probably haven't told another person.
• 17:04
  It's the truth.
• 17:05
  And that's the thing.
• 17:06
  Because if you think about it, Julie, this is one of those things where I see this happen with a lot of elderly folks is they get scammed and they don't want to tell anybody because they're embarrassed.
• 17:15
  They don't tell their children, they don't tell their grandchildren.
• 17:17
  Don't tell anybody.
• 17:19
  And then what happens is join the line of somebody else that's going to get scammed again.
• 17:24
  This is the time.
• 17:25
  Look, like I said at the beginning of the show, nobody's judging you.
• 17:28
  If you've been a victim on these scams, let us know because we will help you with this.
• 17:33
  We will go help you file reports with ftc.
• 17:35
  You don't have to give us your name.
• 17:36
  Let us know if we can help you.
• 17:38
  Go to our website.
• 17:39
  Becoming financiallyconfident.com Tell us about it.
• 17:42
  Send us a note, send us a voicemail because we'd like to help you because we, you know, Juliana, I both have a heart for this.
• 17:47
  We don't want to see people getting scammed.
• 17:49
  You work way too hard for what you have and for some of these clowns to come around, try to scam you out of your money is just not cool.
• 17:56
  Yeah, let's go into the fourth headline.
• 17:58
  How about that?
• 17:59
  Let's do it.
• 18:04
  So this fourth headline has a familiar name in it.
• 18:07
  So this is from Money Lion.
• 18:09
  The title is how Gen Z's first paycheck in 2026 stacks up against the living wage and the accountant they went for for the answer is actually sitting right across from me.
• 18:20
  Ralph, they quoted you, they quoted you on why a full time job can still feel really tight.
• 18:26
  They sure did.
• 18:27
  They sure did.
• 18:28
  And was really kind of cool.
• 18:29
  Like I'm getting a lot more of these because we're really leaning into this and trying to get out there and help people.
• 18:35
  And so what I, what I basically explained and we'll put a link to that particular article in the show notes, you can check that out.
• 18:43
  But what they were basically doing is they were taking a look and saying to people in their first job, depending upon where they live, is it really a living wage?
• 18:51
  And that's the thing a lot of people don't think about.
• 18:53
  You know, there's a definition of, well, I'm getting paid this, but is that a living wage?
• 18:57
  And one of the first things I talked about is when you get a letter, like an offer letter, here's what we're going to pay, you realize that's not your net pay.
• 19:05
  You're not going to live on that number.
• 19:08
  You're going to live on a number that's a lot lower than that because of taxes, because of insurance, because of other things you've got to do.
• 19:15
  So that big number at the top sounds great.
• 19:19
  I'll give you an example.
• 19:19
  Like in the particular article, there was somebody from Kansas City.
• 19:23
  And what they said is in Kansas City, to live what they call a reasonable fair wage, you need to make about a little less than $48,000, which means that after taxes it's more like 39,000 a year when you
• 19:37
  pay your Social Security, your Medicare, your state local income taxes.
• 19:41
  Yeah.
• 19:42
  The rest of that is with insurance and work costs and there's other things that are involved in that.
• 19:47
  So in the same two cities.
• 19:49
  And this is what we're talking about, this article I looked at it across different cities.
• 19:52
  Like in Kansas, it was 2297 an hour.
• 19:55
  But if you go to Seattle, it's 29, 21 an hour.
• 19:59
  So you got to pay attention to the cost of living in the city you're in, but understand you don't get your gross pay.
• 20:06
  I've often said this to people.
• 20:07
  If we ever gave people their gross pay in their paycheck just one time, you would see revolt in this country.
• 20:14
  Because people would say, what?
• 20:15
  How much do I get?
• 20:17
  Because here's the thing, Juliet.
• 20:19
  People are so used to living on the net, they have no concept of what the government takes and what all the insurance pieces take and all those things that go into your paycheck that if you ever got your
• 20:30
  real paycheck, you'd be like, what in the world?
• 20:33
  This is all this stuff that's been going from my account.
• 20:36
  It's a big deal.
• 20:36
  It really is.
• 20:38
  Yeah.
• 20:38
  I just want to clarify this net is basically after all the taxes, the Social Security, insurance is taken out.
• 20:45
  Gross is like what you think you're getting offered, right?
• 20:49
  So, like, if the company is telling you, oh, you're going to get paid $80,000 a year, that's going to be your gross.
• 20:55
  Your net is really going to be much less than that.
• 20:59
  Yeah, your net.
• 20:59
  Let's think about like this in real simple terms.
• 21:01
  The net is what hits your direct deposit, okay?
• 21:04
  That's the net.
• 21:05
  The gross is what they tell you you're making for this job.
• 21:08
  Here's a scary statistic.
• 21:09
  This was from bank of America's Better Money survey.
• 21:13
  42% of Gen Z are living paycheck to paycheck.
• 21:17
  42%, that's a big number.
• 21:20
  And that's no joke.
• 21:22
  And that's what we're dealing with here.
• 21:24
  So you gotta really think about it in terms of occult reverse engineering.
• 21:28
  And that is, yes, I need to make this much money, but what I really need to make is higher than that because I have to pay the Social Security, I have to pay the Medicare, I have to pay
• 21:37
  my federal and state taxes.
• 21:38
  It's really important that you understand that gross pay is the offer.
• 21:43
  That's what they're offering you.
• 21:45
  Take home pay is what you live on.
• 21:47
  Yeah, that's the real key to the whole thing.
• 21:49
  It really is.
• 21:51
  So I think the big takeaway is this is really for anybody who is considering a new job offer.
• 21:56
  You know, run those numbers so you truly understand what you're signing up for.
• 22:01
  Right?
• 22:02
  And this is like whether it's in your current city where you live or if you have to move somewhere else, take all of that into consideration.
• 22:09
  Yeah.
• 22:09
  And so I'll give you like a little bit of a, you can call it sort of a number that you could use.
• 22:13
  I like to distill things down to make them simple.
• 22:16
  Whatever they tell you your wage is going to be, you're going to probably end up with about 70% of that.
