Latest / Financial Survival Network / New Rule Could Raise Your Credit Score - Paul Oster #6219

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New Rule Could Raise Your Credit Score - Paul Oster #6219 · Financial Survival Network

0:00
Speaker 1: You know, to the tune of about fifteen million Americans,
0:04
Speaker 1: this should have a very positive impact on their credit reports,
0:07
Speaker 1: credit scores, credit ratings. It's about forty nine billion dollars
0:13
Speaker 1: in total debt that's being reported, So it's an awesome thing.
0:18
Speaker 1: One of the projections is that they're thinking, you know,
0:21
Speaker 1: when you look at what's going to happen with their scores,
0:24
Speaker 1: and I think two things. A, it's going to be
0:27
Speaker 1: an even better and greater impact than what they're forecasting.
0:30
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0:54
Speaker 3: Ever, and welcome. You are listening to the Financial Survival Network.
1:01
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Kerry Let's. Hey, we're in mid January already,
1:05
Speaker 3: can you believe it? But things are happening. New administration
1:09
Speaker 3: coming in old one, leaving old one, trying to do
1:13
Speaker 3: as many things as they can before they are shown
1:16
Speaker 3: the exit, which is imminent. But perhaps one positive thing
1:20
Speaker 3: that they're doing is eliminating finally, medical debt from your
1:26
Speaker 3: credit report. And what does that mean to you? How
1:29
Speaker 3: does that help you? Well, our good friend from better
1:32
Speaker 3: qualified dot com, Paul Oster, is with us now, Paul.
1:36
Speaker 3: So this is a victory for consumers, isn't it.
1:39
Speaker 1: This is probably one of the biggest victories for consumers
1:43
Speaker 1: in a couple of decades. So it's been a long
1:46
Speaker 1: time coming. They've they've you know, modified and played around
1:50
Speaker 1: with this ruling for quite some time. That the message
1:54
Speaker 1: was clear from the beginning. They you know, the administration
1:57
Speaker 1: understands that medical debt shouldn't really continue to harm a
2:03
Speaker 1: consumer's credit rating. There's been numerous studies and surveys and
2:09
Speaker 1: all sorts of things that were done. It proved someone
2:13
Speaker 1: who you know, has a medical debt collection. Unfortunately, usually
2:19
Speaker 1: they are a collection account by the time it winds
2:23
Speaker 1: up on some mu's credit report is not indicative of
2:27
Speaker 1: who they are as as a consumer and their credit rating.
2:30
Speaker 1: So this is a big move.
2:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of like they took tax leans off
2:35
Speaker 3: a while ago, because it's not a consumer debt, and really,
2:39
Speaker 3: when you get down to it, hospitalization or medical treatment.
2:45
Speaker 3: It's not something you as a consumer, said, Oh, I'm
2:47
Speaker 3: just going to blow a fortune on my credit cards
2:50
Speaker 3: and you know, my credit score be damned. This is
2:54
Speaker 3: something you had to do or your life could be
2:57
Speaker 3: in jeopardy.
2:58
Speaker 1: Right, absolutely, So you're talking, you know, to the tune
3:03
Speaker 1: of about fifteen million Americans. This should have a very
3:07
Speaker 1: positive impact on their credit reports, credit scores, credit ratings.
3:12
Speaker 1: It's about forty nine billion dollars in total debt that's
3:17
Speaker 1: being reported, So it's an awesome thing. One of the
3:21
Speaker 1: projections is that they're thinking, you know, when you look
3:24
Speaker 1: at what's going to happen with their scores, and I
3:27
Speaker 1: think two things. A, it's going to be an even
3:30
Speaker 1: better and greater impact than what they're forecasting. So right
3:33
Speaker 1: now they're saying the average person is going to see
3:36
Speaker 1: a twenty point jump in their scores. Look, I've been
3:40
Speaker 1: doing this for over twenty years. If somebody incurs a
3:43
Speaker 1: collection from a medical debt, it could easily lose one
3:46
Speaker 1: hundred points. So I think the score jumps are going
3:50
Speaker 1: to be greater than what they're predicting. But even if
3:54
Speaker 1: it was twenty fifty points, they're thinking that that could
3:57
Speaker 1: lead to about twenty thousand additional mortgage approvals applications every
4:05
Speaker 1: single year. And that's really big because the housing market
4:10
Speaker 1: is one way that we could pull ourselves out of
4:12
Speaker 1: this funk that we're in. It's not a recession. The
4:16
Speaker 1: market seemed to be doing well, but the average consumer
4:21
Speaker 1: is not. We're treading water and we're starting to drown.
