What began as a discussion about inflation, recession possibilities, and deleting debt, turned into a look inside the side hustle project and life.
This week, Damon Day and I present another Debt Free Dudes podcast.
Enjoy.
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Transcript
Don’t blame me for inaccuracies; a machine did this transcript.
00:00:00.017 –> 00:00:05.287
Hey, this is another episode of debt free dudes, you’re back with myself Steve Rhode, They get out of debt guy.
00:00:05.287 –> 00:00:16.067
You can find me at https://GetOutOfDebt.org and of course my compatriot Damon Day who you can find at https://DamonDay.com. Hey Damon, Hey steve.
00:00:16.077 –> 00:00:24.142
So this week we’re talking about risks of recession inflation and dealing with your debt. Now before it’s too late.
00:00:24.152 –> 00:00:27.952
Today is more of a public service announcement. Get out of debt.
00:00:27.962 –> 00:00:31.622
Get out Well, you know, getting out of debt is always a good idea now.
00:00:31.622 –> 00:00:42.682
I think what’s really interesting about this podcast is like always Damon and I have not really talked to each other about this topic, but you will probably find that we have different points of view.
00:00:42.947 –> 00:00:50.377
Because we are from different generations and have had unique and different lives.
00:00:50.387 –> 00:00:54.087
I am a little bit older than Damon slightly.
00:00:54.097 –> 00:01:00.987
Well it’s you know, not in too many decades, but could be my father.
00:01:00.997 –> 00:01:11.597
Actually I could, that’s, oh I didn’t say I wanted to be, but I could be okay.
00:01:12.227 –> 00:01:16.187
I’m going to write a book one day. It will be my three dads.
00:01:16.197 –> 00:01:22.467
That’s right. Everything steve told me I didn’t listen to my dad because I already have two and then you’ll be my third dad.
00:01:22.477 –> 00:01:25.387
I’d be your un biological father. Yeah.
00:01:27.207 –> 00:01:37.977
You know, there’s a fear, I don’t know what percentage of the company fears a recession and fears inflation, but there’s certainly lots of different points of view.
00:01:37.977 –> 00:01:43.867
I went out this morning and research to see what the current recession forecast is, it’s 50 50.
00:01:43.877 –> 00:01:47.837
So I think that about sums it up, we don’t know what’s coming,
00:01:47.847 –> 00:01:59.627
but Damon you think it’s important that people prepare for the worst and tell me why And for this podcast, just so listeners know company means country, you said company,
00:01:59.827 –> 00:02:07.807
oh company, you said half the company thinks this well, you know, country is like a company.
00:02:08.327 –> 00:02:11.207
Actually is very much like a company.
00:02:11.207 –> 00:02:19.427
If you really want to dive into it, a corporation, do we want to go down the rabbit hole if it’s a person or not?
00:02:20.087 –> 00:02:25.687
I think there was a movie once wasn’t, there were like United States of America inc or something like that.
00:02:25.697 –> 00:02:32.847
Yes, there was, you know, you’ve got a very healthy view of why people need to think about the downsides here.
00:02:32.857 –> 00:02:39.157
Tell everyone why they should think about managing their debt now because debt is bad.
00:02:39.167 –> 00:02:44.287
We talked about this quite a bit far as like you said, half the country thinks there’s going to be a massive recession.
00:02:44.287 –> 00:02:49.127
The other half thinks it’s, it’s, there’s not gonna be one, the bottom line is, nobody knows,
00:02:49.137 –> 00:02:59.547
but what I do know is carrying debt into a time of downturn, especially massive downturn is not fun.
00:02:59.907 –> 00:03:03.697
And if there was ever a time to just bite the bullet,
00:03:03.707 –> 00:03:15.607
and get yourself out of debt, it would be now because the way I look at it is okay if half the country is right and there is a massive recession, you potentially lose your job, you know prices still going up.
00:03:15.607 –> 00:03:19.137
The last thing you want is to be you know dealing with debt.
00:03:19.147 –> 00:03:23.307
Um but if the other half of the country is right and there is no recession.
00:03:23.670 –> 00:03:27.290
Is it really that bad for you to get out of debt anyway?
00:03:27.290 –> 00:03:40.350
I mean, so it’s like, what’s the downside of just getting the hell out of debt right now, Okay, when we’re talking about getting out of debt, we’re not talking about cut up all your credit cards and don’t spend, we’re talking about reducing your obligations that you have now,
00:03:40.360 –> 00:03:45.390
but that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy life and do the things that you want to do right?
00:03:45.690 –> 00:03:49.190
Yeah, absolutely. You know, and there’s no one way to do it.
00:03:49.200 –> 00:04:00.500
I mean it’s just a matter of taking stock of where you’re at and what I’m saying that I’m not talking about, you gotta, you know, accelerate to pay off on your mortgage. Although that’s not a bad thing if that’s gonna make sense for a certain individual.
00:04:00.510 –> 00:04:13.175
I’m mainly talking about consumer debt debt that you racked up buying things that you really didn’t have the money to afford at that time. And then now it’s just sucking 2025 percent, 30% from you every single year.