• 22:22
  So simple example, if they offer you $100,000, you're going to probably get about 70 in your direct deposit.
• 22:29
  That's just a number you need to understand.
• 22:30
  It's about 30% and that's depending upon the state.
• 22:33
  If you're in New York or California, it's going to be less than that.
• 22:36
  But I'm just being blunt.
• 22:37
  That is the truth.
• 22:39
  And that's what, that's what gets people so frustrated because they say, but, but I'm, but my salary is like in the top 5%.
• 22:46
  But when I look at what hits my bank account every week or every other week, man, I'm having a hard time making payments here because there's just not enough left over.
• 22:55
  And that's why you have to start living on the reality of what you actually take home when you do a budget.
• 23:01
  I'm going to go on a tangent here for a second.
• 23:02
  When you go on a budget, don't start with what your, your, your employer says they pay.
• 23:07
  You start with what you actually receive in your paycheck because that's the real dollars that you can spend.
• 23:14
  Don't start with the pie in the sky.
• 23:16
  Well, my salary is X.
• 23:18
  That means nothing.
• 23:19
  What is your actual take home pay?
• 23:22
  Because the rest of it is just fantasyland money.
• 23:24
  That's very, very good to know and super helpful.
• 23:27
  Okay, well let's get to our first affiliate today and that is stamps.com.
• 23:33
  And we talked about this on the show before.
• 23:34
  Everybody's got that stack, that stack of stuff that needs to be mailed on the corner of the desk.
• 23:39
  Maybe for many of us it's sitting on the passenger seat of the car set.
• 23:43
  Mail you have to send and have it.
• 23:45
  And here's why it sits there.
• 23:47
  Mail got rare.
• 23:48
  Most of the time we do with email or texting.
• 23:51
  You might mail six things a year instead of six things a week.
• 23:54
  And that type of thing is not enough to build a habit around.
• 23:57
  So too many people ignore this.
• 23:58
  So everyone cost you a separate errand.
• 24:00
  Well, stamps.com kills the errand because it lets you print real postage on your own printer.
• 24:06
  And here's the best part.
• 24:07
  You can actually schedule free pickup at your door.
• 24:09
  And because of our affiliate relationship, they're going to give you 30 days free.
• 24:13
  And then after that, it's 14.99amonth.
• 24:16
  So if you're interested in taking a look at this, go to becoming financiallyconfident.com stamps.
• 24:21
  Again, this is an affiliate link, and we earn a commission, but again, that's becoming financially confident.com stamps.
• 24:29
  And now we're going to get into talking about our money move of the week.
• 24:35
  All right, here we go.
• 24:37
  So it's Friday, so we want to do a homework check.
• 24:40
  And I know that Juliet is saying, did I get my homework done?
• 24:45
  This is for everybody else.
• 24:47
  So this week, we gave you one job.
• 24:49
  I'm going to just go back and remind everybody.
• 24:50
  We said the job was to put a freeze on your credit reports.
• 24:54
  We gave you just one.
• 24:56
  A freeze is one.
• 24:57
  That's the simplest ways to stop someone from opening a new account in your name because lenders can't access your credit file.
• 25:03
  So, Juliet, it's the time, my friend.
• 25:05
  I think of it when I was in high school and I went to a Catholic high school, and the nuns used to come in and they would say to you, okay, take out your homework.
• 25:13
  And I remember I had this one class, it was French class, and I did not understand French.
• 25:18
  And she would always say, those without homework, stand up.
• 25:21
  And I just got so used to just standing up because I never did the homework.
• 25:25
  Well, we don't want that to happen here.
• 25:27
  We don't want that to happen here.
• 25:28
  So for anybody who is listening, let us know.
• 25:32
  Do you.
• 25:33
  One, did you do the money move with us?
• 25:35
  And then two, maybe you didn't do the bunny move, but you already froze your credit reports.
• 25:40
  Let us know in the comments on whatever platform you're watching.
• 25:43
  And so I did do mine, Ralph.
• 25:46
  And you were exactly right.
• 25:47
  It was so, so easy to do.
• 25:49
  I did it across the three bureaus, which is.
• 25:52
  Let me see if I remember off the top of my head.
• 25:54
  It's Experian, Experion, TransUnion, and Equifax.
• 26:00
  You got it.
• 26:01
  Hold on.
• 26:01
  I got something for you.
• 26:05
  Thank you.
• 26:06
  Thank you.
• 26:07
  Yeah.
• 26:08
  And I will say, I think doing it, finding navigating their websites were super easy.
• 26:13
  And I actually feel a lot more confident right now because something that popped in my head this week with the introduction of AI and a lot of different tools, there's so many more hacks.
• 26:22
  Like the security that we need for these new companies, new technology has not.
• 26:29
  Is not at the level that it needs to be done.
• 26:31
  So having that credit report frozen makes me feel a little bit safer.
• 26:36
  So.
• 26:37
  Yeah, I agree.
• 26:38
  And I just want to reiterate why we said to do that.
• 26:40
  It locks your credit file.
• 26:41
  So nobody, not even a thief, not even you, actually, which is kind of funny, can open a new account in your name till you unfreeze it.
• 26:47
  So one of the things I didn't talk about, we talked about identity theft.
• 26:50
  But here's the other thing it does.
• 26:52
  It makes you take a pause and say, do I really need to go open this account?
• 26:56
  Do I really need to ask for a credit increase?
• 26:58
  Do I really need to go buy something?
• 27:01
  So this is one of the things that I love this.
• 27:03
  So I think this is a beautiful thing.
• 27:06
  Yeah, yeah.
• 27:07
  I will say as I was.
• 27:08
  I forget which credit bureau I was looking at.
• 27:11
  They had a little disclaimer at the bottom.
• 27:14
  And I'm just going to read the disclaimer.
• 27:16
  It says, important information about credit freeze.
• 27:20
  Exactly what Ralph said.
• 27:21
  The credit freeze will prevent new lenders checking Your this is TransUnion credit report to open a new account.
