Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 2: My name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr the
Speaker 2: Order Kerney Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we
Speaker 2: get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would
Speaker 2: like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
Speaker 2: which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
Speaker 2: the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through
Speaker 2: as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
Speaker 2: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
Speaker 2: and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money the pod
Speaker 4: Castle Millennials who want financial freedom. My name is beck
Speaker 4: Syed and today we have Victoria Divine.
Speaker 1: Hello, thank you for having me on your show, Becksire,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being here today.
Speaker 4: What I really want to talk about vee with you
Speaker 4: as my guest for just one episode only, is debt.
Speaker 1: So I hate debt, love talking about it though, So
Speaker 1: this is the perfect show for me.
Speaker 4: I think we're gonna have a bit of fun this episode.
Speaker 1: I'm ready. I'm ready.
Speaker 4: So v did you know that. According to Finder dot Com,
Speaker 4: there are thirteen million, three hundred and fifty six thousand,
Speaker 4: two hundred and ninety one credit cards in Australia as
Speaker 4: of April twenty twenty three, netting a national debt accruing
Speaker 4: interest of eighteen point six billion dollars. That's hectic, vile.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, that's hectic.
Speaker 1: I mean, it doesn't surprise me at all. Let's be
Speaker 1: brutally honest. I also think let's just preface this episode
Speaker 1: before we get any deeper. Are we here beck to
Speaker 1: crucify credit cards? No, absolutely not. I think it's so
Speaker 1: important that we preface it upfront. I'm not here to
Speaker 1: crucify you. If you use credit card, we do need
Speaker 1: to be educated about it though, and we do need
Speaker 1: to use them in an educated way that helps us
Speaker 1: along our financial journey. But I think that right now,
Speaker 1: if you're listening to this and you're like, oh, oh,
Speaker 1: they're gonna absolutely slam me, I've really been struggling at
Speaker 1: the moment. I've put a few things on my credit
Speaker 1: card because I had to. Girl.
Speaker 4: That's all right, that's so fine.
Speaker 1: You're doing the best thing that you can with the
Speaker 1: tools and resources you have, and I'm proud of.
Speaker 4: You exactly right.
Speaker 1: However, we do need to talk about it so that
Speaker 1: at some point you can become completely debt free and
Speaker 1: that you don't rely on a credit card to make
Speaker 1: finance decisions, because ultimately a credit card can be a
Speaker 1: really slippery slope. And Beck, you've spoken publicly before about
Speaker 1: how credit cards were a really slippery slope for you. Yes,
Speaker 1: I know that the situation you were in was a
Speaker 1: bit more of a you had because you needed to
Speaker 1: have debt situation. Yes, but did you find that you
Speaker 1: were a bit I don't know, tap happy anyway, knowing
Speaker 1: that it technically wasn't your money.
Speaker 4: I think so. And obviously, you know, I was really
Speaker 4: really young. I think I was like eighteen or even
Speaker 4: just say just a tiny baby when I got my
Speaker 4: first credit card. So for me, thinking like, I had
Speaker 4: never really been in a position where I could just
Speaker 4: go out and buy myself shoes or go out and
Speaker 4: buy nice things, and here I have a bunch of
Speaker 4: money that I have to pay off eventually, but.
Speaker 1: Not feel that precent time.
Speaker 4: It just took over at that point, so I think, yeah,
Speaker 4: I just was not in any position and I probably
Speaker 4: was a bit tap happy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think it's important to note that I've
Speaker 1: also been in that situation. Like I had a credit card,
Speaker 1: I got into forty four thousand dollars worth of personal debt,
Speaker 1: and none of that beck was stuff I needed, right,
Speaker 1: it was a car, it was for university. I did
Speaker 1: travel overseas for a few months and study abroad. Sure,
Speaker 1: I'm very very well trapped a culture, nothing except a
Speaker 1: whole heap about French wine and how to order a
Speaker 1: Panachekla every single morning with my latte, and I regret nothing. Honestly.
Speaker 4: I think it's kind of aally neat created.
