Debt Anxiety at 2 A.M.: A Holiday Reset When You Feel Behind

Hey, you’re back with the Get Out of Debt guy. I’m Steve Rhode. You’re old, aged bald, old fart. Get Out of Debt Guy. And with me as always is Damon Day, the new Get Out of Debt guy. Say hello, Damon. Hey guys, how you doing? The quiet moment. That’s what this show is titled. What you’re really thinking about at 2 a.m. Now this, this podcast, Damon comes out on Christmas Day. So obviously we’re taping this before Christmas day, because we’re chillaxing at the moment when you’re listening to this. But whether it’s Christmas, your birthday, it’s armistice day or some other holiday, it is important to know that no matter how you’re feeling about your debt situation, this is not the end of the world. I should have started by saying Merry Christmas 2025. It might not feel Merry, but maybe you’re listening to this in the car, getting a few minutes alone or in bed after everyone’s asleep, staring at the ceiling thinking, oh my God, what am I going to do about my debt? Or maybe you’re hiding in the bathroom during dinner because you just need a break. Now, I mean, I’ve got family that does that. Heights in the bathroom when they just need a break. Now that would be effective if you couldn’t hear him watching YouTube. So Damon and I both know that you’re there and we know what you’re thinking about, even on Christmas. So let’s talk about it. Damon, there’s nothing worse than feeling like the world is ending and everyone else is being cheerful. Yeah, you know, and especially in this social media age where it almost always seems like everybody else is out there living their best life and then you’re stuck living yours. But there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes on all those social media posts. And there’s a lot more people that are in debt feeling exactly how you’re feeling right. You know, when before my bankruptcy, I don’t remember what month it was, but it was Christmas. My daughter was three years old and, you know, well, Steve, that’s a clue of what month it probably was. Probably. But I may not be a smart man, but I’m thinking it was around probably. But it was, you know, it was the holidays. It was Christmas. She was three. She was all excited about Christmas and I could not sleep. When the sun went down, I couldn’t sleep all night long. I would watch stupid things on TV, all the info, commercials and all that. I guess these days I’d be scrolling through TikTok or watching YouTube or something. But I just remember how bad I felt not being able to give her the Christmas that I thought she deserved. And she looks back now and says she had a great time. She was unaware. Things are great. And all of that pain and misery was in my head. And it was. I’m surprised you didn’t just start buying tax leave watching all those latest late night information or placing, placing tiny ads from my little apartment. No, it was, it was, that was the age of Robert Allen, the no money down real estate. Yeah. So I watched lots of those. And was it Carlton Sheets? Carlton Sheets. I still got Carlton Sheets taped from the 80s that my mother gave to me when I was like 12 or 13 because I was a weird kid that was in that crack. Well, you can throw them away now. But I remember how everyone looked happy and festive and you know, people would be like, very Christmas. And in my head, I’m thinking, like, screw you. I think I feel like I’m going to die. You know, I was one anxiety attack away from just, I don’t know doing something terrible. But you know, right now lots of people are listening to us. And I don’t know how much I’m clear I can say this. But the one gift I want to give everybody is take the day off. You know, no matter what the situation is, you can always resume in a day or two. Give yourself, I want to give you the gift of peace and relaxation at least for one day. Yeah. And that costs you nothing, Steve. You could give it to everybody. And it tastes like affordability. That is my modern 2025 five bean soup recipe. Just take it, just take a day off. We should get some merch. You got to taste like taste like a whole ability. Hey, before we go on, has there been any other update on media mama, any comments or anything? Oh, there’s lots of comments on media mama. Everybody’s weighing in. But there’s nothing we can do until she reaches out. So I don’t really know what she’s doing or how it’s going for her. But you know, I mean, all we can do is offer a helping hand. But I often say, you know, I can lead a horse to water, but I’m not going to shove their face in and make them drink it. Right. And that’s that’s very true with lots of people. It’s like you can you can be there. You can offer some help. You can offer some advice. But you can’t you can’t take those steps for them. Right. Then you can’t make them do