I delayed for years writing an about me page. But after several recent requests, I thought I’d finally break down and do it.
My Life Philosophy
Kindness trumps evil. Good wins. Practice Safe Debt.
I try to live my life and conduct business by a simple mantra, “If you do good things, good things happen.” I have lived that philosophy and spent nearly all my adult life helping others.
Now the Debt Stuff
In 1990 I went bankrupt after the economy tanked and my real estate company failed.
After living through challenging money troubles in 1994, I founded a non-profit organization to help people find a path through their financial situations and solve debt problems.
At that time, the group was called Debt Counselors of America. We later changed the name to Myvesta. It was amazing how many people struggled with spelling both debt and counselors.
During my time there, the organization grew from two employees to seventy. Unfortunately, the larger the group got, the less fun it was. Not long after my cross-country motorcycle tour, where I interviewed people about credit and debt, I decided life was more important than working myself to death.
So in early 2004, I stepped down as president of Myvesta for a year to enjoy life and my family more. My daughter was getting ready to graduate from high school, and I wanted to make up for all the time I had missed by working far too hard.
I remained the board chairman and returned a year later as president. However, in 2006 I closed the organization down when our big office lease expired. I learned from the experience that I loved helping people but hated managing a big organization. It just wasn’t fun.
During my time at Myvesta, we created the first organization of its kind with a wide range of help and support for people with money troubles. We had staff psychologists, lawyers, mediators, employment specialists, CPAs, tax experts, etc. We even opened the first inpatient treatment program for compulsive spending issues. Our work got a lot of positive press. We did extraordinary things.
I had a syndicated Q&A advice column that ran in 50 papers, and I guess that’s where I got the writing bug. I also wrote three books during that time. You can download them here.
You May Have Seen Me On the News
I also did a lot of television and radio appearances as a consumer debt expert. I’ve been on FOX, CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, and many local stations. I also had my radio show as well. I was constantly interviewed by newspapers.
Here is a recent Fox News appearance.
Listen to My Get Out of Debt Guy Podcast
Easiest way to listen – Say “Hey Siri play Get Out of Debt Guy Podcast” or “Hey Alexa play Get Out of Debt Guy Podcast”
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I am now an investigative reporter and journalist specializing in covering consumer debt and debt relief.
I’m also the author of two top-six personal finance books on iTunes.
During my years helping people, I’ve also worked with some celebrities that had money troubles as their coach, and I appeared as a money coach on the television reality show Starting Over.
After my Myvesta days, I started a global social enterprise, the Myvesta Foundation, to help people in other parts of the world with financial troubles. In 2006 and 2007, I lived outside Liverpool, England, where I worked to create solutions to help UK residents with debt problems.
I’ve been invited to Parliament to offer advice on financial literacy. I also assisted in creating debt help groups in Ireland, South Africa, and the Netherlands and traveled extensively in Europe, studying other countries’ different debt assistance approaches. In 2007 I was a guest speaker at a conference in Berlin.
Here are some debt interviews I shot outside the Tower of London one day while I lived in England.
In 2008 we came back to the United States on a trip. The cool part was taking the helicopter from JFK to Manhattan at night.
During that trip, we spent three weeks driving from New York to San Francisco, and during that trip, I fell in love with America all over again and got homesick. It also reminded me how much I missed being a pilot. As a result, I obtained my private pilot license in 1988.
Not long later, we moved back to the United States. I started to spend my time helping people for free with debt problems through the GetOutOfDebt.org site.
I think testimonials speak louder than any words I could write; for me, they are more important. If you’d like to read some about me, click here.
So Who am I?
First, let me get the non-debt stuff out of the way. My favorite thing used to be long road trips on my motorcycle. My wife and I have had some big adventures on the bike and rode down the East Coast to Key West, FL. I also rode across the United States from Maryland to California.
I am a firefighter and Chief Pilot with a local fire department, responsible for drone and Unmanned Aircraft System operations for search & rescue and emergency services. My callsign is Fire Demon 1.