Speaker 1: Me into who I am today, and we can't be
Speaker 1: mad at that. But I think it's really important to
Speaker 1: talk about I guess how it's not that surprising that
Speaker 1: credit cards and the credit card companies that own those
Speaker 1: credit cards, they spend millions every year back on researching
Speaker 1: ways to keep you in debt. I mean, they don't
Speaker 1: call it that. They call it marketing, and they call
Speaker 1: it customer retention, and they call it six million other things.
Speaker 1: But essentially they're doing a whole heap of research back
Speaker 1: to keep you in debt, to make you feel comfortable
Speaker 1: with tapping a credit card instead of spending cash. And
Speaker 1: there's lots of different perks and ways that they do that.
Speaker 1: And you know what, there are going to be a
Speaker 1: lot of people in our community who do it really smartly,
Speaker 1: like points hacking. Mm, so many people do that and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, this is genius you're tacking. Yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 1: Glennie James, our mate over on my Millennial Money. Sure,
Speaker 1: he's spoken very openly and also in text messages with me,
Speaker 1: which I don't know, sorry Glennie if I'm exposing you
Speaker 1: a little bit too much, But he always uses points
Speaker 1: to travel and like upgrade himself to business class. Right.
Speaker 1: One of my team members Brook honestly at Points Queen, Like,
Speaker 1: I've never met anyone who is smarter about it. I'm
Speaker 1: not that smart. I will just copy her, but she
Speaker 1: just cycles through different credit cards to get the sign
Speaker 1: on bonuses, to get the points organized and lined up
Speaker 1: so that she's getting free travel.
Speaker 4: That is so clever, right.
Speaker 1: But these people are very good with money, ye, So
Speaker 1: they're not using it to kind of tap happy on
Speaker 1: things that they don't need to spend on. They're actually
Speaker 1: doing it in a way that I don't think I
Speaker 1: could trust myself to do Sure, I do technically have
Speaker 1: a credit card for business because I'm kind of like, well,
Speaker 1: why aren't we making points on all of these business expenses? Because, Beck,
Speaker 1: you're so expensive with git, I've I've got bills.
Speaker 4: To pay, bills pay, I've got a fancy palette. Sorry,
Speaker 4: what can I say?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not your fault, Like, I respect it, but
Speaker 1: I think it's really important to talk about I guess
Speaker 1: social life pressures and things that push us towards consumer debt.
Speaker 1: And while some people might be listening to this and
Speaker 1: they're like, they're really helpful, you can use them constructively. Babe,
Speaker 1: I have ADHD. Give me a credit card, I will
Speaker 1: ruin my life again, and I'll have fun.
Speaker 4: Doing it world record time.
Speaker 1: I will regret it, but oh my gosh, it's like
Speaker 1: a spending s free if you gave me a personal
Speaker 1: credit card. Yeah, I'm done, it's over. I'm done. It's
Speaker 1: Do you know why I created our budget and cash
Speaker 1: Flow Muster class Because I couldn't control myself right, So
Speaker 1: it wasn't for you, Beck, I didn't create it for
Speaker 1: the community because I'm just so kind and generous. I
Speaker 1: created it because I was useless, right, and then I
Speaker 1: realized it worked really well and I was like, I
Speaker 1: could probably share this with themmunity and help them too.
Speaker 4: Now that's nice.
Speaker 1: Do you know like more than five thousand people who
Speaker 1: have now done that?
Speaker 4: Course, Wow, Big Dog Energy saved a lot of lives potentially.
Speaker 1: But there are still more than thirteen million credit cards
Speaker 1: in Australia, so we've got a lot of work to do.
Speaker 4: We're just really hitting the surface or whatever that's saying
Speaker 4: is yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, scraping theraping the surface.
Speaker 4: How can I get that?
Speaker 1: I like that? But today I guess that's why we're
Speaker 1: talking about credit cards, and we want to break down
Speaker 1: the sneaky, sneaky ways that credit card companies want to
Speaker 1: keep you in debt and keep trying to keep you
Speaker 1: in debt, and then we're going to tell you what
Speaker 1: you can do to kind of break out of that cycle.
Speaker 1: Because Beck, look at us, we both have broken out
Speaker 1: of the credit cards, so we have so are we
Speaker 1: not the best people to learn from?
Speaker 4: Absolutely? I'm really excited about this. So V let's talk
Speaker 4: about the sneaky tactics of what you might say the
Speaker 4: trap tap trap. Let's start off with excessive interest rates.