00:04:13.185 –> 00:04:23.855
Well, people are spending a whole lot more on credit cards right now, it’s going up like 10 11 12% a month every month. People are are spending just a whole bunch of money.
00:04:23.865 –> 00:04:28.245
What I find very interesting about looking towards the future is.
00:04:28.525 –> 00:04:35.495
In my lifetime, I am now 63 years old and in my lifetime I lived through.
00:04:35.760 –> 00:04:45.570
High inflation out of control economy in the seventies, I’ve lived through multiple fuel crisis is energy crisis is stock market crashes everything.
00:04:45.580 –> 00:04:50.210
And one of the things that I have learned is it’s all cyclical.
00:04:50.220 –> 00:04:56.260
It all goes around comes around and everyone will experience multiple things like that in their life.
00:04:56.270 –> 00:05:07.510
What I find fascinating is a troubling economy or pressure on your personal finances and budget can be good for the country.
00:05:07.520 –> 00:05:16.020
For example, rising interest rates make the U. S. Dollar more attractive and more people are flooding money into the United States.
00:05:16.030 –> 00:05:21.260
And it also means that the U. S. Dollar buys more and that seems counterintuitive.
00:05:21.270 –> 00:05:31.730
I mean, for example, here’s another thing in order to reduce inflation, the Federal Reserve is going to have to increase interest rates and increased interest rates.
00:05:32.132 –> 00:05:45.992
Will need to higher unemployment. So one thing is not like another and this is a wave that we are going to ride if you want to prepare yourself for potential, maybe downsizing,
00:05:46.002 –> 00:05:50.532
or just making your monthly stress a little bit less Damon.
00:05:50.532 –> 00:05:54.022
Give us some ideas of what things people can focus on.
00:05:54.032 –> 00:06:02.292
Well, I mean there’s a million different things you can focus on, but when, when you really boil it all down, there’s just almost two things right?
00:06:02.302 –> 00:06:09.735
You look at how can I get rid of the debt on the back end and how can I stop getting into debt on the front end?
00:06:09.745 –> 00:06:12.585
So it’s just about what it really boils down to it.
00:06:12.585 –> 00:06:27.505
It’s about make better choices on the front end about the stuff you’re buying and and then figure out what is the best way for you to assess the debt that you have now and come up with a plan and a strategy. I don’t care if that plan is filed bankruptcy and wipe it out.
00:06:27.515 –> 00:06:34.438
Get into debt negotiation, debt settlement, credit counseling, tiny feet as steve, likes to call Dave baby steps.
00:06:34.448 –> 00:06:37.068
It doesn’t really matter how you do it.
00:06:37.078 –> 00:06:43.038
It’s just you want to do something to start moving toward whatever your goal is.
00:06:43.048 –> 00:06:52.348
And just continuing to do the same thing is not gonna help and we start looking at purchasing decisions and you know, budgeting, nobody likes to talk about this stuff because budgets are boring.
00:06:52.348 –> 00:07:06.622
But one thing that has really helped me out over the years that I didn’t even, I don’t know I didn’t think about or just didn’t occur to me until, you know, later in life, not as late as steve’s life, but you know when people are buying things like, let’s say you want to buy a new car right?
00:07:06.632 –> 00:07:09.872
And you go, oh, it’s 0% interest. It’s that’s awesome.
00:07:09.882 –> 00:07:15.842
It’s, it’s, you know, you kind of like can justify things right in your mind, You think, well that’s a good buy because it’s 0% interest.
00:07:15.852 –> 00:07:29.302
Well, one way to start thinking about things, if you have consumer debt and you’re paying on credit cards, so you got $30,000 on credit card debt, you’re making payments every month and you know, you’re managing it. But that’s basically all you’re doing and you’re paying 20% 25%.
00:07:29.452 –> 00:07:34.722
If you make a decision to go buy a new car, even though you think, well that’s great, that’s 0%. That’s a very smart purchase.
00:07:34.732 –> 00:07:49.202
You’re technically not getting that car at 0% because all those monthly payments that you’re making on that car, $500 a month is now $500 a month that you cannot throw at that 25% interest rate credit card.
00:07:49.212 –> 00:07:57.022
So if you have a credit card at 25% every single thing you buy every day,
00:07:57.032 –> 00:08:05.842
is essentially like getting a loan for that thing at 25% because that’s not $25 you can throw out that credit card.
00:08:05.842 –> 00:08:12.092
So I’m gonna go out to Mcdonald’s and take the kids to Mcdonald’s and it’s well these days it’s 50 freaking dollars to go to Mcdonald’s.
00:08:12.102 –> 00:08:19.832
But so that’s $50 and you think that’s $50. But you know I had a hard day at work or whatever, Just start framing it different.
00:08:19.842 –> 00:08:27.532
Think about it like every single time you go to buy something, ask yourself would I be willing to get alone at 25% interest?