• 27:27
  And then it goes blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 27:29
  Those.
• 27:30
  Remember that while a credit freeze prevents most third party access to your credit report, a third party may access a frozen report in certain circumstances.
• 27:39
  Those circumstances may include collection activities, review of existing accounts, child support collection, and court orders.
• 27:46
  And that was like a new thing I learned.
• 27:48
  Yeah.
• 27:49
  So what they're basically telling you is they're not going to allow somebody who doesn't have authority.
• 27:54
  So, like, the government can get into it.
• 27:56
  If a collection company is trying to find Juliet because she hasn't made her payments, they can get into your stuff, but they can't open any new account from you.
• 28:03
  Remember, it doesn't cost you anything.
• 28:06
  It doesn't hurt your credit score.
• 28:08
  And if you need a loan, you just go unlock it.
• 28:10
  It's really that simple.
• 28:11
  Again, it doesn't stop you from using cards you already have.
• 28:14
  It doesn't watch your existing account.
• 28:15
  So you got to keep an eye on those.
• 28:17
  But like Juliet said, it took a few minutes.
• 28:20
  And so if you haven't done it yet, it's not too late.
• 28:23
  Never too late.
• 28:24
  Do it.
• 28:24
  You do it this weekend.
• 28:26
  Next Monday, we will have a new money move.
• 28:28
  So stay tuned on Monday to see what we're going to do next week.
• 28:31
  We are absolutely going to do that.
• 28:33
  All right, well, let's get into this.
• 28:35
  I want to talk about WalletHub, which is actually a great segue because what we just talked about.
• 28:40
  Let me ask you this.
• 28:41
  When's the last time you looked at your credit score?
• 28:43
  Now, we talked about locking your credit report up.
• 28:45
  That's not going to show you score.
• 28:46
  But for a lot of people, the answer is, Ralph, I haven't looked at it in years.
• 28:50
  And it's not because most people don't care.
• 28:52
  They do care, but they've already decided what the number says about them.
• 28:56
  They've already lived in that reality, that judgment.
• 28:59
  But here's the problem.
• 29:00
  If you don't look at your credit report, the Federal Trade Commission found that one in four people, one in four, have an error on their credit report, and some are paying for somebody else's typo.
• 29:11
  And you're never going to know because you don't look.
• 29:13
  So that's why we've got this affiliate with WalletHub.
• 29:16
  WalletHub is free.
• 29:17
  It's not a trial.
• 29:18
  It's absolutely free.
• 29:19
  It updates your credit score daily, and it tells you plainly what's pulling the number down.
• 29:24
  So go to becoming financially confident.com wallet again, that's becoming financially confident.com wallet.
• 29:32
  Now we're going to get to our mailbag.
• 29:35
  If I can find the button for it, there it is.
• 29:44
  So this is our community mailbag, where we help you guys make sense of your money situation.
• 29:49
  Before we get into today's letter, I just want to remind everybody, if you have something you want us to talk about, contact us@becoming financiallyconfident.com.
• 29:58
  Okay, so let's get into today's mailbag.
• 30:02
  This actually came in from a listener talking about refinancing their home and taking some equity out.
• 30:07
  This is what they wrote.
• 30:09
  Interest rates have dropped enough that our lender is offering a refinance that would let us take out some equity and lower our payment by roughly $700 a month.
• 30:18
  We've been paying an extra $200 from the very beginning, and our value has appreciated considerably.
• 30:24
  My specific question is, if we take out some equity, does that get reported as income?
• 30:30
  Okay, Ralph, there's, like, a couple of things that we really need to, like, parse through to set everybody up.
• 30:35
  This is talking about a home, I believe.
• 30:38
  And I believe that what they're ask, if they take cash out of the equity in their home, does that money count as taxable reportable income?
• 30:48
  Those are all very important words.
• 30:49
  Yeah.
• 30:49
  So I'm going to answer that question first, flat out, no.
• 30:52
  But I want to back up a bit.
• 30:53
  What we're talking about here is someone who owns a home and they have a mortgage on their home, and basically what they're saying is that they've gotten to a point where the mortgage balance is less than the value
• 31:07
  of the home.
• 31:08
  So that's really what we're talking about here.
• 31:11
  So there's equity.
• 31:12
  Equity means that the value of your home is greater than the amount that you owe on the home.
• 31:18
  So let's use a simple example.
• 31:19
  Let's say you bought your home for $200,000, 10 years, okay.
• 31:23
  And you got a mortgage for 100%.
• 31:25
  Like you got like a first time buyer program.
• 31:28
  So you're paying, you got a hundred.
• 31:30
  Percent mortgage, that would be $200,000, right?
• 31:33
  Correct, correct.
• 31:34
  So over 10 years, because of the way interest works, you're not going to pay down a lot in your principal because most of it's going to interest.
• 31:41
  Right?
• 31:41
  But let's say that you look around in the economy and that house that you paid 200,000 for is now worth 400,000.
• 31:49
  It's doubled in value.
• 31:51
  So now if you think about it, you've got this house that's worth 400,000 and you owe, let's just say by this time in 10 years, you owe about 180,000 on it.
• 32:01
  Okay?
• 32:02
  So you have equity of the 400, minus the 180, $220,000 in equity.
• 32:08
  So from the lender's perspective, the lender's going, oh, this is a good risk because if this person doesn't pay, we can go and take back the house, sell it and make money on the deal, or at least pay
• 32:19
  off the loan.
• 32:21
  So what a lot of people are doing is they're saying, and this is happening a lot because we're seeing an increase in property values.
• 32:27
  A lot of people are saying, well, I've got this equity in my house, why don't I take this equity out?
• 32:34
  Basically I'm going to talk about the way you do that, how you make that happen.
• 32:38
  So I can do other things with it.
• 32:41
  So the equity out, it would essentially in this example be 400,000 minus 180,000, that difference, right?
• 32:49
  Yeah.
• 32:49
  So, correct.
• 32:49
  So most lenders will give you up to 80% of the fair value of your house.
• 32:56
  So if we take 400, multiply by 80%, that means that they would basically lend you up to $320,000.