Speaker 1: Yeah, stunning place to stuff. So we already know that
Speaker 1: there's very high interest rates on credit cards and then
Speaker 1: not very sexy these interest rates at the very start.
Speaker 1: I feel like nobody gets a credit card with the
Speaker 1: intention of ever paying the interest rate. Right, So, like,
Speaker 1: if you get a credit card, your interest rate might
Speaker 1: be anything from fourteen to like, let's say twenty three
Speaker 1: percent on average. No one looks at that and says, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: happy to pay twenty three percent more for my goods
Speaker 1: and services.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: You don't say that, You say I'll pay it off
Speaker 1: in time, It'll be absolutely fine. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, your expenses they accumulate really quickly, especially
Speaker 1: if you're carrying balances from months to month, because you know,
Speaker 1: maybe a car service popped up, maybe something else popped up,
Speaker 1: and you couldn't pay off your credit card. And I
Speaker 1: feel like the compounding interest can actually make debt repayment
Speaker 1: even harder, and a big chunk of your monthly payment
Speaker 1: actually goes towards interest charges than reducing that principal amount
Speaker 1: or the amount you actually owe. So from my perspective,
Speaker 1: the best thing that you can do is each and
Speaker 1: every single month. If you have a credit card, pay
Speaker 1: it off in full and get rid of it. And
Speaker 1: if you can't pay it off in full, do not
Speaker 1: add to it until it's completely gone. Don't use it again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I feel like this is a trap that so
Speaker 1: many of us run into. And we always talk about
Speaker 1: how sexy compound interest is, right, Like Einstein called it
Speaker 1: the eighth wonder of the world, And if I could
Speaker 1: come up with a better catchphrase, I would use my own,
Speaker 1: But Einstein, thank you for the I guess borrow. But
Speaker 1: compound interest is sexy, right because I've spoken to you
Speaker 1: about it before. We've done a whole heap of investment
Speaker 1: podcasts where I teach you exactly what compound interest does
Speaker 1: to create wealth, essentially because of the Rule of seventy two,
Speaker 1: which maybe one day I'll do an entire podcast on
Speaker 1: because it's a very interesting finance concept. The rule of
Speaker 1: seventy two tells us that on average, every seven to
Speaker 1: ten years, money doubles. Right, So if you invested one
Speaker 1: thousand dollars ten years from now, it's worth two thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: And this is how we create wealth. It's how wealth
Speaker 1: compounding works. Thing happens in the credit card world. You
Speaker 1: just flip that chart upside down, and instead of getting
Speaker 1: out of debt, you're getting in more and more debt
Speaker 1: the longer you have that credit card, and it can
Speaker 1: compound out of control. And ultimately, let's be honest, lots
Speaker 1: of people only pay the minimum amount exactly V.
Speaker 4: So that's actually what we're going to talk about next.
Speaker 4: So the minimum payment trap, it is a trap. It
Speaker 4: is a trap.
Speaker 1: So you might have begg gotten a few credit card
Speaker 1: statements in the mail a few times. Yes, what do
Speaker 1: they say? X amount is due on X jate yep, stunning,
Speaker 1: but it's the minimum amount of minimum. They never say, hey,
Speaker 1: here's how much you owe us. In general, it might
Speaker 1: be two thousand dollars. They don't say, hey, you need
Speaker 1: to pay that off in order to not incur any interest. Yes,
Speaker 1: they say fifty two dollars please. Do you know I
Speaker 1: know that number was my minimum date repayment waigh that
Speaker 1: quen or my credit card. Fifty two dollars is burnt
Speaker 1: into my brain and I just remember being like, dollars
Speaker 1: isn't that bad? Yeah, money I've spent this month, it's
Speaker 1: pretty good, pretty sexy that's all they care about, no worries.
Speaker 1: If I'd extrapolated that out, which obviously I have before,
Speaker 1: it would have taken me forty six years to pay
Speaker 1: off that.
Speaker 4: Oh oh my god, right, hectic.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, way back when I was practicing as a
Speaker 1: financial advisor. This would be like maybe twenty nineteen. I reckon.
