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And it might get worse before it
gets better. And if we as consumers,

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as an individual, if you don't
protect yourself, if you don't do

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something differently, if you don't change
your behavior, you're going to find yourself

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in a really, really bad place. Because you know, if you're already

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in credit card debt, every single
time that the Fed, the Federal Reserve,

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every time they raised interest rates,
that's not just for mortgages, that's

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not just for loans, auto loans. Every time they raise that interest rate,

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your credit card interest rate went up. You're listening to Carrie Let's's Financial

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Survival Network, where you get valuable
information you just can't find anywhere else to

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thrive in today's trying times. You
need the Financial Survival Network now more than

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ever. Go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot
com and get your free newsletter and gift.

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Financial Survival Network now more than ever. And welcome. You are listening

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to and watching the Financial Survival Network. I'm your host, Kerrie Lutz.

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Well, we're just past Black Friday, it's actually Cyber Monday. Credit card

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debt is zooming out of control,
hitting into all time highs going into the

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holidays. What does it mean for
you? What does it mean for the

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economy, for the global economy,
and what do you do about it?

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Paul Oster is with us now Better
Credit dot Com. Hey Paul, it's

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great to have you back on the
show. So it seems like there's no

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limit to the amount of debt the
American consumer will ring up well, and

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it's you know, particularly troubles to
them on today because what most people will

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do if they're shopping online for Cyber
Monday is use a credit card and not

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a debit card. So the best
case scenario would be that they actually use

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a debit card. I actually recommend
getting a prepaid gift card right, and

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this will do a couple of different
things. This will keep you do on

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budget, right, So you have
to do some mental math and figure out

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exactly how much money you can afford
to spend during this holiday season. And

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listen, if you're already in credit
card debt, that number might be zero.

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Maybe you can't afford to buy any
gifts this year, And it's okay

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if you ask the person. If
you're troubled with the fact that you might

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not be able to afford it,
ask the person that you were going to

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buy that gift for what you bought
them last year. You probably don't remember

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and they probably don't remember, so
it's not that big of a deal.

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People tend to put way much more
pressure on themselves during the holidays. But

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let's say you come up with a
number and you say, I can afford

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to spend two hundred dollars this holiday
season, I'll be able to pay it

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back over the next thirty days.
Is the longest time it should take you

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to pay off a debt is ninety
days. You have three months to pay

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off any new balances that you're going
to put on a credit card, because

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if you don't, whatever you spend, it's not two hundred dollars anymore.

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After the first thirty days, that
becomes two hundred and twenty dollars, then

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it becomes two hundred and fifty dollars, and it just keeps growing. So

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you have to start with a plan. You have to have some type of

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budget in place, and you have
to be able to figure that out mathematically.

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I always say this, it's not
complicated, right. I'm not saying

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it's easy, but it's not complicated
either. How much money do you make

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every single week, every single month, and how much are your expenses and

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if there's some money left over that
you can afford to spend on the holidays,

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that's great. Just try not to
go over that number, so be

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disciplined about it. And one of
the easiest ways again to do that is

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to buy a gift card. When
the gift card is empty, you're done.

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That's how. That's a great approach. That's the end of the gifts

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right it is, and listen.
It will also help you know, lessen

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the threat of cybersecurity right right now. These bad actors, these identity these

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these fraudsters are out there. They're
capturing people's credit card information, debit card

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information, and that's one of the
problems that's using a debit card online.

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They will have direct access to your
checkings and savings accounts, so you have

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to be really careful about using those
cards on websites. They have gotten so

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good at creating fictitious websites. They
look exactly like Best Buy, Amazon,

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Walmart. You think you're on their
website, but you're none, and you're

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actually giving them all of your information. So if you use a gift card,

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the very worst case scenario is they
only have access to that gift card.

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Really careful, do not click on
links. If you see ads on

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social media that are just too good
to be true, it is it is

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too good to be true. What
it's called clickbait. They're trying to get

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you to click on this site.
They can infect your computers with malware and

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viruses, and that leads to a
whole nother host of problems. So just

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be really diligent. And what happens
is life happens. So we're running around

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in this frenzied pace right now,
and we do things that we wouldn't normally

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do. So take a deep breath, take a step back, take your

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time, if and when you're going
to have to do this today, take

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your time. Yeah yeah, so, but how many people are really going

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to listen to this ball? Well, look at all I've been trying to

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do for the past twenty years is
change people's behaviors. And this year is

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like no other year. Carry I
hear it all the time. All we've

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been down this road before, we've
been here before. We're going to get

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through this. We've never been where
we are today. We've never been down

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this road before. We're not even
on the road, we're off the road.