it. So and maybe she got it all. Maybe she’s all set up and she’s got a good plan and she’s off to the races. Yeah. For those that don’t know, media mama is somebody’s got a YouTube channel. And Damon and I did a podcast offering some debt help advice. When I worked at IBM, a coworker had a sign in their cubicle and said, I will work as hard as you. But not harder. I think that applies in this situation. So we offered help. What has been the consensus of the comments on the video help that we gave her? Most of them have been positive in the sense that they say, you know, they support her. They love meeting mama and they’re rooting for her. I had a couple of letters like she’s like, she’s lazy. She’s this. She’s that she I had one that was just ripen on her going. She’s just begging for what do they call it? Not digital begging, but what there’s a phrase handling. There’s a phrase for that. Yeah, but like did you get in hand? You know what I mean? Like she’s just because they were like, well, that’s why she’s not really reaching out for help. She wants to be the victim or whatever. But but overall most of the comments were very supportive and positive. Some were offering specific advice like she should do this or she should do that. And most of my responses were like, well, I don’t know what she should do because I haven’t talked to her. So I don’t know her specifics. It’s easy to guess what they are and be wrong and say, oh, she should do this and she should do that. But I refrained the specific advice for once I know what the actual situation is because the tone of our overall podcast was, you know, hey, wait, don’t sell your condo first. Let’s look at some things. But who knows based on her specifics, once we understood it, maybe we go, oh, yeah, screw that. Who knows? So you can’t be offering advice without fully understanding a situation. Otherwise, you’re not helping and you might even be making it worse. So the reason I brought her up was, you know, she was struggling. She put out some videos about how she was financially struggling. And it just reinforces the point that I wanted to make, which is it’s okay not to be okay. Right? No matter what the problem is, there’s a solution and we can help get you through it. When I say we, I mean, you can contact Damon Day at DamonDay.com. Yeah. When he says we, he means me. My, my, my wee days are over. I’m still in the evening. Yeah, he’s got me days. So I know, although my beard is getting wider and wider. I don’t know how many more me days I have. I saw your video when we connected and I was thinking, oh, ho, ho, there’s Santa. Wait, because of my size or my beard. You’re beard. I thought you were going to say both. No, no. I thought that was Rudolph standing next to you. Was that just you? What? Extra wide. Yeah. Now I still got several more years left in me. I’m not even thinking about it. I’m still young. Well, speaking of the weight you’re carrying, which just happened. I was at my mom’s last night. I had lots of cookies. No, no, if you look at our outline, it just happens to be the title of the next segment. Yeah. I know. I’m looking at me out. I thought we already covered segments. No, but I couldn’t help. That’s it. That was a great follow up. So if you are, you’ve taken the day off, you’re looking at the tree. I really like what you said last time, Damon, which was if you’re worried about your debt right now, it’s Christmas day and you’re worried about it, take the week off. I mean, that ship sailed. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Go bigger. Go home. I mean, it’s all right. What’s done is done. Enjoy the hell out of the next week. Get through the new year. And then we’ll tackle this crap in January. I wish I could get a lot yourself to relax and enjoy. You have come. You’re on the same page with me now when it comes to this, but I wish I could have experienced this myself. And I wish we had a match of one to wave for everyone who’s listening, which is stop looking behind you in the past and feeling crappy about it. And instead, look to the future and feel excited about the good things that are coming. Yeah. January 1st is around the corner. And it can be a reset point, right? You’ve been struggling with money and credit and debt and money problems, money troubles and all that stuff. But January 1st is a brand new year. You don’t have to make, oh shoot, one of those things that we make, but you know, those promises that are lies that we’re going to go to the gym. We’re going to have to do that. That’s a resolution. I have a resolution for it there. But you don’t have to make a New Year’s resolution about you’re going to go lose weight or and God forbid you make a New Year’s resolution about I’m going to make a budget. Because I was writing just today, Damon, about how badly I feel the budget, so