4:25
Speaker 1: And you and I have spoken about it. I don't
4:28
Speaker 1: trust the job market numbers. I think they're too easily manipulated.
4:34
Speaker 1: So at the end of the day, we're stuck with
4:36
Speaker 1: higher interest rates, inflation, cost of every goods and service
4:42
Speaker 1: is hosting the average household in the United States, it's
4:47
Speaker 1: over six hundred bucks then it was two years ago.
4:50
Speaker 1: So that's a lot, a lot of money on top
4:53
Speaker 1: of everything else. So this really couldn't have come at
4:56
Speaker 1: a better time. Again, the one message I want to
4:59
Speaker 1: make very very clear is that this is not debt elimination.
5:04
Speaker 1: This is not debt forgiveness. This is just a move
5:08
Speaker 1: by the administration, the current administration to say to the
5:12
Speaker 1: consumers medical debt is not going to have a negative
5:16
Speaker 1: impact on your credit rating moving forward, which in turn
5:20
Speaker 1: would have costed more money for everything else. You know,
5:23
Speaker 1: the lower the scores, the higher you pay for every
5:26
Speaker 1: single financial transaction. So again, couldn't come at a better time.
5:31
Speaker 1: This is a great bipartisan effort from the administration, working
5:36
Speaker 1: very closely with the Consumer Financial Financial Protection Bureau the FTC,
5:42
Speaker 1: And again this is a win for the for the consumer.
5:46
Speaker 3: Now let's just fast forward. I want to get some
5:49
Speaker 3: of your forecasts here for the incoming administration. We're not
5:52
Speaker 3: talking politics, we're talking economics here. Is this a plus
5:57
Speaker 3: for consumers incoming admin?
6:00
Speaker 1: Negative? Or doesn't matter? Well, it definitely matters. But again,
6:06
Speaker 1: it seems to me that people, especially if you know,
6:11
Speaker 1: it's hard to separate church and state and politics and
6:14
Speaker 1: the economy. But people look at the markets and you know,
6:19
Speaker 1: the growth, our GDP and all all this stuff. But
6:22
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I look at it.
6:24
Speaker 1: You look at it from the consumer side of things.
6:28
Speaker 1: So until we can get wages, you know, caught up
6:32
Speaker 1: to where they should be, the cost of living, you know,
6:34
Speaker 1: it's it's really out of whack. So somebody asked me
6:37
Speaker 1: the question the other day and he said, Paul, when
6:39
Speaker 1: was the last year that we actually had a good economy. Well,
6:44
Speaker 1: when you look at all on them. I'm thinking you
6:47
Speaker 1: got to go back to like the seventies, because you know,
6:51
Speaker 1: when was it When was it more affordable for the
6:56
Speaker 1: average consumer to buy a home, not just by the home,
7:00
Speaker 1: maintain it, you know, fuel it put energy, electric, gas,
7:07
Speaker 1: durable goods, washers and dryers, you know, buying a car.
7:10
Speaker 1: When was all of that stuff actually, you know, affordable
7:14
Speaker 1: for the consumer. It's been decades. It's been decades. So
7:18
Speaker 1: we're behind, you know, the eight ball when it comes
7:21
Speaker 1: to wages and you know, affordability for goods and services.
7:29
Speaker 1: You know, when you look at that against what the
7:31
Speaker 1: markets are doing, and look, I think after January twentieth,
7:36
Speaker 1: the markets are going to go bananas. He's so prow business, right,
7:41
Speaker 1: and not just domestic you're talking about foreign relationships and
7:46
Speaker 1: foreign trade. I think the markets go bananas. But that
7:50
Speaker 1: doesn't always trickle down, you know, to the consumer.
7:53
Speaker 2: Right.
7:54
Speaker 3: And so what about inflation though, you know, inflation doesn't
7:57
Speaker 3: just you don't just take a pill and it goes away, right,
8:01
Speaker 3: It's it's a very intractable thing that often lasts decades.
8:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's that's kind of where my mindset is.