My love of aviation got me back in the airplane again, and I’ve since obtained my licenses as an instrument and commercial pilot. I now fly the airplane as a firefighter pilot in search and rescue and law enforcement operations.
Dogs are excellent, and as a dog lover, I’ve done a lot of dog rescue flights to save the lives of dogs. Most of my flights are from kill shelters down South to rescue up North who have people waiting who can adopt these dogs.
I also am a scuba diver, although I have not been diving in many years. In high school, I started a small company cleaning the bottom of racing sailboats in Annapolis, Maryland. I had fantastic experiences as a scuba diver, everything from being shot at and doing a crystal clear deepwater dive on a moonlit night to one day surfacing in front of a naked lady standing on the bank.
My favorite aircraft I have flown were the significant two-engine WWII-era C-47, an open cockpit Stearman biplane, and one sizeable full-motion commercial aircraft simulator of an Airbus A-320.
My other interest is photography. I studied photojournalism in college and have done freelance work for news services and Rolling Stone magazine. These days I shoot stills and videos primarily for fun, while I have some stock work for sale.
The broadcast quality version of this clip of mine was used in a travel show.
I also happen to rescue and digitally restore WWII original 16mm gun camera films. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many fighter pilots that flew Mustangs and Thunderbolts primarily over Europe in WWII. Amazing guys.
My hobby grew into a business where I rescued and restored thousands and thousands of rare aviation flight and pilot manuals. I sold those manuals online through my aviation site to researchers and people that restore rare aircraft.
“Recently Steve Rhode came to speak to our group at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. Our members loved his restored films and strongly support his important mission of saving aviation history and making it available to everyone. For those of us who love aviation and aviation history, his is a unique site that everyone must visit.”
As far as my working life. I went through the Georgetown University Medical School ophthalmic technology program and became an ophthalmic ultrasonography and photography expert.
During my medical days, I did routine eye care and was on-call for emergency eye care for extensive practice in Florida. Later in Maryland, I became an ophthalmic surgical assistant and participated in many surgeries.
The strangest was probably the removal of a live wiggling parasite from inside the eye of a teenage girl. I also happened to be involved in developing intraocular lenses for dogs to help restore vision and performing the first ophthalmic ultrasound to measure the proper lens needed for canine surgery at Duke University.
I was the co-editor and wrote chapters in my book Ophthalmic Technology which Raven Press published. After that, my ophthalmology life expanded, and I traveled around the country, teaching classes and speaking at national conferences. I went on to manage a medium-sized ophthalmic practice in New York.
In 1989 I decided I wanted to do something different with my life. Hence, I left my successful ophthalmology life behind and moved back to Washington, DC area to start a real estate development company, The Great Virginia Land Company, that specialized in developing property in the country. And eventually, that led to my bankruptcy and the story’s beginning.
Steve
Have you seen any information regarding Robert Farrington and Ameritech connection?
Hey Steve,
I was working with premier solutions services for about 2-3 years I guess could be longer I have to date back all the emails. However, I was told that after so many years my loans will be forgave. I paid them monthly to keep me on repayment plan. My repayment plan was $0 because of how much I made. I renewed with them every year as they requested. I paid them $19 a month for some years (like I said I’ll have to back date the emails of I still have them all). They one day emailed me out of the blue saying something like they was shutting down or closing. Anyways I never heard from them again. Reached out with emails and phone calls and nothing was ever done. I had other issues at the time to worry about like my health then to keep on at them. I got busy with working and trying to keep a roof over my head to deal with this till now. I’m reaching out to get some help. Are they one of those that needs a lawsuit filed against them because I’m not the only one having this problem. I would like all that money back or for that company to pay them off since they broke their side of the contract and just up and disappeared. Thank you
Rachel,
It is highly unlikely you will ever get a refund. The time has come to take control over your student loans again and find out exactly what is going on with them and how much damage has been caused. If you need someone I trust to help you through this, talk to my debt coach friend https://damonday.com
Hi Steve,
Have you ever heard anything on the information you came across on separating a spousal consolidation loan? We have a unique situation where my portion of the loans were discharged due to permanent disability. What remains is my husband’s portion. We have tried everything we could to search to get info on how to get it to where his loans could be eligible for PSLF, especially now, and he has been active duty military for 20 years at this point. We’ve been denied by Navient in every request. That loan would need to be consolidated into a direct loan and then have the PSLF applied, which there should not be any issue since all my debt portion has been removed. Seems easy right? Apparently not so much.