00:08:27.802 –> 00:08:41.422
To buy this big mac right? And then it really helps separate your needs from your wants because that’s what you’re doing, you’re literally financing every single thing you put a dollar out for your financing that at 25%.
00:08:41.422 –> 00:08:55.342
Because the opportunity cost is that dollar cannot go on to the principal balance of that credit card and and stop that 25% interest charge. So until you get out of that debt, you are paying your highest interest rate debt on every single purchase you make.
00:08:55.522 –> 00:09:03.382
Yeah. Once you’re not carrying expensive debt like credit card debt, it’s interesting. The least important factor when selecting that card is the interest rate.
00:09:03.422 –> 00:09:11.022
The interest rate doesn’t even matter because if you’re paying that debt off in full every month and you’re not carrying a balance, you’re not getting charged interest.
00:09:11.032 –> 00:09:25.122
But if you’re carrying a balance like Damon said, you’re going to be paying out the ass for that That pack of gum in that Starbucks Latte and you’re gonna be paying a lot more than the actual cost. And speaking of the actual cost.
00:09:25.132 –> 00:09:32.602
I mean let’s be honest about those 0% interest rate offers, they’re not really 0%.
00:09:32.612 –> 00:09:39.752
The prophet in the interest that would have been earned on that vehicle are built into the sales price.
00:09:39.762 –> 00:09:48.822
I mean you’re going to pay one way or another, But it is all about mentally triggering you to go out and buy.
00:09:48.832 –> 00:09:56.942
Recent studies have found that nearly 40% of Americans regularly overspend to impress others.
00:09:57.002 –> 00:10:03.232
That’s where a lot of money leaks out. You’re just trying to keep up with the joneses or spend like your friends spend.
00:10:03.242 –> 00:10:11.962
But instead, if you’re looking for easy places to cut back, being more aware and conscious of why you are spending the money will save you.
00:10:11.972 –> 00:10:17.002
What is the equivalent of a shitload? Damon, crap, crap load?
00:10:17.002 –> 00:10:30.102
Okay, Save you a crap load of money and Damon and I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but both of us bitch and wine and whinge all the time about.
00:10:30.332 –> 00:10:37.392
Budgets. We both just absolutely hate budgets because if you’re not tracking your cash now and you don’t know where it goes.
00:10:37.412 –> 00:10:41.082
Making up a page of lies is not going to help you do better financially.
00:10:41.092 –> 00:10:53.242
One thing that you can do is before cutting back and cutting out in your life, if you want to reduce the amount of money that’s flowing out of your wallet every month, just simply write down what you’re spending money on.
00:10:53.252 –> 00:11:06.804
I I have found over the years that just by doing that just by being a little bit more aware, people usually cut back their discretionary spending by about 20% because now they’re actually asking themselves two important questions,
00:11:07.004 –> 00:11:09.044
do I really need this?
00:11:09.194 –> 00:11:13.434
And I think the most important question is why am I buying it?
00:11:13.644 –> 00:11:21.766
And when you can answer those two questions and you still, I want to purchase what that thing is, whatever it is, Hey, that’s up to you. If you can afford it, go for it.
00:11:21.776 –> 00:11:28.156
And I would add that third question of, am I willing to get a loan for 25% to buy this item? Because most of the time?
00:11:28.166 –> 00:11:36.036
Yeah, I don’t really need that, but you know, you just have to frame it like that because that is exactly what you’re doing if you have that debt.
00:11:36.036 –> 00:11:40.166
So and I know we’re not saying anything profound on this podcast.
00:11:40.166 –> 00:11:52.548
The the whole point of this episode was really just to kind of bring some awareness to, hey, there’s some pretty heavy things that may be going on, you know, into the economy at large here, you know, it’s always a good time to get out of debt.
00:11:52.548 –> 00:12:00.358
But especially now would be a time you really want to take stock of where you’re at, especially if we do go into recession, what do financial gurus?
00:12:00.358 –> 00:12:07.482
Always say that you want to have in times of recession, cash in the bank, cash in the bank, right?
00:12:07.482 –> 00:12:20.792
But it was warren Buffett always say, you know, you want to be able to buy when people are selling and sell when people are buying well in a recession, people usually are selling and if you have very little debt and extra cash.
00:12:20.962 –> 00:12:34.042
You might be able to get some deals maybe on some real estate or whatever it is that you want to do or start a business on the side, pick that up on the cheap, but cash is king in a recession and I don’t know what debt is, but it’s not king.
00:12:34.052 –> 00:12:38.022
Okay, so let’s also talk about preparing for the future.
00:12:38.032 –> 00:12:49.422
Look, I was young once when you’re younger, it’s the most time to save and plan for the future because your money will grow and multiply and you don’t have to work harder for that to happen.
00:12:49.432 –> 00:12:55.902
So in reducing your debt, don’t get all into the, I need to reduce all my debt right now.
00:12:55.912 –> 00:13:09.582
Also start thinking about putting money away into a couple of different accounts, one is an emergency account in case The tire goes, you need engine work. The hot water heater goes something unexpected in your life.