8:12
Speaker 1: It's very very stubborn. We're very, very resilient where we
8:17
Speaker 1: continue to spend money that we don't have. So the
8:20
Speaker 1: market always sets the price, so it's it's almost impossible
8:24
Speaker 1: to walk it back once you know, price uh price
8:29
Speaker 1: ranges are set in place for a reasonable amount of time,
8:33
Speaker 1: it's almost impossible to walk them back to where they
8:35
Speaker 1: you know, used to be. You know, it's just a
8:39
Speaker 1: matter of playing catch up with with everything else. So
8:42
Speaker 1: I think we're in for the a little bit of
8:45
Speaker 1: a long haul here, you know, much longer than you
8:49
Speaker 1: know most analysts and and people who you know watch
8:54
Speaker 1: the market and and do forecasting and projections. They want
8:59
Speaker 1: it over right now. But like you just said, inflation's
9:02
Speaker 1: not just going away tomorrow. You know, the ten year
9:06
Speaker 1: note is at like a all time high. So what that says,
9:12
Speaker 1: and that's why the market tumbled. You know, at the
9:14
Speaker 1: end of the week last week, we might not we
9:17
Speaker 1: might not get one rate cut in twenty twenty five,
9:20
Speaker 1: And in Q four of twenty twenty four, people were
9:25
Speaker 1: thinking maybe four to six rate cuts, which would put
9:28
Speaker 1: us back into you know, maybe the five percent mark
9:32
Speaker 1: for mortgages, and you know, the prime rate would have
9:37
Speaker 1: just been so much lower, and I don't think that's happening.
9:39
Speaker 1: We might not get one rate cut. The jobs reports,
9:43
Speaker 1: the growth and the economy continue continued to almost defy
9:48
Speaker 1: the odds.
9:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you have to look at the rest of
9:52
Speaker 3: the world's doing way worse than the US. And money
9:56
Speaker 3: is safe harbor, you know, money looking for a safe
10:01
Speaker 3: place compared to the rest of the world.
10:03
Speaker 1: Where else is it going to go?
10:05
Speaker 3: And right, you know, since I've been talking about this show,
10:09
Speaker 3: he always said the dollar, the US dollar, would be
10:11
Speaker 3: the last currency to go. It's the best looking house
10:16
Speaker 3: in the city of Baltimore.
10:18
Speaker 1: You know, No, that's it's absolutely correct. And again one
10:22
Speaker 1: of the safest investments tried and true, you know, decades
10:26
Speaker 1: and decades and decades is real estate. So that's where
10:31
Speaker 1: I've seen it before, where the real estate and the
10:34
Speaker 1: housing market has certainly you know, led the charge or
10:39
Speaker 1: been a significant impetus into digging us out of the
10:43
Speaker 1: hole that we're currently in. So I would love to
10:46
Speaker 1: see that happen again. Get people into homes that they
10:50
Speaker 1: can afford, to get approved for mortgages with you know,
10:54
Speaker 1: credit scores that are more indicative of who they really are,
10:58
Speaker 1: and that could help everything. With every home that's sold,
11:01
Speaker 1: there's like one hundred and nineteen indirect transactions that happened
11:08
Speaker 1: every single year. So if a person buys a home
11:11
Speaker 1: wherever that local market is, the local banks, the local
11:14
Speaker 1: grocery stores, you know, all of those local markets benefit
11:18
Speaker 1: from one person, you know, purchasing that house. And again,
11:22
Speaker 1: whether it's maintenance in the house, lawn care, every single
11:26
Speaker 1: thing that happens within that home helps drive the local economy.
11:31
Speaker 1: So the more the more times we can you know,
11:34
Speaker 1: rinse and repeat with that, the better off we're going
11:37
Speaker 1: to be all right.
11:39
Speaker 3: Well from your mouth, So as far as other things
11:42
Speaker 3: that people can do, TOSUA try to mitigate or lessen
11:47
Speaker 3: the effects of inflation. What are the top three things
11:50
Speaker 3: you recommend? Well, obviously credit is a big driver here, right,
11:55
Speaker 3: so we said it before, So consumers have to understand
11:58
Speaker 3: a couple of things.
12:00
Speaker 1: A most people don't know what's on their credit report.
12:03
Speaker 1: So one of the good hangovers and leftovers from the
12:07
Speaker 1: pandemic is that consumers can now check their reports on
12:13
Speaker 1: a weekly basis. You know BC Before COVID, consumers only
12:18
Speaker 1: had access to those reports once every year. So we
12:22
Speaker 1: went from annually to weekly, so you could literally go
12:26
Speaker 1: to Annualcreditreport dot com. I say this with a caution
12:31
Speaker 1: because a lot of I say Annual Credit Report dot com.