• 33:04
  Got it.
• 33:05
  So you potentially could say the 320 minus the 180 would be what your actual amount of cash out could be.
• 33:13
  Okay, do you follow me so far?
• 33:15
  I'm following you so far.
• 33:16
  Okay, so whatever that number is.
• 33:18
  So the first question that this is Actually, Mark and Krista, they're good friends of the show and they asked this question.
• 33:24
  So the first question is, what she was asking is if I do that, Ralph, because the lender's offering this, right, Is that going to trigger a tax issue?
• 33:32
  Is that income?
• 33:33
  To me the answer is no, that's not income to you because you're borrowing against your own equity.
• 33:39
  When you do that, two things are going to happen.
• 33:42
  You're going to get the money and the second thing to happen is your loan balance is going to go up.
• 33:48
  What's interesting about what they've said is that it's actually going to make their loan payment go down, down.
• 33:54
  So here's the part that they're not getting and it's kind of a sneaky thing because what's going on here, they've been paying faithfully for 10 years, let's use an example.
• 34:04
  And they're paying extra payments every month.
• 34:06
  So actually their principal is going down.
• 34:08
  What the lender is basically saying, and this is the part that nobody wants to talk about, the lender is going to refinance that loan.
• 34:16
  And instead of them owing only 20 years left on this loan, it was, let's say it was a 30 year loan from the beginning, 30 years of kind of a common mortgage and now they've got 10 years paying,
• 34:24
  so they only owe 20 more years.
• 34:26
  Okay.
• 34:26
  What the lender is basically saying to them is, hey, you can take some cash out, go have fun, do what you want with it.
• 34:33
  And here's the best part.
• 34:35
  We're going to make your payment even less than what you're paying now.
• 34:38
  Okay, here's how they're doing that.
• 34:41
  They're refinancing the loan and they're making it a 30 year loan again.
• 34:45
  Oh, see, that's the tricky part.
• 34:47
  Yes.
• 34:48
  So what they've done is they've the bank or the lender has just made a lot of money because now you're going to start paying back on the bigger loan balance for a longer period of time.
• 34:58
  So all the work that you did to get that loan paid down, those extra $200 a month payments, all of those things are going to be washed away because you're going back to a 30 year mortgage.
• 35:09
  I'm not saying that's not a terrible thing to do because there might be reasons to do it.
• 35:12
  It, it could be that your income has come down, you got cash flow issues.
• 35:16
  It could be that you have a bunch of credit card debt and you want to pay off your credit cards because the Interest rate on the mortgage is a third of what the credit card interest rate.
• 35:25
  So there are reasons to do it.
• 35:26
  But just understand what you're doing here.
• 35:28
  The second thing that they're doing, and a lot of people don't think about this because you don't see the number, when you do a refinance, they're charging you a bunch of fees.
• 35:37
  They're going to have to go have an attorney do the work again.
• 35:40
  They're going to go do a lien search again.
• 35:42
  They're going to do an appraisal on your property.
• 35:44
  There's going to be a property settlement.
• 35:46
  Nobody talks about this because you don't see it.
• 35:49
  It doesn't come out of your pocket.
• 35:50
  But what they do is they add that to the loan balance.
• 35:52
  Oh.
• 35:54
  So that's why I wanted to have a discussion about this.
• 35:55
  Because, you know, at the first end, it's like, okay, is this a taxable?
• 35:58
  I mean, I could have just answered that and said, no, it's not taxable income.
• 36:01
  Have a nice day.
• 36:02
  But that's not the real answer.
• 36:03
  The answer is, and then there's another component to this, which we'll get to in a second.
• 36:08
  But because of the way the IRS changed things, if you do a cash.
• 36:12
  Out refinance, which is this scenario.
• 36:16
  Yes.
• 36:16
  And you don't spend that money on your house.
• 36:20
  Okay.
• 36:20
  The interest is not deductible on your tax return.
• 36:23
  Wait, why?
• 36:25
  Because they change the rules.
• 36:27
  So the way you're like, okay, so basically it's like, oh, you did this thing for your house, then you should.
• 36:34
  Whatever you're doing with the money, it should be based on the house, not for your personal fun or anything like that.
• 36:38
  Correct.
• 36:39
  Yeah.
• 36:39
  And so what they've basically done is they've tried to reinforce that mortgage interest is for your home.
• 36:45
  Because what a lot of people are doing is they're doing it to start a business.
• 36:48
  They're doing it to pay off their car, they're doing it to pay off their credit cards.
• 36:52
  But here's the sinister part of this.
• 36:53
  You ready for this one, Juliet?
• 36:55
  No, this isn't.
• 36:56
  This is an based on your honor answer.
• 37:00
  Because the mortgage interest lenders send the number to the irs.
• 37:04
  It says, here's how much interest was paid.
• 37:05
  But they don't tell the lender, they don't tell the IRS what the money was used for, because they can't.
• 37:10
  They don't know.
• 37:11
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 37:12
  So then it's like, what happens is you go to report this if you don't have documentation of where the money went.
• 37:19
  It's easy when you buy the house because you, you went to settlement, the money went to the person you're sell, you're buying the house from.
• 37:25
  Simple.
• 37:25
  Yeah.
• 37:26
  But when you do a cash out refinance like this, and again, I'm not saying these are bad things to do, but you just have to understand that there it's going to create more things.
• 37:36
  Yeah, yeah.
• 37:37
  When you were talking about the math of how this works, like refinancing a home, it made me think about a previous conversation earlier this week where we talked about what is it like rolling over for a car loan?
• 37:48
  Like if you get a new car, the mechanics are very similar in both.
• 37:51
  Yeah.
• 37:52
  The underwater situation basically is what we were talking about.
• 37:54
  You're just rolling that into the next one, but with a more mortgage.
• 37:57
  It's like super sized because not only are you going to roll in whatever fees they charge, you're also going to take that term and add 10 more years to it.
• 38:04
  And when you do that, the interest that you were paying, all the money.