00:13:09.592 –> 00:13:22.592
The next account is saving for retirement. If your employer has some sort of 401K. Plan and matches your contributions, you should match that out because that’s free money your employer is trying to give you.
00:13:22.602 –> 00:13:25.762
What’s interesting is that even though I ran a financial company.
00:13:26.201 –> 00:13:30.551
Only about 30% of my staff would ever participate in the 401k.
00:13:30.561 –> 00:13:39.551
Most of them were young and they thought ah there’s time to do that later but the ones that did participate have come back to me years later and said oh my God thank you so much.
00:13:39.561 –> 00:13:45.701
You know I’ve got, my balance is grown by X percent and it’s just thank the third bucket.
00:13:45.711 –> 00:13:49.161
It’s like what we were talking about earlier about having money in the bank.
00:13:49.171 –> 00:14:01.571
Some people also label that account the account if you ever get fed up at work or something happens and you just don’t want to work for a jerk anymore, you want to take some time off, you can say fuck it,
00:14:01.581 –> 00:14:05.281
and you got cash in the bank in order to carry you through those times.
00:14:05.291 –> 00:14:14.791
Damon, you gotta fucking account. I’m sorry my wife just stuck her head in and I had to mute it and see what she needed which was nothing my bad.
00:14:14.801 –> 00:14:21.081
I didn’t have anything. I literally, I came back on when it was dead silence and I had nothing to make up.
00:14:21.091 –> 00:14:26.181
Sorry you missed my whole thing about needing a account.
00:14:26.191 –> 00:14:36.941
No I didn’t I didn’t miss that. I heard the account but I didn’t know if there was a question on the end and I was deer in headlights and I was like okay up.
00:14:37.461 –> 00:14:41.771
I need I need like a red light or something outside my door. I have one.
00:14:41.941 –> 00:14:47.881
I have actually it’s downstairs in the kitchen so when I’m recording.
00:14:47.901 –> 00:14:53.171
Yeah it says recording which basically means don’t open my door.
00:14:53.761 –> 00:15:01.891
Okay, sorry about that. No problem. Yeah, I’ve been talking about the front, I was gonna say I’m the front end guy. You’re the back end guy.
00:15:01.901 –> 00:15:05.291
When it comes to dealing with this topic dealing with debt.
00:15:05.301 –> 00:15:11.341
So one day you wake up Damon and you feel, oh my God, my debt is out of control.
00:15:11.351 –> 00:15:14.581
I don’t know what to do. I’m going to do something. I’m gonna make phone calls.
00:15:14.591 –> 00:15:25.591
I’m going to go on the internet. I’m going to contact people. We’ve talked about it before, but give us a quick summary of what people should do if they’re panicking right now and listening to us.
00:15:26.444 –> 00:15:37.394
Well they should call me. But that’s a shameless plug. So you know, I mean that’s the that’s the easy button. Just call Damon and tell him what my problem is and he’ll tell me what to do and it will make sense and I’ll be very happy.
00:15:37.404 –> 00:15:40.904
The biggest thing is you gotta just take a step back.
00:15:40.914 –> 00:15:52.654
You’re going to get as soon As you start responding to mailers or going to websites, putting your information, you’re going to start getting bombarded and and the bombardment will continue for years.
00:15:52.664 –> 00:16:04.154
Like you fill out a help request form online for consolidation loan and you’ll just be getting inundated with 15 offers a month in the mail of everybody wanting you to loan money.
00:16:04.164 –> 00:16:11.454
Even long after you’re out of debt, you’ll still keep getting the offers. I mean it’s it’s crazy. But the biggest thing is take a step back.
00:16:11.464 –> 00:16:17.884
My rule of thumb is if you get an unsolicited offer for help is bullshit.
00:16:17.894 –> 00:16:25.244
That’s just the easiest way to really think about it now. Is it absolutely true that anybody offering to help is going to be B. S.
00:16:25.254 –> 00:16:32.364
No. You know, you you might get lucky that’s an advertising mailer or something to induce you to purchase that service.
00:16:32.554 –> 00:16:43.404
Yeah, absolutely. And and the last thing you want to do is, especially as steve mentioned if you’re up late at night, you’re stressed, you’re getting phone calls from creditors, you’ve got this debt, you don’t know what to do.
00:16:43.414 –> 00:16:47.884
The last thing you want to do is be on the phone with some sales person.
00:16:48.239 –> 00:16:55.249
Selling you some service or some program. When you don’t even have an understanding of what your options are and how to best resolve it.
00:16:55.249 –> 00:17:06.579
Because people have preconceived notions about bankruptcy or credit counseling or Dave Ramsey or whatever it is and a salesperson will take your preconceived notions and run with them.
00:17:06.579 –> 00:17:19.506
And you might be a perfect candidate for a Chapter seven bankruptcy. It might be the ab absolute perfect solution for your situation, but you might be predisposed to saying, oh I have got an aversion to that, I don’t want to do that.