12:35
Speaker 1: You get a free credit report. People start searching free
12:39
Speaker 1: credit reports and you go to free credit report dot com.
12:42
Speaker 1: That's not this website. Annualcreditreport dot Com is the FTC's website. Again,
12:50
Speaker 1: you now have weekly access to those reports. You don't
12:53
Speaker 1: need a credit card to verify ninety nine cents a
12:56
Speaker 1: penny nothing. If you're on a site that's asking you
13:00
Speaker 1: to enter credit card information, you've gone to the wrong site.
13:04
Speaker 1: So Annual Credit Report dot Com is the best way
13:07
Speaker 1: for consumers to check the reports. You don't get your
13:11
Speaker 1: scores for free, which again we've been fighting this forever.
13:16
Speaker 1: You should also get your scores, but you don't need
13:19
Speaker 1: the scores. What you need is to pay attention and
13:22
Speaker 1: manage the information that's on those records. Your scores are
13:26
Speaker 1: going to change, basically, they change every thirty days when
13:29
Speaker 1: the bureaus update their reporting. Maybe you get your score
13:32
Speaker 1: from your existing credit card or something like that, but
13:36
Speaker 1: the information is always going to drive the scores, So
13:39
Speaker 1: just focus on that for now. Go through the report.
13:42
Speaker 1: If you have late payments, charge offs, collections. You have
13:47
Speaker 1: to be very proactive in your approach. So checking your
13:52
Speaker 1: report is like number one. Number two is being proactive
13:56
Speaker 1: in building a new report can literally add open octive
14:03
Speaker 1: positive accounts. There are credit builder accounts. There's some great
14:08
Speaker 1: companies out there. Self is one of them self. You
14:12
Speaker 1: can get secured credit cards, you could do credit builder loans.
14:16
Speaker 1: You could have your rental history added to your reports
14:20
Speaker 1: for free, by the way through self Sure. So they
14:23
Speaker 1: charge a nominal fee for the credit builder loans, but
14:28
Speaker 1: it's worth every single penny. I suggest when you if
14:32
Speaker 1: and when you use self and you take out a
14:35
Speaker 1: loan quote unquote from them, that you take the longer
14:40
Speaker 1: the longest term available, because you want the credit history
14:46
Speaker 1: for as long as you possibly can. So if you
14:49
Speaker 1: had the option between twelve or twenty four months, take
14:53
Speaker 1: the twenty four months right as long as it makes sense,
14:56
Speaker 1: take the longer term because it's that monthly payment history
15:00
Speaker 1: that's going to drive your accounts. And the last thing,
15:04
Speaker 1: if you have ten dollars in credit card debt, you
15:07
Speaker 1: have to eliminate the credit card debt. And if you
15:10
Speaker 1: can eliminate it, you have to work as you as
15:13
Speaker 1: hard as you possibly can to try and decrease it. Right,
15:18
Speaker 1: so we're talking about the markets and interest rates and
15:20
Speaker 1: all this crazy stuff. There is no better return on
15:24
Speaker 1: your investment than paying down credit card debt. Most people
15:28
Speaker 1: are up over twenty percent, some people are twenty nine percent. Right,
15:32
Speaker 1: So every single dollar that you decrease your credit card debt,
15:38
Speaker 1: it's like getting a twenty percent or higher return on
15:41
Speaker 1: your money. No, there's not a lot of markets that
15:45
Speaker 1: are producing those kind of returns. So if you have
15:49
Speaker 1: credit card debt, you got to try and focus on it.
15:51
Speaker 1: You want to get it below thirty percent of your
15:54
Speaker 1: credit balances. That's your first goal and benchmark, and then
15:57
Speaker 1: ultimately it's to you know, completely eliminate. You might want
16:01
Speaker 1: to try to use a zero percent balance transfer card.
