My Neighbors Have Financially Ruined Me

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. I had to take out a loan on my home to pay for the legal bill and hire an attorney because of ongoing problems I've had with my neighbors. Okay. So are you suing your neighbors? Am I doing well? Are you in a lawsuit with your neighbors? No, I'm not in any litigation. They filed some false charges against me. And I had to hire an attorney to fight the case, which was dismissed. and I'm waiting for it to be expunged and I'm not able to find employment until that is expunged because when I look for employment opportunities when they google me or the employers do a background check it's coming up. Gosh so how much did you borrow to pay the attorneys? I borrowed $25,000 because that was the minimum but I had to pay the attorney $12,500. So you've still got another $12,000 or so that's sitting around or did that go to something else? No it's just sitting it's $17,000 in the city. $17,000? Okay. And was that a home equity loan or a line of credit? Yes. It was a home equity loan. Okay. Okay. And this is still going on. It's been going on for 10 years with the neighbors. 10 years? 10 years going on constant harassment. Just move at this point. This is chaos. Yeah, why not move? I cannot afford to move at all. Do you own the property? Yes, I do. Okay. And what's the property worth? Tell us more about that it's probably worth about close to three hundred thousand uh-huh and what do you owe on it about 85 between 80 and 85 and so there's not a scenario where you could sell it take the equity and put it down on another house in another location i can't afford it plus i don't have a job so i would need to have employment to to do all that i i understand for the moment you don't have a job and i'm going to get to that but i'm saying in a situation where you have a job and you're able to take that equity along with your income because that's a healthy down payment elsewhere yes but i have a very very low mortgage and the interest rate is great but with the market that it is now i can't afford that it would be too much and i can't live in a senior citizen facility because that's triple or quadruple the mortgage payment what were you making at work Around $20 an hour. Okay, so about $40,000 a year. And is there anything you can do in the meantime, any kind of work, gig work, to supplement to make $15 or $20 an hour? Everybody's doing a background check, and that's still pending online. What's the current timeline to get it expunged? Have they told you? Did you know your personal info is getting bought and sold to people right now who use AI to target you with bizarrely personal scams and spam? Like, hey, George, are you interested in selling your house at 253 Sprague Street? Well, lucky for you, there's Delete.me. Delete.me, as the name implies, goes to hundreds of creepy data broker sites and deletes your personal info over and over all year long. I use and love Delete.me because I can't stop scammers from using AI, but I can make myself much more difficult to target. So go to joindeleteme.com slash Ramsey and get 20% off an annual plan or click the link in the description. That's join, J-O-I-N, deleteme.com slash Ramsey. They said October 19th, it should go before the judge because I filed my own expungement paperwork because I'm a paralegal, so I kind of know how to do that stuff. I have to wait for the judge to rule on that, whether they're going to have it expunged Then it has to go through all of the entities that I listed that I want to be notified so that it won't appear on background checks and government websites and different things and Google like that. So I'm just in a holding pattern right now. And you're living off the extra $15,000 or $17,000 from the HELOC or from the home equity loan? Well, no, I just put that on my savings. I was able to get unemployment, and I have a small social security. So is that covering all of your bills right now? Yeah, it does cover. Okay, so you can continue to make your mortgage payment and cover your bills without touching that $17,000? Yes, I can. Then I might turn around and pay that right back off. If you don't need to touch that money, whatever you didn't spend, you only spent the $12,500. I'd probably take the $17,000 if that's your only debt. I'd throw it right back on that $25,000 loan, get a head start on paying that off, because eventually you're going to want to do that. Okay. That'll bring your debt down to $8,000. Is that all of your debt? I have a student loan, but they haven't come after me for that yet. That's about $60,000. 60? 60. 6-0. 6-0. Okay, yeah, I think you're right. I think you are in a holding pattern, at least making what you were making. But in the meantime, October 19th, I mean, if you can get out there and try to do something, come up with a gig or something that you can offer, maybe yes, but it sounds like you've got at least your four walls covered. You've got money keeping this going. My biggest thing that I hear, Jay, is staying in a location that has caused you so much grief for so long. i actually yeah i actually i mean you called us and i'm i'm here on the outside i actually do think that you can move i look at you and i go okay three hundred thousand dollar house she only owes 85 gosh that's almost you know 200 there's 200 000 of equity there for you let's take that let's go put it down on something else yes the interest rate is going to go up we can't we can't change that but at one point you were making money you can make money again you're making $20 an hour, can we up the income in some way? Right? So I don't think you're up against a corner in the way you think. I think we just need to expand our horizons a little bit and it is going to feel like a major change. I don't have any retirement. I'm sorry. I don't have any retirement savings. And how old are you? Almost 70. You're almost 70. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's roll back because i was listening to you sound like you're 33 okay 70 years old but no okay so that's a good thing okay so the the neighbors are can you tell me a little bit more about this are they going anywhere anytime soon or have you guys just been feuding your whole lives it's feuding they're very ratchet and ghetto i don't know if you understand that i understand ratchet and ghetto So 100%. They've infringed on all my property lines. I had to hire a surveyor. They're building a fence on my property line. It's been back and forth with legal issues for 10 years. None of my friends want to come visit at all because they get harassed and threatened by the neighbors. And the police don't help. And that's the part, Jay, that I think about. I'm like, gosh, is that the way you want to live in your 70s? Or can you go somewhere else? maybe you downsize a bit. And I know what I'm asking is big, but this is for you. Maybe you downsize a bit. Maybe you go to a condo or a townhouse and you spend a little bit less. You put down a big down payment and you still make sure that that payment is no more than 25% of your take home. At the very least, homework for you. I would love for you to just look at what's out there. Use our calculator. We have a really great resource. It's our Ramsey Mortgage Calculator and start plugging in some numbers because I think that you have once you get work I think you have more options than maybe you think and it might be a good thing for you too to get access to some of that money and have liquidity maybe we can invest a chunk of it so that there's some money that's growing for you um but staying I don't know George staying where she's at feels yeah because there's a long-term problem too of just how are you going to retire regardless of what happens with this case and i also think you're it's overblown what's happening with the background check because a pending you know you didn't actually get arrested and so and even if you did you weren't convicted of anything right and so if there's just a pending charge that shouldn't stop you from getting any job in the world there's convicted criminals out there who are working right and have gainful employment so i think you need to keep doing your homework on that side and they can't discriminate based on age and so there's work you can do and figure out what that is based on your current health your ability to drive and do some of this gig work in the meantime because you can replace 20 bucks an hour pretty easily in today's economy yeah i think so i mean at 70 years old it could be tough but i think the biggest key is your money your nest egg is in your home and you've pointed to your home being in a location that's an issue so maybe it's time to get access to that nest egg let that money grow for you and get in a less expensive living situation maybe a condo and that could be the answer one with less troublesome neighbors yes gosh you know what neighbors do affect your quality of life you got to get next to some good ones you know and it's hard to choose them create your free every dollar budget today the simplest way to budget for your life