• 38:07
  So in a 30 year mortgage, when you get to year 20, the interest portion is starting to go down and the principal is starting to go up.
• 38:15
  So all of that extra $200 that you were sending every month is going to be gone because now you're going back to a 30 year, which means they're going to take that full loan balance, the 320,000 we talked
• 38:25
  about, multiplied times, whatever the interest rate is.
• 38:28
  So you're going to be paying a lot more.
• 38:30
  Yes, correct.
• 38:32
  And that's always super easy to answer.
• 38:33
  This first question, is it a tax issue?
• 38:37
  Yeah.
• 38:37
  But the real issue is the interest issue.
• 38:40
  Yeah.
• 38:41
  Okay.
• 38:41
  So my takeaways as a non expert here is that if you do get one of these offers, understand the mechanics that go behind it.
• 38:49
  Understand that.
• 38:50
  Okay.
• 38:51
  Why are they giving you like your monthly mortgage balance potentially going down?
• 38:55
  All of that?
• 38:56
  Because.
• 38:56
  Because something else is definitely changing.
• 38:59
  And then also know that if you do follow through with it, you will have to keep a lot of documentation come tax time.
• 39:07
  Unless you want a huge headache.
• 39:09
  Absolutely.
• 39:09
  So you need to ask some questions and you need to ask the lender.
• 39:14
  Give me the specifics of exactly what we're talking about here.
• 39:18
  What is it that you're proposing?
• 39:20
  How much are the costs?
• 39:21
  Here's the three questions you want to ask the lender and I want you to write those down, we'll put them in the show notes.
• 39:25
  But here's the thing, number one question, and if I was talking to Krista and Mark directly, this is the first thing I would say to them.
• 39:31
  What is the new term of the loan?
• 39:33
  Not the payment.
• 39:34
  Because when they say, well, your payment goes down by $700, as an expert, I know what that means.
• 39:39
  But ask the question because I guarantee in this particular scenario, they're taking you from what was remaining term and putting it back to 30 years.
• 39:47
  So don't ask them what the payment is because the payment means nothing.
• 39:50
  What is the term?
• 39:51
  So that's first question, second question.
• 39:54
  What are the total closing costs and are you rolling them into the loan balance?
• 39:58
  This is what we just talked about.
• 39:59
  So they're going to charge because nobody looks at these things, Juliet.
• 40:02
  Because like, oh, I just want to get the payment lower.
• 40:04
  Oh, I want to go buy this new car.
• 40:06
  I want to pay off these credit cards.
• 40:08
  There are reasons to do it.
• 40:09
  I'm not saying don't do it, but I'm saying to you understand what's going on, where those closing costs go, how much are they?
• 40:16
  Are they negotiable?
• 40:17
  Because hint, hint, a lot of times you can negotiate those things.
• 40:19
  Negotiate everything.
• 40:21
  Absolutely.
• 40:22
  So that's the second thing.
• 40:23
  What are the total closing costs and are you rolling them into the loan balance number three?
• 40:27
  Send me the loan estimate.
• 40:29
  A loan estimate is something that the lender will give you.
• 40:33
  And then go compare this with other lenders.
• 40:35
  Just so in this particular case, Mark and Krista are getting an offer from their existing mortgage company.
• 40:40
  Got it.
• 40:41
  And I'm not saying their existing mortgage company isn't trying to help them out.
• 40:44
  I'm not saying that.
• 40:45
  But again, are we going to accept that they're giving us the best deal or are we going to go out and shop this around?
• 40:50
  So ask them for a loan estimate and compare this one.
• 40:53
  Is this interest rate.
• 40:54
  Here's the closing cost, here's the term, here's the turnaround part.
• 40:58
  And then go to one of these mortgage brokers, there's a bunch of them online and shop this around.
• 41:03
  Don't have everybody pull your credit.
• 41:05
  Don't all that stuff.
• 41:05
  Just ask them what their rate and terms are.
• 41:07
  Ask them what their closing costs are.
• 41:10
  Because here's the thing, thing.
• 41:11
  90% of people are going to just sign this because they're going, oh, it saved me money.
• 41:16
  Because think about if.
• 41:17
  Let's just say you're in a struggle right now.
• 41:19
  You know, you're looking at your finances every month and you're like, I don't know how we're going to get through everything is more expensive, right?
• 41:24
  Now.
• 41:25
  And all of a sudden you get this letter from your lender that says, hey, Juliet, would you like to pay 700 less a month for your house?
• 41:33
  Oh, sure.
• 41:34
  Because that's what everybody's going to say, right?
• 41:36
  But what they're not telling you is they're hitting you in the head with a rubber mallet while they do it.
• 41:40
  It.
• 41:40
  Yeah.
• 41:40
  Like I said, there are reasons to do it.
• 41:42
  I'm not saying that's the case.
• 41:44
  But do your job and go answer and find out.
• 41:47
  What are they actually giving you?
• 41:49
  Are they just.
• 41:50
  Because here's the deal.
• 41:51
  I'm gonna be blunt.
• 41:52
  I'm a blunt kind of guy.
• 41:55
  Lenders are in business to make money.
• 41:57
  Lenders make money with interest.
• 41:59
  That's what they do.
• 42:01
  Yeah.
• 42:01
  So in anything, they're not your friends.
• 42:03
  They're not there to help you out.
• 42:05
  They're not here to give you a hand up.
• 42:07
  Yes, they have a.
• 42:08
  They have a service.
• 42:08
  They're.
• 42:09
  They're offering a service, but they're doing it to make money.
• 42:13
  Yeah.
• 42:13
  And that's the thing.
• 42:14
  You gotta understand.
• 42:15
  That's the whole thing.
• 42:16
  That's the whole key to this.
• 42:18
  Yeah.
• 42:18
  Let me just say this.
• 42:19
  So the answer to your question is no, the money is not income.
• 42:23
  And you can stop worrying about that one.
• 42:25
  But here's what I want everybody to hear.
• 42:27
  She almost signed without asking what the term was.
• 42:30
  And this isn't because she's careless, because the payment went down.