16:05
Speaker 1: You can only do that if you've gone over the
16:08
Speaker 1: number and formula a thousand times and you will be
16:12
Speaker 1: able to pay off the new debt. Right, So you
16:15
Speaker 1: move money from one or two cards to a card
16:18
Speaker 1: with zero percent interest rate, you might get eighteen to
16:21
Speaker 1: twenty four months to pay that off. You have to
16:24
Speaker 1: because if you don't, you have now just cost yourself
16:28
Speaker 1: even more money because you pay a balance transfer fee
16:31
Speaker 1: no matter what, somewhere between two to five percent. Then
16:36
Speaker 1: if you don't pay it off in time, you get
16:38
Speaker 1: hit with all the deferred interest anyway, So as long
16:41
Speaker 1: as you can pay it off, and a lot of
16:43
Speaker 1: times people are much more successful at zero percent because
16:47
Speaker 1: most of the money that they're paying isn't going towards
16:50
Speaker 1: the principal balance. So if you can get a zero
16:52
Speaker 1: percent of balance transfer card, use it, only make sure
16:56
Speaker 1: you can pay it off before the end of the term.
16:58
Speaker 1: It might be a time if you can refinance. Even
17:02
Speaker 1: at the today's interest rates, a seven percent mortgage is
17:05
Speaker 1: a thousand times better than a twenty percent credit card.
17:08
Speaker 1: Right ork, you take a short term loan borrow from
17:13
Speaker 1: your four to one k borrow from a family member.
17:16
Speaker 1: You know, if you work, most people can afford the debt,
17:20
Speaker 1: right so they're paying all the minimums, but they're just
17:23
Speaker 1: treading water. They're not paying off their debt. So if
17:26
Speaker 1: you say, you know what, all my credit cards together,
17:29
Speaker 1: my monthly payments are four hundred and twenty five dollars
17:32
Speaker 1: a month, but I'm not paying off the debt. I'm
17:34
Speaker 1: just them treading water. So if you can borrow money
17:39
Speaker 1: and make that same payment four hundred and twenty five bucks.
17:42
Speaker 1: It might even be lower, but you'll actually start to
17:44
Speaker 1: pay off your debt. Then that's that's what you got
17:47
Speaker 1: to do. It's got to be priority one. Get out
17:50
Speaker 1: of credit card debt in twenty twenty five. Do everything
17:53
Speaker 1: in your power to do it.
17:55
Speaker 3: So I got to tell you a funny story here.
17:57
Speaker 3: It's not really funny, but Mike, I have a really
18:01
Speaker 3: good credit score. Well I took advantage. I bought a
18:04
Speaker 3: new computer, you know, Apple, and basically it's like interest
18:10
Speaker 3: free for the next year, and you know it's a
18:13
Speaker 3: couple thousand bucks. Well I do it, and it raised
18:18
Speaker 3: my utilization rate on that card, like, you know, a
18:24
Speaker 3: couple thousand dollars, which made it up close to its
18:27
Speaker 3: highest point, you know, almost to the max. And as
18:31
Speaker 3: a result, I lost twenty four points off my credit
18:35
Speaker 3: score just from that, even though it's all high, you know,
18:39
Speaker 3: it went under eight hundred.
18:41
Speaker 1: So that's it's a great point carry because your utilization
18:45
Speaker 1: ratio that people have to understand that your FIGHTO score
18:49
Speaker 1: all scoring models and your credit score has nothing to
18:53
Speaker 1: do with your income. Credit score is a big piece
18:56
Speaker 1: of the puzzle. The biggest piece of the puzzle is
18:58
Speaker 1: your payment history. Second biggest piece is your utilization ratio,
19:03
Speaker 1: and that's the difference between your credit limits and credit balances.
19:08
Speaker 1: So on your credit cards, it's both cumulative and individual.
19:12
Speaker 1: So like you saw one card, you go over that
19:16
Speaker 1: thirty percent is the magic number. If your balances go
19:19
Speaker 1: over thirty percent of the credit limits, you will immediately
19:23
Speaker 1: see a significant decrease in your credit scores.
19:26
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, and it's nothing changed, you know, nothing has changed.
19:32
Speaker 1: Nope, you didn't write, you didn't make a late payment,
19:34
Speaker 1: you didn't have a collection, nothing except that utilization ratio.
19:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's ridiculous. And you know, I have my old computer.
19:42
Speaker 3: I'm going to sell it and just pay down the debt.
19:45
Speaker 3: So I just said, you know what, I'll just pay
19:47
Speaker 3: it down today. I paid it off fifty percent. I'm
19:50
Speaker 3: sure the it'll bounce back up. But you really need
19:53
Speaker 3: to be under thirty percent, don't you.