00:17:19.516 –> 00:17:29.116
Well, somebody that’s looking out for your best interest, can help you unpack that and explore that. And maybe you have a legit reason for wanting to avoid it and that’s fine and we can unpack that.
00:17:29.126 –> 00:17:44.022
But maybe you don’t. Maybe you have some preconceived notions that are false. But what a salesperson will do that’s trying to sell, tell you a service is, go with that aversion. You have to the bankruptcy and tell you how horrible it is. Not even unpack it at all. Not explore it.
00:17:44.092 –> 00:17:49.332
Tell you why it’s so bad and why. The thing that they’re selling is definitely a better solution for you.
00:17:49.642 –> 00:18:01.090
That’s not what you need, what you need is somebody that can give you some objective information and say, okay based on your situation, this is what your life will look like if you did option X.
00:18:01.310 –> 00:18:05.930
This is what your life will look like. If you did option Y or option Z or whatever it is.
00:18:06.200 –> 00:18:11.710
Take some time, take a breath, start looking at all those things really think about what’s important to you.
00:18:11.860 –> 00:18:25.079
If you are looking at a bankruptcy or a settlement or something like that, understand what kind of negative potential effects that could have on certain aspects of your life, like your credit and things like that And understand what benefits those could have on your life.
00:18:25.079 –> 00:18:36.899
And then you weigh the benefits versus the negatives and decide for yourself what makes the most sense. So big tip number one, if you get unsolicited advertising, don’t even respond to it.
00:18:36.909 –> 00:18:43.249
Or if you do just know 100% you are talking to a salesperson that usually knows.
00:18:43.519 –> 00:18:49.119
Nothing about finance and is not there to help you figure out a strategy, they’re just,
00:18:49.129 –> 00:18:59.619
there to sell you a service, you can get the information, thank them for their time and then again, take a step back and go on to another sales call because that’s essentially what you’re doing is you’re making,
00:18:59.869 –> 00:19:03.599
sales calls and then you’re trying to decide which sales guy sounded the best.
00:19:03.609 –> 00:19:18.449
Unfortunately, I’m a big student of behavioral economics and people tend to fall in very identifiable theories, biases, behaviors and one of those biases is something called the framing cognitive bias.
00:19:18.799 –> 00:19:31.309
The reason I bring that up is tell me if this doesn’t sound familiar framing cognitive bias develops from making decisions from the information presented to you rather than doing an independent analysis.
00:19:31.738 –> 00:19:40.158
All of the data on the subject. Right? So we’re talking about a debt relief salesperson telling you one thing and you making the decision based on that.
00:19:40.158 –> 00:19:49.598
Rather than researching the topic now, those that seek debt help may picked solutions differently based on what the salesperson has told them.
00:19:49.608 –> 00:20:03.748
And also this bias can also be developed by social influences what other people that you know say like you talked about the negative things about bankruptcy and it can influence your decision.
00:20:03.758 –> 00:20:08.818
So rather than making a fully educated aware, intelligent,
00:20:08.828 –> 00:20:20.568
decision about how to deal with your debt, be aware that you can fall into this easy stuff about herd mentality or self serving bias or what I think is the dreaded framing cognitive bias.
00:20:20.578 –> 00:20:34.278
Yeah. Well and I don’t want people to think that we’re just like pro bankruptcy, Pro bankruptcy, pro bankruptcy. I just like to use it as an example all the time because it’s such an apparent example of what you’re just talking about, right?
00:20:34.288 –> 00:20:48.208
Because everybody knows bankruptcy is bad, right? I mean that’s just like ingrained in our culture like bankruptcies, bad bankruptcies, bad, everybody knows bankruptcy is bad. So a salesperson trying to sell you a debt settlement or credit counseling or.
00:20:48.617 –> 00:20:54.587
Financial Peace University or whatever it is, is going to come with that preconceived notion.
00:20:54.597 –> 00:20:59.027
We just assume bankruptcy is the last resort and we’re not going to look at it.
00:20:59.037 –> 00:21:13.657
So here’s why this other option I’m presenting to you is going to be better than the big bad bankruptcy and they don’t ever want to unpack it. In fact, they actively discourage consumers from even looking at it. So again, I’m not saying the answer is always bankruptcy.
00:21:13.667 –> 00:21:25.592
I just love to use that example because everybody you can relate to that, especially if you’ve been talking to any kind of debt relief providers or anything like that or going online and looking at just mainstream financial blogs.
00:21:25.722 –> 00:21:31.012
Everybody says bankruptcy is bad. Well, bankruptcy can’t be bad for everybody, right?
00:21:31.022 –> 00:21:33.882
It wasn’t bad for me. It was great for me when I filed it.
00:21:33.892 –> 00:21:37.332
Dave Ramsey doesn’t like bankruptcy, but it seemed to work out pretty well for him.
00:21:37.342 –> 00:21:46.307
So it can’t be bad for every situation. But every single entity or person you talk to comes from that standpoint of well, this is bad.