Your situation sounds reasonable and logical but that does not mean there is an easy answer. See my post over at https://getoutofdebt.org//85500/department-ed-ffel-joint-consolidation-rules-arbitrary-punitive
Right now is the best time ever to make your case to the Department of Education aggressively. The current Education Administration is trying to clean up old messes. This is one of them. It would not be unreasonable to hire a student loan attorney like Joshua Cohen https://thestudentloanlawyer.com/ to send correspondence to ED to get attention and/ contact the lawmakers that represent you to pitch your case.
Steve, just finished reading your Life Philosophy and two points you made really caught my attention. One is where you stepped down to spend time with family and two the larger the company the less fun it is. I can not agree more with both-as I have experienced the same. I also stepped away from an INC 500 company I founded to spend more time with family. It proved to be one of the best decsions of my life. I recently became involved in the debt settlement sector and read your reviews on a regular basis. Hoping we cross paths someday! Joyfully, Bruce
Bruce,
It is funny that sometimes people attack me for having done that to spend time with family as some indication I was running away from something. You’ve discovered the same thing I did which was there are things more important than just business. I wasn’t running away, I was running towards happiness.
I look forward to meeting you one day.
Steve
Hi Steve! How are you? Hope all is well. So my sister and I have been dealing with USASTUDENT LOANS since 2016. We have had no issues and have recertified every year. My credit report shows that its has been getting paid or is in good standing. I am due for recertification in August and my sister is due in November. I have been calling their number and to no avail. I cant even find their website to email them. I’m getting nervous, what do I do when its time for recertification? Can you assist me and tell me what should I do? Thank you so much!!
Hi, I am a widow my husband killed himself three years ago, now I find myself in 35 thousand dollars worth of debt, I pay and pay and pay and nothing ever seems to go down. I am looking for some advice as to what to do. I have been getting a lot of mail from dept relief people who say they want to give me all this money, to help with my debt. Why would they, my credit is not good. I have my house paid for but have had to redo the whole house myself inside and out. My husband just let it go. I have put blood sweat and tears into this home literly but now I’m in so much debt I can’t see above water. Any advise?
I would strongly suggest you talk to a bankruptcy attorney and have a free discussion. You should read https://getoutofdebt.org//51700/how-to-find-a-great-bankruptcy-attorney
But situations can be complicated by a number of life factors. If you want to talk to an expert to review your overall situation I would suggest https://damonday.com
I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your husband. You have certainly had to deal with a lot.
If someone wants to give you money when your credit isn’t good, that is a red flag.
I think perhaps the biggest ‘red flag’ for Pamela is that these folks are soliciting her by sending propaganda in the mail that she did not request. Run Pamela…Run….they do not have your best interests at heart. As Steve suggests, consult with a bankruptcy attorney. We are a reputable group of people and if you find one that has been in business for a long time, it is often because they care about people. Bankruptcy attorneys aren’t getting rich and most of our fees are set by the courts, so we would not do it if we did not genuinely care about people and helping them. Take care and sorry for the loss of your husband.
Thank you so much for commenting.
Hey I need help getting money back from aidnest student loan scammer Steven duong and than duong as well as knowing what my options are for student loan relief I have no idea where to begin
Start here. https://getoutofdebt.org//20126/how-to-try-to-get-refund-from-debt-relief-company
Hello Steve, I am a former college student who could not afford to finish my program 3 years ago. I have a huge balance with my College and it is in collections. I cannot get my transcript released until this debt is paid. It’s over $10,000 and I was wondering if there is any suggestions for this situation. Also, any advice on Student Loan Forgiveness would be greatly appreciated.