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You know, we're we're in a
path songwhere tracks we are off the

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tracks, right, it's off the
tracks. The world economy, the macro

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economy, that the economy in the
United States is not good and it might

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get worse before it gets better.
And if we as consumers, as an

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individual, if you don't protect yourself, if you don't do something differently,

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if you don't change your behavior,
you're going to find yourself in a really,

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really bad place. Because you know, if you're already in credit card

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debt, every single time that the
Fed, the Federal Reserve, every time

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they raised interest rates, that's not
just for mortgages, that's not just for

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loans, auto loans. Every time
they raise that interest rate, your credit

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card interest rate went up. We
were somewhere closer to fifteen percent before we're

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all of these rate hikes. Now
we're closer to twenty percent. And if

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you just had the average credit card
debt is now over five thousand dollars.

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And if you have a five thousand
dollars credit card debt and you only make

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the minimum payment, it would take
you over twenty years to pay off five

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thousand dollars. And at the end
of that twenty years, you didn't pay

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back five thousand, you paid back
more than double. It's like twelve thousand

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dollars. So this is where people
have to understand how credit card debt works

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and why it's so so troublesome.
Yeah, it just seems to multiply like

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electronically like rabbits. You know,
well, it kind of does, right,

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because it's it's daily compounding interest.
And here's a quick lesson on daily

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compounding interests. It does multiply.
Every single day, your balance is recalculated

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on the previous day's balance, and
every single day the interest is added to

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that balance. Luro's balance is going
to be higher. If you don't spend

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another dollar, your balance increases every
single day. So that is how people

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get into trouble, very very quickly
with credit card debt. Again, listen,

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I get it right. We're in
the holidays. Yeah, if you

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have to spend some money, okay, but start to put together some type

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of plan to get yourself out of
credit card debt, and maybe you have

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to pick up a second job.
You get it. You get a side

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gig, you get a side hustle
for the amount of time, and it's

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going to take you to pay off
your credit card debt, because if you're

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not going to get it, if
you're not going to increase your income,

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then you have to decrease your expenses. And you and I we've spoken about

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this. The easiest way to do
that are all these subscriptions that we have

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Netflix, Spotify, Ooh, Roadblocks, Xbox PS four, all of these

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Prime this, Prime that music videos
and that for old family. That could

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add up to hundreds of dollars a
month. Yeah, hundreds of dollars a

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month. So if you cut your
subscriptions, and I'm not saying you have

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to do it for the rest of
your life, I'm saying you have to

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do it until you're out of credit
card debt, right all right? I

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like it. I like it.
I wish more of you out there would

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listen because it really does make a
big difference, doesn't it. Well,

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it sure does. And again,
maybe even consider if you own your house.

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If you own your home, and
I know mortgage intertraints, you see

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it in the news every single day. They're at eight percent, Well eight

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percent is better than twenty eight percent. So if you have the ability to

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do a cash out REFI, if
you have the ability to get a home

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equity line of credit to pay off
that high interest credit card debt. If

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you own your own home, you
should only have one debt service, and

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that is your mortgage. And if
you need to take out a second mortgage

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to do it, do it because
there's some tax benefits that are associated with

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doing it that way. And it's
again, eight percent is better than twenty

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percent. Twenty eight percent, right, So if you have the ability to

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tap into the equay of your home, that might be a way to get

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out of credit card debt. If
you can take a small loan against your

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four oh one K, that might
help. If you're still putting money into

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your four oh one K but you
are carrying thousands of dollars in credit card

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debt, it doesn't make sense,
right because you're not getting the same return

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on your money in a four oh
one K that you're spending to carry that

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debt. So maybe you pause your
four oh one k. Wrong with our

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irase your retirement contributions, you pause
that for a little while again, until

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you're out of credit card debt.
That should be the number one focus.