00:21:46.307 –> 00:21:58.917
So let’s not look at that unless we can’t make anything else work and that’s the wrong way to approach it. Don’t try to shove your problem and do a preconceived solution, design the solution around your actual problem.
00:21:58.927 –> 00:22:03.917
That makes more sense. Here’s the other thing. You hear a lot to bankruptcy is a last resort.
00:22:03.927 –> 00:22:11.907
Well, that sentence alone makes no sense, bankruptcy is a resort, right? It is one of the options.
00:22:11.917 –> 00:22:15.777
It’s not really the last resort. It is one of them to consider.
00:22:15.917 –> 00:22:25.047
Last resort means you tried everything else that may have not have been appropriate for you and wasted time and money rather than doing what you needed to do.
00:22:25.047 –> 00:22:29.477
Damon and I have both seen over all of our years of helping people people who have.
00:22:29.757 –> 00:22:42.867
Just thrown away tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in doing the wrong thing, trying to tackle their debt rather than taking good, logical, educated, informed action.
00:22:43.067 –> 00:22:48.547
And I understand that this is an emotional thing, right? That is nothing more than Math, wrapped in emotion.
00:22:48.557 –> 00:22:51.257
Getting through the emotion, getting to the Math is hard.
00:22:51.966 –> 00:22:59.396
You probably want to talk to somebody that’s gonna kind of help challenge your emotional feelings about it and present you with the actual facts.
00:22:59.406 –> 00:23:12.276
And then you can decide if you’re just being emotional about it and damn it, that’s fine for you because that’s what you wanna do or hey, you know what you’re right. Maybe I did have some preconceived notions about this and maybe I should be at least open to looking at it.
00:23:12.426 –> 00:23:25.116
I can’t tell you the number of clients I’ve had over the years that when they first came to me, it was, well I don’t want to go bankrupt and and trust me. I I don’t think I’ve ever had a client call me on the first call and say, I really hope bankruptcy is my option.
00:23:25.126 –> 00:23:28.856
It doesn’t happen like nobody, nobody wants to do it.
00:23:28.866 –> 00:23:38.356
But again, the difference between talking to like me or some that’s okay. My job on this phone call is to sell this person my credit counseling program because that’s what I get paid for.
00:23:38.366 –> 00:23:46.966
You think their advice about what bankruptcy may or may not look like for you is gonna be the same as my advice if I’m getting paid to be an advisor.
00:23:46.966 –> 00:23:52.626
So I’m actually getting paid for the advice rather than getting a commission for the sale right?
00:23:52.626 –> 00:23:58.826
It’s gonna be different. I guarantee you and it’s gonna be something that’s gonna be a lot more objective and something that you can look at.
00:23:58.826 –> 00:24:09.596
But at the end of the day, it’s still your decision. My job is not to say you have to file bankruptcy because my job is to say if you file bankruptcy, your life would look like this.
00:24:09.936 –> 00:24:15.106
If you did not file bankruptcy, your life will look like this. Which way do you want to go?
00:24:15.116 –> 00:24:29.806
Right? And so we look at things through process of elimination until the client finds a strategy that a makes sense financially, but just as important they’re comfortable with because it is their life, it’s their money, it’s their credit.
00:24:29.806 –> 00:24:37.216
So it’s got to be their decision and they can’t make the decision unless they understand how it’s going to affect them before they jump into it.
00:24:37.226 –> 00:24:40.566
Let’s talk about some more ways that people can easily save money.
00:24:40.576 –> 00:24:47.576
And one of the big things that I find really saves money is not eating out as much.
00:24:47.987 –> 00:24:51.527
Not spending money on restaurants and things like that.
00:24:51.527 –> 00:25:00.957
If you can find an easy way now my wife and I found an easy way that we don’t actually go out to eat all that much at all because we’ve mastered the instant pot, we’ve,
00:25:00.977 –> 00:25:09.947
mastered the crock pot, we make easy meals that are good for you that actually don’t end up costing a lot of money and don’t take much time.
00:25:09.957 –> 00:25:16.247
Another thing that I think a lot of people spend a lot of money unconsciously on our cell phone plans.
00:25:16.257 –> 00:25:20.467
It’s worth shopping around and looking at what new plans are available.
00:25:20.477 –> 00:25:26.807
Um I happen to use a carrier that is exceedingly cheaper than what I used to use.
00:25:26.817 –> 00:25:41.017
And there are carriers out there like consumer cellular and Damon you had a horrible experience with T. Mobile but if you’re in a metropolitan area they they’re the number 15 G. Provider right now they have some really affordable plans.
00:25:41.267 –> 00:25:53.687
So that’s worth looking at. Why do I feel like you’re talking about me when you talk about eating out an expensive cell phone plan because that’s the beauty of our friendship is that you do all those.
00:25:53.697 –> 00:26:04.157
So 11 thing the listeners might not know about me is my wife doesn’t like to cook and I’m not gonna say what cell phone,
00:26:04.362 –> 00:26:12.182
plan what company I use. But it rhymes with Verizon but and but you know we’ve known each other for how long?