• 42:33
  And so many of us are trained to that when the payment goes down, your brain goes, oh, I don't have to ask any more questions.
• 42:39
  Yeah.
• 42:39
  And that's the whole trick.
• 42:40
  So look at the term, look at the total interest and then decide.
• 42:44
  Sounds good.
• 42:45
  Hopefully that helps.
• 42:46
  And then, Ralph, if somebody's sitting right there with a refinance offer on their kitchen table, what is an option that they could also do?
• 42:54
  You can send it to us.
• 42:55
  Seriously, I'll be happy to look at that for you, and we'll walk through it on the air.
• 42:59
  We won't use your name, we won't use your information, but we'll talk about, hey, this is the stuff that people are actually seeing out there so that we can help you make better decisions.
• 43:09
  Because again, this is an offer.
• 43:11
  This is not a final thing.
• 43:12
  You don't have to sign anything.
• 43:14
  And a lot of people think, well, but if I go to another lender, it's going to be more complicated, friends.
• 43:18
  It's going to be complicated anyway because you're going to have to go through a new settlement.
• 43:23
  So it doesn't make any difference whether you keep the existing lender or you go find a better lender.
• 43:29
  Yeah.
• 43:29
  It's just the bottom line.
• 43:30
  But I want to make a quick note here, though, because it's important everybody understands this.
• 43:34
  I'm a licensed public accountant, but I am not your accountant.
• 43:37
  So this is general education.
• 43:39
  I can't give you tax or financial advice for your specific situation.
• 43:43
  Every loan is different.
• 43:44
  So before you sign anything, run your actual numbers with a professional who has seen your actual information.
• 43:50
  So I just have to say that because it's important that you understand that I can give you great information, but I don't know your full situation.
• 43:57
  And I have to just say that I can't make a decision for you now.
• 44:01
  You can always engage with me.
• 44:02
  There's ways to do that right through our website.
• 44:03
  Be happy to set up an engagement with you and actually look at your specific.
• 44:06
  Or if you want to send over the offer, we'll talk about it on the show and I'll give you my personal opinion on that stuff.
• 44:11
  Yeah, great.
• 44:13
  So, Julia, what's your big takeaway for this section?
• 44:16
  Well, this section is, you know, if you, if you do have a refinancing offer or maybe you go out and shop for one, I really be clear about why you're refinancing.
• 44:26
  Like, what are you going to use that money for?
• 44:27
  Right.
• 44:28
  If you don't have a purpose for it, then you don't even have to consider the offer.
• 44:34
  It's only when you say, okay, there's a reason why I'm doing this, then go to the next step.
• 44:37
  Go shop around.
• 44:39
  Really understand what all of your lenders are offering you from the term to how that impacts your payments.
• 44:47
  And then after that is if you still follow through with it, keep all your documentation clean and clear.
• 44:54
  So then when tax season comes, you don't have a huge headache.
• 44:58
  Yeah, it's all about being intentional.
• 45:00
  Because it's so easy when you get this offer letter and go, oh, I can reduce my payments.
• 45:05
  I can get cash.
• 45:06
  We can finally take that road trip family vacation we've been wanting to take for years.
• 45:10
  But like Juliet just said, be aware.
• 45:13
  Understand how this fits into your personal financial situation.
• 45:17
  It's so important that you do that.
• 45:19
  Well, I want to talk about one more thing.
• 45:20
  Thing.
• 45:21
  As I've mentioned on this show, I've been dealing with money messes since I was eight years old.
• 45:25
  Yes.
• 45:25
  I've been doing accounting work since I was 8.
• 45:27
  That's a discussion for a whole nother story.
• 45:29
  But the thing I've noticed is when people sell things, when people try to make agreements between each other, you know, a lot of times we say, I will just have a gentleman's agreement.
• 45:38
  We're not going to put anything in writing.
• 45:40
  That's a mistake.
• 45:41
  Because then 18 months go by and then you're like, well, I can't remember exactly what happens.
• 45:45
  Things drift, you move on with life.
• 45:48
  But if the paper isn't there, how do you deal with the situation when one person says, well, you know, I told you I sold you that truck as is, but now all of a sudden, I'm having problems with
• 45:57
  it.
• 45:58
  So one of the things that we can help you with is we have an affiliate relationship with a company called LawDepot.
• 46:03
  Law Depot is basically an online attorney where you can go get a bill of sale, promissory notes, a lease.
• 46:09
  The best part of Law Depot is they guide you with the questions right online.
• 46:13
  They use your state's rules in one sitting, and you can start for free.
• 46:16
  Now, again, I am not an attorney.
• 46:18
  I'm an accountant.
• 46:19
  But if you'd like to find out more information, go to becoming FinanciallyConfident.com LawDepot.
• 46:25
  Again, that's becoming FinanciallyConfident dot com LawDepot.
• 46:29
  It's really a good service.
• 46:30
  It's a service that I've used for a long time, so definitely check it out because I feel like it is a very valuable service.
• 46:38
  Well, now we're going to get to our wins of the week.
• 46:48
  So let's get to wins of the week.
• 46:50
  This is where listeners share with us on whatever platform you're watching this on or even if you're watching the replay.
• 46:55
  If you're watching the replay, this is one of the cool things, and we haven't really talked about this.
• 46:58
  If you're watching a replay, you can comment still.
• 47:00
  So if you're watching it on YouTube or you're watching it on Facebook or LinkedIn on one of the platforms, type your comments in.
• 47:05
  We look like at every single comment.
• 47:07
  So let's start with Juliet.
• 47:09
  Juliet, what are your wins of the week?
• 47:11
  Well, I think my wins of the week is this is the first week of our show.
• 47:15
  We made it to Friday.
• 47:16
  Yay.
• 47:18
  And then actually just even completing this week's money move, I'm like, oh, yes, I.
• 47:25
  I have the ability to follow through, and I feel a lot more secure in that sense.
• 47:30
  Did it empower you?
• 47:31
  Did you feel like before you did that?
• 47:32
  Like, you know, I don't know that I have 100% control over stuff.