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Don't go wait next year, right. We hear it all the time during

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this time of the year, Paull
twenty twenty four. I'm going to change

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this. I'm going to do this, and well do it now day because

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if you're really serious about it,
you don't wait until January one. Put

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the plan together and execute it today. Yeah. Hey, it's never too

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early, right, No, No, it's only too late. I mean

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the best time to do it was
was six months ago. The second best

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time is today. So the message
really for today, change your behavior and

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be very proactive about dealing with your
credit card debt. Yeah. Absolutely,

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00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:35,080
Yeah. I couldn't agree with you
more. And you're like so emphatic about

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it, Paul. People have to
stand up and take notice if you've got

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credit card debt out there and it's
getting out of control, because eventually it'll

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overwhelm you and then your only chance
choice will be bankruptcy. Right, that's

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right, and listen, bankruptcy is
not the end of the world. And

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again I'll go back. I think
you and I have spoken about this.

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One of the biggest tragedies that happens
across in the across the world, and

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00:12:01,399 --> 00:12:05,879
certainly in the United States. It
happens all the time. People actually commit

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suicide because they're in debt or or
they commit crimes because they're in debt.

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You don't have to do that if
you if you can, if you're eligible

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for a bankruptcy, it's not the
end of the world. It's actually over

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the end of your life. It's
the beginning of your new debt free life.

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So if you're struggling with this and
there's really no end in sight,

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you're just buried under this debt and
the stress of the debt, reach out

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to a reputable bankruptcy attorney. Contact
better Qualified dot com. We have bankruptcy

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00:12:39,799 --> 00:12:46,399
attorneys all over the country right so
the consultation and analysis is free. So

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we will figure out what is the
best plan for you. And in twenty

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years, thank god, I've never
had to say to somebody, we can't

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help you, because as long as
you're willing to help yourself, is a

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plan that we can put in place
to help every single person in this country

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get out of debt. And it's
time to make that plan a reality in

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twenty twenty four. Stop waiting for
something to happen that isn't and take action

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on it. I mean, that's
that's the best thing you can do.

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Hey, just tell us again where
we find you again. Paul, go

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00:13:22,399 --> 00:13:30,240
to better qualified dot com. It's
again, the consultation and analysis is free.

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00:13:30,279 --> 00:13:33,600
It's a very very brief phone call
to at least figure out what we

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can and can't do to help every
single person, every one of your listeners

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00:13:37,799 --> 00:13:43,120
and viewers. There is a plan
that we can put together for every single

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person that will help them get out
of debt, improve their credit. Right

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your credit scores. Your credit scores
have always cost or saved you money every

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single day, every single week,
every single month. In this environment,

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your credit scores are going to cost
you even more money than they used to.

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So if you're not a seven hundred
and forty credit score or higher,

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you do need to call us because
that's where every single person needs to be.

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Look, it's not easy to be
a seven hundred and forty credit score,

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but the reality is if you're a
seven to twenty, it will cost

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you more money. If you're a
seven hundred, it costs you even more,

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00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:26,159
six eighty, six, sixty,
go all the way down into the

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six hundreds, and man, that
score is costing you more money every single

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day for the same exact thing that
your neighbor. You go out and buy

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the same exact car as your neighbor. If you're at a six eighty and

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they're at a seven eighty, they're
going to spend hundreds of dollars less every

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single month for the same exact car. When you talk about the financing and

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the insurance, let's remember insurance is
directly tied to your credit now, so

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00:14:54,960 --> 00:15:00,200
if you have a lower credit score, it could almost be double your policy

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00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:03,919
in premium payments can be double if
you have bad credit. Really, so

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let's get everybody you know, let's
figure out how to help people improve their

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00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:11,679
credit scores, and let's help people
figure out how to get out of credit

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card debt. All right, I
like it, and I think the time

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to do it is now. So
hey, you should definitely get in touch

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with Paul if you got a question
for me or Paul shoot me an email

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00:15:22,879 --> 00:15:28,440
kl at Carrie LUTs dot com and
the link to paul site will be in

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00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:33,840
the show notes of this interview on
Financial Survival Network dot com. So when

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00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:37,840
you go there, just click that
link. While you're there, sign up

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00:15:37,879 --> 00:15:43,120
for your free newsletter. Paul.
Always a pleasure and really great advice for

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what hopefully will be a better new
year ahead. Absolutely absolutely thank you for

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having me back on. Thanks for
listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network,

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your solution to today's trying times.
For the latest, go to Financial Survivalnetwork

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dot com Shill Survival Network now more
than ever,