Speaker 1: I saw a client. They came in before I had
Speaker 1: a podcast, and they were in my Facebook group, and
Speaker 1: they were really really stressed. If this is you still
Speaker 1: love you, please, like, don't worry at all. They came
Speaker 1: in and they had twelve maxed out credit cards, a
Speaker 1: personal loan, and a mortgage. Put that to the side,
Speaker 1: but of their personal debt, they had one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty five thousand dollars worth of credit card debt. God,
Speaker 1: and I remember being like, how did you get here?
Speaker 1: The answer to the way they got their ears by
Speaker 1: lying essentially to the credit card companies. She'll say, no,
Speaker 1: I don't have any other credit cards, like it's all good,
Speaker 1: it's all good. And because they'd had them for a
Speaker 1: number of years, they actually had those credit cards prior
Speaker 1: to the Royal commissions, so like lending wasn't as tight
Speaker 1: as it is now, so there are a lot more
Speaker 1: things in place to keep you safe and keep you
Speaker 1: out of debt. So actually, I really doubt that in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three you could achieve the same debt levels
Speaker 1: on a personal level.
Speaker 4: Sure, And I.
Speaker 1: Extrapolated out how long if you only paid the minimal
Speaker 1: repayments on all of their debt, it would take like
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy years to get out. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: isn't that insane? Yeah, because it's the interest rate on it,
Speaker 1: Like it blew my mind. And obviously we went down
Speaker 1: the path of declaring bankruptcy and you know, putting in
Speaker 1: the best possible position, and like they're doing well, they're
Speaker 1: thriving now, but it's one of those things where you
Speaker 1: just don't realize how much it compounds. And this idea
Speaker 1: of the minimum payment trap totally exists, and they look
Speaker 1: like they're doing you a favor to be like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's only fifty two bucks, and you go, oh, when
Speaker 1: I open this bill, I thought it would be so
Speaker 1: much more. Yeah, No, that's so that you pay them
Speaker 1: interest in these companies still make a massive profit and
Speaker 1: you actually aren't being put first. It's a super clever
Speaker 1: ployee to keep you in debt, and they're not actually
Speaker 1: helping you in any way, shape or form, And it
Speaker 1: essentially just means that these interest charges accrue over time.
Speaker 1: And in the same way compound interest works in a
Speaker 1: very sexy investment way. It's a very unsexy thing that
Speaker 1: it does when applied to a credit card.
Speaker 4: That is so sneaky, so icky. How do we fight that.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's a privilege to say, pay off
Speaker 1: your entire credit card. Sure, so nice if you can,
Speaker 1: but pay more than the minimum, Like, what can you
Speaker 1: afford to pay off your credit card this month? Genuinely so, Like,
Speaker 1: if the minimum is fifty two dollars, maybe you've got
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty that you could put on credit.
Speaker 1: Sure do that, please do that. You might have a
Speaker 1: couple of thousand owing, but I promise that decision will
Speaker 1: put you miles ahead in terms of getting out of
Speaker 1: debt and staying out of debt. And it's also just
Speaker 1: really good money habits to be paying off more than
Speaker 1: you necessarily need to, because minimum repayments on a credit
Speaker 1: card not sexy at all.
Speaker 4: That's a really good point and I think that, yeah,
Speaker 4: if you can do if not don't stress, because we
Speaker 4: are here to give you more pointers. And next up
Speaker 4: what we have is hidden fees and fine print. Very sexy,
Speaker 4: very sexy. Do you know what the biggest lie in
Speaker 4: the entire world is? What is it?
Speaker 1: I reckon? It's when you scroll through any terms and
Speaker 1: conditions and then you tick that box that says I
Speaker 1: acknowledge that I have read all of the terms and
Speaker 1: conditions and I consent to them. Right. Have you ever
Speaker 1: read your phone's terms and conditions? Never in my entire life,
Speaker 1: but you consent it to them? Right?
Speaker 4: True?
Speaker 1: And then we all act so offended when we're like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean they can spy on us? It
Speaker 1: was in the terms and conditions, like it was clearly
Speaker 1: articulated to you, but you didn't read it. I was
Speaker 1: never told, no, you didn't read it when you got
Speaker 1: the opportunity to same thing with credit cards. Right, they're
Speaker 1: not spying on us. This isn't some kind of government
Speaker 1: propaganda stuff. But so many of us are just scrolling
Speaker 1: through the t's and ceas and not actually, I guess,
Speaker 1: understanding how they impact us, and essentially credit card companies,
Speaker 1: which I'm obviously not going to earn a sponsorship for
Speaker 1: this because I'm throwing credit card companies straight under the bus.