• 47:36
  Did it make you feel more empowered when you that.
• 47:38
  Yeah, because, you know, once you create your account or you log into these three things, they will tell you what your credit score is.
• 47:45
  And I got a surprise.
• 47:46
  I was like, oh, it's higher than I thought.
• 47:48
  Yay, me.
• 47:49
  And so now I'm like, okay, I feel a little bit more secure.
• 47:52
  I'm building that financial confidence, which is.
• 47:56
  It's something.
• 47:57
  It's like a muscle you have to tap into and you have to exercise all the time.
• 48:00
  So, yeah, I love it.
• 48:03
  It's all about the habit.
• 48:04
  And that's the thing.
• 48:04
  One of the big takeaways for me this week is that it's all about building that habit.
• 48:09
  It's all about exercising those muscles that maybe we don't use.
• 48:12
  Maybe you've never used these things before, because no one's given you the tools to show you how to do these things.
• 48:17
  And thank you, Dutchess.
• 48:18
  Congrats on the first week.
• 48:19
  We appreciate everybody that's joined us.
• 48:21
  It's great when people join us live.
• 48:23
  We encourage you to do that.
• 48:24
  Go type in your questions, type in the struggles and things you're going with.
• 48:27
  All right, so my wins of the week.
• 48:28
  Let's think about this for a second.
• 48:29
  So the big one is last night.
• 48:32
  University of Delaware.
• 48:33
  I am alumnus of the University of Delaware.
• 48:35
  The Fighting Blue Hens, or what we call the Fighting Blue chickens.
• 48:38
  Yes, in Delaware, there are actually chickens that are blue.
• 48:40
  They're kind of a grayish dark, but they call them the Blue Hens.
• 48:44
  Anyway, we had our first game last night against Merrimack University, which is up in Massachusetts.
• 48:49
  We won 42 to 7.
• 48:51
  We won so decisively that.
• 48:53
  Oh, yeah, it was beautiful.
• 48:54
  I'm a season ticket holder.
• 48:55
  But we won so decisively that they ran out of fireworks.
• 48:59
  So what they set up for this year is every time the team scores a touchdown, they play fireworks.
• 49:04
  So when the score got to 28, they put on the scoreboard, sorry, folks, we've run out of fireworks because the team is scoring too many touchdowns tonight, which I thought was really funny.
• 49:13
  So the win of the week is that.
• 49:14
  That was a fantastic.
• 49:15
  I got to go with my youngest son.
• 49:17
  It's something we him and I really enjoy.
• 49:19
  I used to play in the marching band, so I get to see the.
• 49:21
  The tuba players out there running around like crazies, like I used to do.
• 49:25
  So that's a big win.
• 49:26
  And I had another interesting experience yesterday, so.
• 49:30
  Which is kind of a win and kind of a not win.
• 49:32
  So one of the things that they have there at the game is you can go and get some dinner.
• 49:36
  So it was a seven o' clock game.
• 49:38
  So my son and I got there and we said, well, let's get.
• 49:40
  We'll grab something to eat.
• 49:41
  And I walk up to the snack stand and I'm trying to be more intentional on my eating choices.
• 49:46
  And they didn't have a lot of choices.
• 49:47
  But I'm looking down, I see hot dog.
• 49:49
  Yeah, I see this.
• 49:51
  Then I see cheesesteak.
• 49:52
  And I'm thinking, oh, I like a cheesesteak.
• 49:55
  Cheesesteak.
• 49:56
  And I use that word very intentionally.
• 49:58
  I say it's cheesesteak.
• 50:00
  And I'm thinking.
• 50:01
  So I think to myself, well, if you're not from Delaware or not from this area, cheesesteaks are very common thing.
• 50:05
  I don't know if you have them out in California where you are or not, but.
• 50:08
  So.
• 50:08
  So if I said to you that you were going to get a cheesesteak, what would you assume is on a cheesesteak?
• 50:16
  Some cheese on a bun and then you got some meat on it.
• 50:20
  Some steak.
• 50:21
  Right.
• 50:21
  Like maybe it's like pulled meat.
• 50:22
  Like pulled steak or some steak.
• 50:24
  Right.
• 50:24
  I mean, right.
• 50:25
  Okay.
• 50:26
  So I said to the lady working the register, I said, so tell me what's on your cheese stick?
• 50:31
  And she turned around to the guy was putting them together and he said it was just a plain cheesesteak something.
• 50:36
  Okay, great.
• 50:37
  So it's a plain cheesesteak.
• 50:38
  Because I didn't know if they were going to put something I didn't like on there.
• 50:41
  I mean, I like most things.
• 50:42
  But anyway, yeah, order.
• 50:43
  Order the cheesesteak.
• 50:45
  Get my food.
• 50:45
  My son got a couple hot dogs.
• 50:47
  I got a soft pretzel.
• 50:48
  I love soft pretzels.
• 50:49
  So I go sit down.
• 50:50
  I was like, oh, I'm gonna put some ketchup on my cheesesteak.
• 50:52
  So I walk over to the, like the condiment bar and I open up this cheesesteak and I'm thinking, this thing has mushrooms on it.
• 51:00
  Now, I've had mushroom cheesesteaks before.
• 51:03
  That's fine.
• 51:04
  I would have been nice if they told me that since I did ask what's on the cheesesteak?
• 51:07
  And they said, nothing, it's plain.
• 51:10
  So I said, okay, well, you know, obviously it's got mushrooms on it.
• 51:12
  So I take a couple squirts to the ketchup thing and I put it and walk back to the table and I take the first bite.
• 51:18
  They cut it in half.
• 51:19
  I take the first bite of this thing and I'm thinking, wow, there's a lot of mushrooms on here.
• 51:22
  Here.
• 51:23
  So I got about halfway through it.
• 51:24
  I'm thinking, man, there must be some thin meat on this thing, because I'm not tasting any beef.
• 51:29
  And I raised beef, so I know what beef tastes like.
• 51:31
  Yeah.
• 51:32
  So then I.