19:55
Speaker 1: You sure do? You sure do? And you know the
19:58
Speaker 1: next benchmark would be ten percent. Uh. They actually have
20:01
Speaker 1: a category of high achievers, and that's for folks that
20:05
Speaker 1: carry small balances, anything less than ten percent of the
20:11
Speaker 1: total credit limits. So thirty percent the first benchmark. Pay
20:16
Speaker 1: your pay your cards down below thirty percent, all of
20:20
Speaker 1: them cumulatively. But like you're saying, if you do have
20:24
Speaker 1: one card that is higher than other cards in terms
20:29
Speaker 1: of that utilization ratio, focus on that card and you've
20:33
Speaker 1: got to pay all your minimums and the other cards,
20:35
Speaker 1: but focus on that one card until you get you
20:37
Speaker 1: can get it below thirty percent, and you will see
20:40
Speaker 1: a significant point jump and an increase in your credits.
20:44
Speaker 3: Course, Yeah, it's just kind of ridiculous because you know
20:48
Speaker 3: it's one card. My overall utilization rate. It said it
20:52
Speaker 3: went up from one percent to two percent, So you know, like,
20:56
Speaker 3: what are we talking about here? You know, predict your health.
21:00
Speaker 1: Listen, sometimes we scratch our heads. Again, over twenty years
21:04
Speaker 1: in this industry, I've probably personally analyzed thousands, thousands of
21:11
Speaker 1: credit reports. As a company, we've probably done it millions
21:14
Speaker 1: of times, and sometimes we scratch our heads because it
21:17
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense. Remember the algorithm and formula for the
21:23
Speaker 1: FCO scoring model. It's a more closely guarded secret than
21:27
Speaker 1: Coca cola. Write the recipe for Coca cola. We know
21:31
Speaker 1: that probably as harmful, probably just harmful as Coca Cola
21:35
Speaker 1: right eight. It's just a slower death, that's all. But
21:40
Speaker 1: we know what the pie chart looks like, thirty five
21:42
Speaker 1: percent payment history, thirty percent utilization utilization ratio. But there
21:47
Speaker 1: are times when we look at a report and something
21:50
Speaker 1: like that happened to you. The only change was a
21:54
Speaker 1: slight increase in a utilization ratio nowhere near the thirty
22:00
Speaker 1: percent benchmark, and the scores go down. Sometimes we look
22:04
Speaker 1: at reports and I say, I can't believe the scores
22:08
Speaker 1: are that high with bankruptcy or of short sale, foreclosure,
22:14
Speaker 1: charge offs and collections. So it does work both ways. Unfortunately,
22:18
Speaker 1: most of the time we're scratching our heads and saying,
22:21
Speaker 1: I don't know why the scores are so low.
22:24
Speaker 3: These a simulator to figure out we're going to happen.
22:30
Speaker 1: We do. We have an awesome credit reporting agency called
22:33
Speaker 1: Smart Credit that we've partnered with them. There's you know
22:37
Speaker 1: everyone talks about AI, Well, this credit repeat it's called
22:41
Speaker 1: a smart credit for a reason. The credit report does
22:45
Speaker 1: exactly what you're what you're talking about. It can analyze
22:48
Speaker 1: all of your data and make some projections based upon trends.
22:53
Speaker 1: If you paid this much, you're going to get this
22:56
Speaker 1: jump and they actually have paydown dates so or not.
23:00
Speaker 1: Within each billing cycle, there are certain days that will
23:04
Speaker 1: give you, you know, more bang for your buck. So
23:08
Speaker 1: if you're going to pay off a card paid off
23:10
Speaker 1: in between these three days, it's called the best paid out. Yeah,
23:14
Speaker 1: it's really it's it's really powerful. So good thing like yeah,
23:20
Speaker 1: but you know, and I always say this too, especially
23:23
Speaker 1: for for the younger generations. Uh, in today's world, they
23:27
Speaker 1: have access to so many free, free technologies, softwares, mint
23:34
Speaker 1: dot com. You've heard me mention this company or uh,
23:37
Speaker 1: it's a great way because people don't they don't look
23:42
Speaker 1: at all of their finances, expenses and budgets. They know
23:46
Speaker 1: they get paid and they hope at the end of
23:48
Speaker 1: the month there's enough money left over to make it
23:51
Speaker 1: to the next paycheck, but they don't look at at
23:54
Speaker 1: at an at an analysis of your expenses. Again, where's
23:59
Speaker 1: the money going to come from. We're basically all on
24:02
Speaker 1: a fixed income, So any additional monies that we're going
24:05
Speaker 1: to you know, start this deat elimination process is going
24:09
Speaker 1: to come from hutting expenses. Most people have no idea
24:13
Speaker 1: what I mean, they know, Okay, I spend money on gas.