nothing but a page of lies. So don’t set yourself up on that disappointment train. But after, yeah, you need a strategy. Yeah, we’ve got one more week here on January 1st. The next I can’t even know how this worked out that all of a sudden we changed our podcast to Thursdays and it lands on Christmas and New New’s Day. Not a bad timing. But we’re going to get into it in 2026. And even if you feel like you don’t have enough income, we’re going to talk you through how to have a strategy, how to get out of debt without a budget, how not to beat yourself up and feel horrible, how to be excited about the future, how to look forward and how to do better financially better than you ever thought that you could. It’s all right there within your grasp. It’s all in 2026. Now Pete, I like it, Steve. I can’t wait to know what good. And you know, if you feel like you’re struggling, it’s not just people that have are just living paycheck to paycheck because there are plenty of high income earners, people who make good money that are living paycheck to paycheck. So you’re not alone, absolutely not alone. Yeah, lifestyle almost always tends to rise to meet and my dad told me when I was a young lad, he said, Steve, it doesn’t matter how much you make, everyone has the same amount left over at the end of the month, nothing. And he was right. Was that when you guys were out in the hills of Scotland, when you were in the back, I’ll look for Nessie. All right, so by this time next year, your Christmas gift for yourself next year is going to be happiness and peace. In fact, that’s why I actually wrote the path to happiness. And what is it? What did you write? I wrote something, but I’m old and aged and I cannot remember what I wrote. I think it’s the path. Just check the website. Steve wrote some stuff. Oh, wait, wait, here it is. Oh, the peace, the damn peace trip me up. It’s the path to happiness and wealth. Oh, happiness and wealth, that peace. Screw your peace. Well, at least that book won the Washington Post personal finance book of the month. So that was good. All right, so Belly, that’s better than the jelly of the month club. Now we just finished that. We just finished our our jelly advent calendar today. Well, that was that was a Griswold family Christmas joke. If you saw the Christmas, the Griswold Christmas, no, to get to the jelly of the month club. Actually, sounds pretty good. So listen, let’s make this short and sweet. It’s Christmas go well, good, could be sweet if you can go out and you know scavenge all the the treats and stuff that every well has their back turned. But today just make today a day to enjoy life. It can always be worse. I say it every day to myself and I tell everyone, hey, at least I’m not on fire. Right? Today could be a whole lot worse. He did a lot. So, well, at least you’re not on fire. Thanks. Hey, no matter how bad you think it is, it can always be worse. But today, your only job is just be present with the people that you love. You know, we’ll take care of the debt. Don’t worry about it. Keep listening. Be sure you subscribe so we can take care of your debt. And it’s not going to go anywhere. Give yourself permission to enjoy today. And we will be back over the past two weeks. Damon and I have talked about the holiday debt spiral and how to survive without making it worse. And if you’ve been following along, you already know this podcast is different. We’re not here to shame you. We’re here to help you. Today’s podcast is pretty much a fluff piece because we said we were going to do it on Christmas day. So we’re going to skip all the hard advice and just tell you that we really care about you. Next Thursday is January 1st, new year, new everything. And we have an episode out called this is the year. And here’s why it actually can be no platitudes, no bullshit, no empty motivation, just a real roadmap for what you can accomplish in the next 90 days. This is where we stop surviving and start solving. I really hope you’ll be there with us. Yeah, so give us a like. Hit the subscribe button. What’s coming in January is the content you’ve been waiting for. Specific, actionable design for people who make good money, but need a real strategy. So don’t miss it. Now, there’s no homework for today. You got the day off as Steve said, spend it with the people you love, no action items, just this. You made it through another holiday season. That counts for something. If you need to talk to someone, reach out. You can reach me at daimonday.com, right? Yeah, that’s right. Daimonday.com. If you want to start planning, we begin next week, either way, you’re not alone, but tune in in January. We’ve got some good stuff. Merry Christmas, and I mean that you’re not going through this alone. We’ll be here every Thursday to help. And we’ll see you on January 1st, Damon. See ya.