Here are my past posts with advice for dealing with transcripts. https://getoutofdebt.org//tag/transcript
Are these private or federal student loans?
Hey Steve,
One simple way to differentiate between “Debt settlement posing as a consolidation loan” and “True loan offer” is to look at the payment amount. A $395 payment for a $70K loan from a “lender” whose “program” lasts five years is impossible regardless the stated interest rate. That’s not to say a debt settlement outfit posing as a lender can’t quote a realistic payment amount. However, a vast majority have payment amounts that are simply impossible.
That is an excellent point.
Steve for the last five years I’m been teaching technology and computers to inmates for The Geo Group, Inc. a company that is under contract in Florida to house and run private prisons for the State. Do you think it would be possible to get the last $9k of my student loans forgiven since I’ve been teaching inmates? Does teaching at a private prison qualify me to receive loan forgiveness?
It’s an admirable goal but because it is a private prison and you were not employed by a government agency, I don’t see how you would qualify for federal student loan forgiveness.
I too have gotten a letter from debt referral center in las vegas back in May 2018. My husband died in march of 2018 and just ran across this notice last night. I don’t remember this notice and I evidently did not respond. I did get a letter from Repay and send them money every month. I am very low income. When I checked into bankruptcy I was told I don’t make enough to go bankrupt. I talked with a lady at repay and she said I really don’t need to pay anything but this is a legit debt and I continue to pay even tho my balance seems to go up instead of down. Any advice?
Whoever told you that you don’t make enough money to go bankrupt, was wrong. There is no minimum income limit. You might want to discuss your situation with https://helpsishere.org/ as well. They’ve had experience dealing with issues similar to yours.
Thank you for the stories about Americor Funding and similar outfits. I was close to signing up with them but will now give it a 2nd, 3rd and 4th thought.
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My boyfriend got his car repossed by his credit union in June. Here it is September and they have t done anything with it he is still being charged late fees and interest
I was wondering if world law group is legit..i talked with them for hours the other day and the more i ponder over it, i’m just not sure. I am hoping for it to work but did i just sign up for a scam.? Please advise sadiesmom73@outlook.com
Hello Stave,
I have problem paying my debs, actually I have over $12,000 deb on credit cards and another $14,000 on a unsecure loan from lending club.
Not sure what is the best option for me, but What I really know I can not complete my minimum payments. Can you help me out taking the best solution?
Thanks
Hi Steve,
What are your thoughts about the dischargeability of debt that is taken out specifically to pay off existing student loan debt, such as credit card cash advances or unsecured personal bank signature loans? With a certain amount of seasoning of say 12+ months, would the new debt that was taken out likely be considered as dischargeable?
Hello Steve, I am a failure at investment. I am now 61 but in excellent health with an excellent 80 K a year job. What do you think of investing in a duplex and then going 501K and index funds?
I just read your article on what questions to ask a debt settlement company and am glad because we are supposed to receive a e-mail contract tomorrow. I now know what questions to ask and look out for. Are there any legitimate debt settlement companies out there or are they all a scam-?
There are some good companies out there. The tough part is finding a company who will make sure you are using the best approach for your individual situation and not just selling you settlement because that’s what they sell. I’m glad I was able to help in some small way. Thanks for the comment.
Steve, my husband and I were affected by the economy tank in 2009. We went with a debt consolidation company called Lloyd Ward and Associates out of Addison Texas. We had six accounts with them with one being settled over a 4 year period. Today Lloyd Ward doesnt seem to “EXIST” our accounts given over to a company called CLC. We just saw a laywer who suggests filing a chapter 7. My husband has accrued student loan debt and myself since I co-signed on three of them, near $50,000 worth! We are trying to get back on our feet! Help!
Hello Shannon,
Start with this resource and guide for dealing with student loans.
https://getoutofdebt.org/student-loan-help-discharge-eliminate-settle-or-adjustment-assistance/
Steve! I am drowning in debt and it’s affecting my family! I am a new nurse and pay over $1500/mo in student loans… I should be a doctor! Please help! Shannon.mcclary@yahoo.com