00:26:12.182 –> 00:26:24.262
15 years and in that time I’ve had this on again off again relationship with Verizon. But I’m like you know I mean like an abusive relationship right there the most expensive.
00:26:24.272 –> 00:26:32.472
But I always go back to them because every time I try a different one it just the service just doesn’t work out for me and It’s different.
00:26:32.472 –> 00:26:42.512
Like I’m not just like a teenager that drives around town. It has to have my phone work in town to call my friends. Like this is what I use full time and I don’t have, I haven’t had a landline for 10 years. You know?
00:26:42.542 –> 00:26:46.442
Well how many devices are on your plan are we going to do this? Yeah.
00:26:48.172 –> 00:26:52.012
Well clearly we don’t talk before because I have no idea.
00:26:52.012 –> 00:27:05.102
So let’s say we got four cell phones and we’ve got um 12 carry the 134 ipads hot spot. And I think that’s it.
00:27:06.402 –> 00:27:15.672
I want to say like 300 but that includes 0% interest on the latest iphones baby again. You’re talking about me.
00:27:15.682 –> 00:27:20.992
This is why I’m such a good consultant though because I’ve lived and experienced everything.
00:27:21.002 –> 00:27:33.162
So I can say do as I say not as I do, but if you do as I do, here’s what’s going to happen to you and I have many conversations where I’m over here going you’re killing me killing me smalls.
00:27:34.702 –> 00:27:41.182
So we have the yang to my yang isn’t that like show set or whatever it was?
00:27:41.192 –> 00:27:45.132
Do we still play that intro? At least I’ll have to stick it in there for this one?
00:27:45.142 –> 00:27:53.782
I think my gang, I forgot about it. So we have three cellphones and a hot spot and pay 1 10 a month.
00:27:53.792 –> 00:27:59.832
I got to beat. You. Do. Yeah. Yeah, I pay more money. Oh, I got you beat, I win.
00:28:00.249 –> 00:28:04.949
You can win that one, that’s fine. You can do it.
00:28:04.959 –> 00:28:10.619
But here’s another thing is like car insurance if I’m gonna beat you on that one too.
00:28:10.839 –> 00:28:20.119
I mean if you’re with the same program year after year after year, it’s worth looking around for car insurance because you’ll be surprised how rates have changed.
00:28:20.129 –> 00:28:25.629
We recently did that with our homeowner’s insurance and saved $900 a year.
00:28:25.639 –> 00:28:30.249
But it makes a big difference. Easy money. That’s just, that’s not money that you’re cutting out anything.
00:28:30.379 –> 00:28:34.789
That’s just money that you’re not spending so you can put in your pocket. Yes.
00:28:34.799 –> 00:28:42.479
Do you know someone who has been with the same insurance company for a long time? I didn’t mention your name. Do you know that?
00:28:42.489 –> 00:28:46.029
I’ve never had another insurance company.
00:28:46.169 –> 00:28:53.329
So when you say along here, let me give you an idea of a long time. I’ve had this insurance company since I got insurance right?
00:28:53.339 –> 00:28:59.499
And the reason I had this insurance company is because my parents had this insurance company.
00:28:59.509 –> 00:29:08.529
And the reason they had this insurance company is because my grandparents had this insurance company, it doesn’t hurt to shop around.
00:29:08.539 –> 00:29:23.339
We’re three generations of getting ripped off And I don’t know this because I’ve never actually filed a claim in 25 years for anything, but I’m confident they’ll have my back if I will be right on it because we’re three generations loyal Steve isn’t that true?
00:29:23.349 –> 00:29:29.889
Well, it’s like my friend who used to have all state had his car stolen and they canceled his policy.
00:29:29.899 –> 00:29:42.389
Absoluteal. Oh, I’m sure if I ever have a claim and I say, hey, look, my grandfather has had your insurance for three generations. They will absolutely take that account paying my claim, right? Absolutely.
00:29:42.399 –> 00:29:49.189
No. I’ll get Ceo on speed dial baby. Right. Right now, Geico is offering incredible rates and.
00:29:49.365 –> 00:29:54.035
It wouldn’t hurt you just to check to see what the rate is. I mean right, Of course not.
00:29:54.045 –> 00:29:57.605
I’ve checked rates and then with the same company.
00:29:57.725 –> 00:30:08.065
Absolutely, yeah. Do as I say, not as I do you know what this is called Market research. I do stupid things so I can tell my clients not, they don’t do the stupid thing I did. And here’s what happened to me.
00:30:08.195 –> 00:30:15.285
It makes for great writing topics, just like, just like buying stuff at walmart to arbitrage and flip on Ebay all this money,
00:30:15.305 –> 00:30:25.955
make it on the side so we can report back on it to our listeners about how much money I’m not making because I haven’t sold a damn thing and not a damn thing. Well, you know, not a damn thing.
00:30:25.965 –> 00:30:39.205
We’ve been working on this project. Damon has been working on this project about looking at side hustles that can make money because you know, we’re trying to come up with things that we can tell you about that work, so you can make extra money and we’re still working on it.
