"He Borrowed $250,000 And Lost It In A Scam"

Brought to you by the Everydollar App. Start budgeting for free today. My husband borrowed money off the equity line on our house and put it into cryptocurrency. Ouch. I found out about it. I was not happy and asked him to sell it right away. How did that go? Well, he said that he would and assured me that it would be, you know, back in the bank account by Monday or Tuesday. But he was he had the flu at the time, was not feeling great. I don't know. I don't know if that dog ate his homework. OK, yeah, I don't know. But in any case, he accidentally pressed the sell short button instead of the sell button, apparently. And so after like four or five days and it hadn't showed up in the bank account, I asked him about it and then he admitted to me that he accidentally pressed the wrong button and it had all been liquidated and it's gone. And where did it go? Apparently, crypto, the account just kept it. OK, so. I don't know. Well, selling short means he borrowed an asset he didn't own and he sold it at the current price and then he becomes obligated to buy it back later, potentially at a higher price. So this is just gambling in the market, especially in the crypto world. It was already speculation. So it's like double gambling at this point on top of the infidelity that he created by doing this behind your back. Right. So my question is, is there any way to get that money or is it just gone for good? Well, he'll be obligated to buy it back. And so I don't think that it's gone forever and he needs to do his due diligence to figure out what he needs to do to get the money back. Yeah, I just do not know the answer because of him selling it short. Do you got anything on, you got anything on that? I don't know the ins and outs of what platform he's using in the wallet. I'm on the phone with customer service, though. My guess is they got somebody and I'm going, hey, this is what I did. But let's just pretend the money's gone. How much money is gone? Because it's really added to the HELOC, to this debt. It's about, yeah, $250,000. Okay, you buried the lead there, Kate. Oh boy, I need a whole can of Tums for this one, James. This is like the whole can down the hatch. $250,000. You've worked too hard to get control of your money just to let strangers control your data. Every online signup, discount code and free trial comes at a cost. Your information. And Delete.me helps you take back control. Their privacy experts find your personal info on sketchy data broker sites. They delete it and they keep it gone. Meaning you stay in charge of what's yours. So protect your privacy and get 20% off an annual plan at joindeleteme.com slash Ramsey. That's joindeleteme.com slash Ramsey. $250,000? Yeah. Honestly, if James would have let us, we would be patching in this website right now and helping you out. God bless you. You need to be on the phone with them, not us. Bottom line is- Seven layers to this. There's so much here. He's like a degenerate gambler at that point. If he puts his entire house and family on the block to try to get rich quick with crypto. Yeah, it's very upsetting. And there's a lot he's not telling you. I don't know what to do. I'll tell you that. Yeah, I don't know what to do. I'm not saying that he didn't hit a wrong button, but I'm saying that there's a few steps you have to take to do something that idiotic. And then say, oh, the money's gone, babe. I love Spicy George. I hate to tell you this, Kate, but I'm with George. You need to go sit with a therapist with me. You owe me this. You put $250,000 on the line here, and I have so many questions. And I'm with George. I find it hard to believe he pressed the wrong button. Now, the reason I give it a chance, George, and you know this, because you're sitting next to the guy who, if someone was going to do that, it's me. Yeah, you would be liable to fat finger something, but not at $250,000. I would think I'd slow down long enough to make sure I hit the right button. Yeah. But I'm saying there's a chance. I don't want to call him a liar, but boy, my BS meter is just singing right now. It's just like, I don't know what's worse, if he didn't know what he was doing or if he knew what he was doing. Both are frightening scenarios. And either way, we got to approach it the same way, right? Whether he hit the wrong button in a bonehead move or he didn't, we still have to solve the problem that he did this without your knowledge and he didn't sell it when you told him to. There's two major gates of trust that he walked through with you. And I'm looking this up to try to help you ask the right questions to him. What do you got? So here's some questions to ask him to confirm today. Are all positions closed? That's number one. Number two, is there any remaining margin exposure? Number three, is this 250K a realized loss, meaning it actually happens, or is some of it still in flux? And then what exactly is owed right now? Who is the lender? What's the interest rate? What are the repayment terms? What are the risks here? Can we do this to give you more assurance, Kate? George, can you get that to Christian? Yes, we'll email you. Christian, you can email her this because here's what I actually want Kate to do. I want Kate to get on the phone with the crypto company. And he needs to provide you with screenshots of everything he has. And if he can't do that, I don't know that there's a lot of hope for you two, because this is a symptom of something much deeper and darker. But let's hope, Kate, he's telling the truth. And you can take these questions from George. Christian will get them to you. And you are getting on the phone now. You are the private investigator. And if he's nothing to hide, he's got no problem with this. But we can get on the phone with this company and go, My husband says he hit the sell short button. I got some questions. Okay. It's the best we can do. But this is a relationship problem, not a crypto problem. Yeah. Are you guys doing well financially otherwise? Yes. Yeah, we are. What's your household income? He brings in about $300,000 a year. Okay. And are you working outside the home? Not currently. No, I used to work as a nurse, but I've been staying home with the kids. All right. And how much debt do you guys currently have? Well, that's the other thing that we don't agree on. We have a lot of debt. We have six different properties, four of which are rental properties. One is a vacation house. And then we still have a mortgage on our own house. Okay. And even though he makes good money, it's just all going to pay these mortgages every month. Well, here's the fun homework he gets to do as a way to rebuild some trust. He's going to start selling off these properties like hotcakes to pay off all of this debt. Now, that's like a now thing. Is that the best thing to do? Because he's wanting to take money out of one of his retirement accounts. No, this guy should not be taking money out of anywhere. I don't know who's paying him $300,000. I wouldn't hire this guy to flip a burger at this point. He's like a reckless gambler with you all's money. Yeah, he needs to go to Gamblers Anonymous. Because every single thing he's doing is going, what other shortcut can I take that will put my entire family at risk? It's really true, George. You know, Kate, here's what's going on. And I think you got to bring this up to him. And certainly with a therapist in the room is what I'm going to suggest here. But George, here's what I'm seeing. This is a guy who's actually making really good money, $300,000. And this is a guy that at some point has gone out and created a professional amount of credibility. And he's getting paid well and can become wealthy off of $300,000. Without taking any of these risks. And yet he wants to get rich quick. I think you nailed it. And I mean this, Kate, and I'm not beating up on him. I'm saying he's got something in him that a professional can identify to go, why is a guy with $300,000 taking big bets? Saying this isn't enough, I need more and I need it now. Six properties is massive exposure, massive risk. So yes, back to your question that you asked George. I'm jumping in here to say, yes, it's the right move. Because theoretically you have some equity in those. And if you don't have any equity, at least we get rid of the risk and lower the mortgage. Get that out of your life. Because now we have a $250,000 debt we didn't have a week ago or whatever it is. So yes, it's the right strategy. Sell every one of them until this guy gets healed from this appetite for the home run. There's an addiction here that scares me. And there's three stooges of wealth building, Kate. And it's fear, greed, and pride. It sounds like he's got one or all of the above here that's behind all of this. And he needs to come out clean and let it all out into the light to disinfect this entire situation. Kate, hang on the line. George is going to give you that awesome research. Christian is going to make sure you have it so that you can do your own research and hope this works out. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.