What Dave Ramsey Won't Tell You

So I'm reading a story this morning about former Miami Dolphins' WR Irving Fryar and his mortgage loan scandal.  You probably don't know or care who Irving Fryar is, and that's ok.  I happen to like the guy a lot.  I will never forget 4th and short back in 1994, when Marino bombed it to him in Dan's first game back after the Achilles injury . . . ah, good timez.

Anywho, here is the story.  Go ahead and read it.  I'll wait.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-10-16/sports/sfl-irving-fryar-miami-dolphins-arrested-20131016_1_home-loan-scheme-miami-dolphins-mother

Ok, so let's continue.  This makes me sad, because first of all, Fryar is now a pastor at a church he founded.  And I know that Fryar has come a long way from his playing days when he discusses being so coked out during a game (when he played with New England and they were terrible) that he left at halftime and ran into a tree leaving the stadium.  He was known to be a party guy and a gun "enthusiast."  He was a rough guy, and he's come so far.  To see him mess up like this, well, it's sad.

But the part of the story that really gets to me is that he had made only a few payments on the loans and, as a result, the banks "eventually wrote the loans off as losses."

Wait a second.  I don't much . . . ok, ANYTHING about banking and financial matters of stock market liquidity ratio capitalism, but I can read.  And, unless someone tells me differently, it appears to me that the bank (stay with me here) realized they were duped and couldn't collect on the loans so they merely "wrote them off."  Almost $700,000 in loans.  That's what we're talking about.  Let me see if I can make this make sense in my own head.

Tom: "Hey, Ron.  It appears that Irving Fryar fellow duped us.  I don't think he's going to pay the loan."
Ron: "Oh well, guess we have to write that one off.  Let's be more careful next time we decide to loan hundreds of thousands of dollars."
(Tom and Ron laugh manically)
Tom: "So who covers the loan?"
Ron: "Don't worry, Tom.  We're doing fine.  See?  (picking up a stack of loan papers)  Look at this one.  This Petty family.  By the time they're finished paying off their house, they'll more than cover what we're losing on this Foreman deal."
Tom: "You just called him Foreman."
Ron: "Did I?  That's priceless."
(Tom and Ron laugh hysterically and . . . fade to black)

Honestly, I don't know how this works.  I am sure it happens every day.  But they could have left this part out of the article and my day would have been so much brighter.  I wasn't aware this was an option to banks, but I guess they have people default on loans all the time and have to do something to keep the doors open.  I'm not blaming the banks.  I'm blaming the world for not giving me this option.

Me: "Yeah, that credit card I jacked up when we took that trip we couldn't afford?  I'm going to write that off."
Alec Baldwin: "Good for you.  Don't eat meat."

Actually, I don't know that Alec Baldwin is a vegetarian.  Doesn't look like he's skipping any carbs, that's for sure.  Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked (SURPRISE!).

I'm just sitting here wondering how I sign up for this program and what you have to do to be considered a "bank."

Aaaahhhhhhhhh!  Distractions!  Where was I?  Oh yes, sorry you're sick, Irving.  Get well soon.  And congrats on going back and getting your degree or whatever was going on earlier.  Watch out for trees.