00:30:39.215 –> 00:30:42.815
We haven’t really found anything that’s been successful, have we?
00:30:43.115 –> 00:30:48.085
Yeah, essentially what we’re doing is we’re, you know, you see all these ads and all these things, you can do this, you can do that steve.
00:30:48.085 –> 00:30:52.165
And I have always kind of been of the mind that if these,
00:30:52.175 –> 00:30:55.585
side and we don’t wanna be too negative nelly on everything because,
00:30:55.595 –> 00:31:08.245
I’m like mr side hustle, that’s just my personality and and some things do work, but we’ve always been of the mindset that when these guys are selling courses on, you know how to buy real estate with tax notes and things like that.
00:31:08.245 –> 00:31:19.555
It’s like if they were so rich doing this, why would they put together a course and sell it at late night for $40 to anybody that wants to buy it and then instantly become their competition.
00:31:19.555 –> 00:31:31.855
So it doesn’t make any sense for them to do that unless they really weren’t making that much money doing it, but we’re making a lot more money selling people, the idea that they could also do it.
00:31:31.855 –> 00:31:35.445
So we just thought, hey, wouldn’t it be fun to try some of these things?
00:31:35.445 –> 00:31:41.420
And right now we’re doing the walmart, retail arbitrage where you go into walmart and you buy things,
00:31:41.430 –> 00:31:52.090
on clearance, extremely cheap and you use the app and you looking, you know, and then you flip this stuff on Ebay and you know, we’ve seen ads where people are claiming they’re making a quarter million dollars a year buying,
00:31:52.100 –> 00:31:55.460
shoes at Marshalls and doing an amazon,
00:31:55.670 –> 00:31:59.660
fulfilled by amazon, right FDA FDA.
00:31:59.660 –> 00:32:01.600
So we thought, what the hell, let’s try it.
00:32:01.610 –> 00:32:07.095
Well, so far, I’m not on pace to make 250 K doing that.
00:32:07.315 –> 00:32:11.825
Yeah, we’re the lowest price on some things on amazon and they still aren’t selling.
00:32:11.835 –> 00:32:24.755
I know it’s like, it’s not a lot of the stuff is not as easy as the, the ads say they are, which is surprising steve, I’m shocked, hey, we’ve run out of time.
00:32:24.765 –> 00:32:31.425
I gotta go. What’s the takeaway that? Yeah, well, I think the takeaway is really easy. Things one.
00:32:31.658 –> 00:32:45.578
Just think about your spending, it might be a good time just to not pay more for something that you’re already using than you have to cut out money that way number to think about putting some money away and you don’t have to make it a complicated thing.
00:32:45.588 –> 00:32:55.358
Just a boring old savings account. If you have money that you’re willing to put away and invest right now and you want to protect yourself against inflation or a recession,
00:32:55.528 –> 00:33:04.608
think about a series I bonds from the Treasury department, the good old good old usa paying 9.62% right now and you can’t beat that.
00:33:04.608 –> 00:33:08.568
You can only put in up to a maximum of $10,000 a year per person.
00:33:08.578 –> 00:33:12.508
But hey, it’s backed by the government, it’s not going anywhere so you don’t need to worry about it.
00:33:12.518 –> 00:33:16.988
And real quick repeat that again because that one that one is very very impressive.
00:33:16.998 –> 00:33:22.178
Little gem that you stumbled across about a year ago or so. So so it’s people write that one down.
00:33:22.188 –> 00:33:25.938
You can go to Treasury direct dot gov.
00:33:26.238 –> 00:33:30.818
That’s the Treasury Department and look for the information on the series I bonds.
00:33:30.828 –> 00:33:44.768
So it’s a savings bond, it’s inflation adjusted. So if inflation goes up, they’re already talking about the return on those bonds for next year, maybe 13 per se because it’s indexed against inflation and it’s just,
00:33:44.988 –> 00:33:47.308
added to your balance and you earn interest.
00:33:47.308 –> 00:33:50.328
It just keeps accelerating doesn’t cost you anything.
00:33:50.338 –> 00:33:53.628
It’s free for you to participate. Series I savings bonds.
00:33:53.638 –> 00:34:00.568
Alright and then if you wake up in the middle of the night you’re watching infomercials because you’re panicked and stressed about your debt.
00:34:00.578 –> 00:34:03.868
There are good options and solutions that are out out there.
00:34:03.878 –> 00:34:14.628
I always recommend talking to Damon or going to my website and submitting a question. But you can actually chat with Damon online. Go to https://DamonDay.com.
00:34:14.638 –> 00:34:22.238
DamonDay.com. Or you can visit my website. GetOutOfDebt.org and there’s a chat button there too.
00:34:22.248 –> 00:34:26.098
No matter what we’re here for you, we care about you.
00:34:26.158 –> 00:34:33.788
We want you to have a better future and Damon I want you to have a good day. Well thank you. I will steve. Bye bye.
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