• 51:33
  We're sitting in a place where I can look over at the board, like the menu board, and I look over there and I see cheesesteak.
• 51:39
  But what I did notice before that is there's a line above that, and the line above that said, vegetarian cheesesteak.
• 51:47
  Vegetarian mushroom cheesesteak.
• 51:50
  And I'm thinking, oh, boy, Sit down.
• 51:53
  Look back at this sandwich.
• 51:54
  And my son goes, dad, that's disgusting.
• 51:57
  My son's not a big mushroom person either.
• 52:00
  Now, I'd already spent $12 on this thing, so I'm like, I'm hungry and I need to eat.
• 52:05
  So I, I, we were just.
• 52:06
  There wasn't a whole lot of people there.
• 52:07
  And I hollered over to the lady, I said, I wish you to tell me this is a vegetarian.
• 52:10
  She goes, of course it's a vegetarian cheesesteak.
• 52:13
  I said, well, those two names don't even make any sense to go together.
• 52:17
  How do you have.
• 52:17
  Have a vegetarian cheese stick?
• 52:20
  Now I could see if they said, well, it's like fake meat or something like that.
• 52:24
  I know what you call that.
• 52:25
  It's like phony meat or faux meat, whatever you want to call it.
• 52:28
  So that was my adventure.
• 52:30
  I posted it.
• 52:31
  I posted a video.
• 52:32
  And it's funny.
• 52:33
  So I think it was a duchess actually is one of my followers or one of my friends on Facebook, and she put, ralph, you look so sad.
• 52:40
  And I did feel sad because I love a good Philly type cheesesteak.
• 52:44
  Philly Philadelphia is about 20 minutes from my house.
• 52:48
  And I was like, I was looking forward.
• 52:49
  They are delicious.
• 52:50
  But this one, I gotta be honest with you, was not delicious.
• 52:54
  And it's not because they didn't try.
• 52:56
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 52:57
  I was gonna say, like, you know, when you, when you told me the story, I was like, I don't know if mushroom cheesesteak from in Delaware is a good idea.
• 53:07
  Like, I think I love mushrooms.
• 53:09
  There's just very delicious ways of making mushrooms.
• 53:12
  There are mushrooms that if you cook it a certain way, it tastes like meat.
• 53:16
  But I'm just like, probably not a good choice.
• 53:19
  Ud.
• 53:20
  Yeah, These did not taste like meat in any way, shape or form.
• 53:24
  It's funny, somebody else put a comment there.
• 53:26
  Not, not far from me is a.
• 53:27
  Is an area called Kennett Square.
• 53:29
  And Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, is known for being mushroom country.
• 53:33
  This is where they grow mushrooms.
• 53:35
  And he said to me, he says, ralph, Ralph, let's go to Kedit Square one day and I'll give you a real mushroom sandwich.
• 53:40
  I gotta be honest with you, Juliet.
• 53:42
  I'm not really sure I'm up for a mushroom sandwich.
• 53:45
  I should.
• 53:46
  I think you should challenge yourself, because I feel like you're a type of person who, yes, you have your preferences, but you're still willing to try new things.
• 53:55
  So, like, I think one day, if you're feeling adventurous, take him up on it.
• 53:58
  I might do that.
• 53:59
  That's fair.
• 54:00
  All right, Julia, so what's.
• 54:01
  What's on tap for this weekend for you?
• 54:05
  I actually don't remember.
• 54:06
  I mean, after this show, I'm gonna go to Costco because I would like to eat some chicken pot pie.
• 54:11
  Or no, no, the chicken bake.
• 54:13
  And then also get gas.
• 54:15
  But I'll figure out the rest of my weekend.
• 54:17
  Very cool.
• 54:18
  What about you?
• 54:19
  Yeah, and one of the things that we got some feedback from a couple listeners that they like when we tell our personal story.
• 54:24
  So this weekend, I'm gonna take some downtime.
• 54:26
  I've been putting myself, admitting to way too much stuff.
• 54:29
  Stuff.
• 54:30
  But, like, from a professional perspective, if you have a business and you've extended the tax deadline for your business, you need to know something.
• 54:37
  That extended tax deadline is September 15th.
• 54:40
  So if you've got an S Corp, a corporation, or an LLC, your taxes are due by September 15.
• 54:46
  You still have till October 15 on extension for the personal.
• 54:48
  So guess what I'm going to be doing Saturday?
• 54:50
  I'm going to be doing a lot of tax returns, and I've got to do my tax return yet, too.
• 54:55
  Remember how we talked the other day about, you know, the.
• 54:57
  I think it was yesterday.
• 54:58
  We knew the accountant should do what they need to do.
• 55:00
  Yeah, that's me, too.
• 55:02
  But I've got a few procrastinators that.
• 55:04
  That they need to get their taxes done.
• 55:06
  Oh, okay.
• 55:07
  So that's a good reminder.
• 55:08
  If you have your own business, make sure you have that September 15th date in mind.
• 55:13
  I.
• 55:14
  Because I'm a new entrepreneur, Ralph, I'm sure in the upcoming shows, I will have a lot of questions for you,.
• 55:19
  And I will happily answer them.
• 55:22
  Thank you.
• 55:23
  Well, this has been a wonderful first week.
• 55:26
  Thank you guys all for tuning in.
• 55:28
  Please join us for next week as well.
• 55:30
  And that is it for today's episode of becoming financially confident.
• 55:33
  Yeah.
• 55:34
  And send your feedback.
• 55:35
  Share the show with other people.
• 55:37
  Our goal is to reach more people and grow them.
• 55:39
  So, again, I'm Ralph Estepp Jr.
• 55:41
  I'm Juliet.
• 55:43
  And if you've got a question for the show, reach out to us@becomingfinanciallyconfident.com and explore more of today's conversation.
• 55:50
  Yes.
• 55:51
  And just a reminder, we will be back next Monday at 11:30am to 12:30pm Eastern.
• 55:58
  Well, have a great weekend, everybody.
• 55:59
  Thanks for joining us this week.
• 56:00
  We really did appreciate all your participation.