24:16
Speaker 1: I spend money on groceries. But did you ever really
24:20
Speaker 1: analyze it and look at it and say wow, If
24:22
Speaker 1: I didn't stop at the convenience store every single day
24:27
Speaker 1: to and from work, I would save myself three hundred
24:31
Speaker 1: and forty dollars a month. If I cut all my subscriptions,
24:34
Speaker 1: I would save one hundred and sixty bucks a month
24:37
Speaker 1: if I did so. There are ways to cut expenses,
24:40
Speaker 1: you just have to be aware of what those expenses are.
24:44
Speaker 3: Let me ask you this, is there a free service
24:46
Speaker 3: or a nearly free service available that can look at
24:49
Speaker 3: all your cards and list all your subscriptions and how
24:52
Speaker 3: you can get rid of them.
24:54
Speaker 1: There are so being able to figure that out where
24:57
Speaker 1: you know how you're paying for the subscriptions. There are
25:00
Speaker 1: a couple of free things that people can do. You
25:03
Speaker 1: can check your Apple subscription, your Google subscriptions. That's a
25:08
Speaker 1: great way to figure out what subscriptions are there. But
25:11
Speaker 1: then if you have Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, Xbox, Roadblocks, pH
25:16
Speaker 1: four P one, you're paying for them somehow. So take
25:21
Speaker 1: a book at your statements, credit card statements, bank statements,
25:27
Speaker 1: figure out what you're paying for and then eliminate them,
25:30
Speaker 1: and again you don't have to eliminate them all, or
25:32
Speaker 1: maybe eliminate them all for the for the time and
25:35
Speaker 1: duration that you're in this dead elimination program, and then
25:39
Speaker 1: the ones back that you really really miss. But cutting
25:42
Speaker 1: expenses is really the only way without taking a short
25:47
Speaker 1: term loan. But even if you're going to take a
25:49
Speaker 1: short term loan, figure out what your expenses are every
25:53
Speaker 1: single month, look at a three or four month trail
25:56
Speaker 1: trailing and figure it out what can I cut? And
26:01
Speaker 1: people are always the here's the good news. People are
26:04
Speaker 1: always surprised at how easy it was once they took
26:08
Speaker 1: the first step, once they got some momentum under their
26:11
Speaker 1: bell and they started doing it. They're every single day
26:15
Speaker 1: we hear the same thing from our clients. I should
26:18
Speaker 1: have done I should have done it six months ago,
26:19
Speaker 1: I should have done it three months ago. I should
26:21
Speaker 1: So start the process. Take a look at your expenses,
26:26
Speaker 1: put a household budget together. Figure out how you're going
26:29
Speaker 1: to eliminate debt in twenty twenty five, specifically credit card debt.
26:33
Speaker 1: The other debts are kind of like, we have to
26:37
Speaker 1: have them right. You have to buy groceries, you have
26:39
Speaker 1: to buy gas to get the work. You have to
26:41
Speaker 1: pay your electric. You have to pay natural gas. However,
26:44
Speaker 1: you heat your home the energy. But most of the stuff,
26:47
Speaker 1: if we're going out to eat, if we're stopping for drinks,
26:50
Speaker 1: if all the recreation and leisure stuff, that's where you
26:54
Speaker 1: have to start. You know these cuts for sure, agreed?
26:57
Speaker 1: All right?
26:58
Speaker 3: Hey, oh it's always a pleasure. Just tell us again
27:00
Speaker 3: where we find you. How we connect with you on
27:02
Speaker 3: the web.
27:03
Speaker 1: Easy enough. Just go to better qualified dot com. All right.
27:07
Speaker 3: Links in the show notes to this interview on Financial
27:09
Speaker 3: Survival Network dot com. We asked when you're there, please
27:12
Speaker 3: sign up for your free newsletter, as over sixty five
27:15
Speaker 3: thousand of your fellows FSN community members have. If you've
27:20
Speaker 3: got a question for Paul myself, shoot me an email
27:23
Speaker 3: klatcarrielts dot com. Paul, we'll talk to you again real soon.
27:28
Speaker 1: Thanks, Carry, have a great day.
27:29
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network your
27:34
Speaker 2: solution to today's trying times. For the latest, go to
27:38
Speaker 2: Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial Survival Network
27:42
Speaker 1: Now more than ever