Speaker 1: Beck but yes, what I'm driving you, so it's all good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, straight up and over.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna accelerate because I don't want to work with
Speaker 1: credit card companies because they don't think that they put
Speaker 1: you in the best possible position. So credit card companies
Speaker 1: essentially bury additional fees and charges like the annual credit
Speaker 1: card fee, or late payment fees or balance transfer fees.
Speaker 1: They put it in complex language into your terms and conditions,
Speaker 1: so essentially you'll pay them more money and you just go, oh,
Speaker 1: it's fine, I won't do a balance transfer. You probably
Speaker 1: will if you rack up some debt. What do you
Speaker 1: mean annual fee? That's fine, it's worth it for all
Speaker 1: the bells and whistles you get. No, it's not no.
Speaker 1: Why are we paying five hundred bucks sometimes to get
Speaker 1: a credit card? You're paying for the privilege to pay
Speaker 1: them interest? Absolutely not. So I think when we're looking
Speaker 1: at getting a credit card, if you need one for
Speaker 1: any reason, we need to really weigh up what are
Speaker 1: these additional fees? How do they benefit me? Because paying
Speaker 1: a fee on a credit card can sometimes actually be beneficial.
Speaker 1: So I'm not a credit card sales rep at all.
Speaker 1: But as I said, I've got a business credit card,
Speaker 1: and I ultimately chose one that has an annual fee.
Speaker 1: And I did that because I get a number of
Speaker 1: benefits that I wouldn't have gotten on a normal credit
Speaker 1: card that I think serve my business. So you guys know,
Speaker 1: I travel all the time for work, and I often
Speaker 1: take my team. If I book on my credit card,
Speaker 1: lounge access for me and.
Speaker 4: My team beautiful.
Speaker 1: Isn't that nice. I'm happy to pay for that privilege.
Speaker 1: Travel insurance can be really helpful. I don't believe the
Speaker 1: credit card companies have comprehensive enough travel insurance for you
Speaker 1: to actually lean on it one hundred percent. We've talked
Speaker 1: about this before. I always get a standalone policy, but
Speaker 1: I kind of lack the idea that there would be
Speaker 1: some additional buffer or some backup if I do lose something,
Speaker 1: because often when I'm paying for my travel insurance, Beck
Speaker 1: you've heard me rant about this before, my priority is
Speaker 1: actually my physical health. So like, if something happens to
Speaker 1: me overseas, I want to know that I can get home.
Speaker 1: I'm not really caring too much about my luggage or
Speaker 1: things in that luggage and what their value is. And
Speaker 1: I find that that's where my credit card policy tops
Speaker 1: it up, because they might say up to ten thousand
Speaker 1: dollars worth of XYZ, and I go, yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: that's nice to have because then I can focus on
Speaker 1: my physical health for my insurance policy that I take
Speaker 1: out for travel. It's one of those things where you
Speaker 1: just really need to look into one whether they benefit
Speaker 1: you or not. But they are taking advantage of your
Speaker 1: lack of awareness of these things, and they're just genuinely
Speaker 1: taking advantage of the fact that they're going to increase
Speaker 1: their revenue through fees that you didn't really know about.
Speaker 1: And you know what they do. They just whack them
Speaker 1: on your credit card. They don't like message you and
Speaker 1: say this bill's you. They just add it to your
Speaker 1: credit card. So at the end of the month, she's
Speaker 1: just got an extra four fitty you know, of.
Speaker 4: Course, so rude. I know it is very rude. I
Speaker 4: think let's go to a really quick break and when
Speaker 4: we come back, we're going to be telling you about
Speaker 4: all the other little ploison tactics.
Speaker 1: Got wait, let me add it, okay, V we are
Speaker 1: back hot.
Speaker 4: And I don't know if you're filled with rage, but
Speaker 4: I'm almost rage, always filled with rage, raging feminist over here.
Speaker 4: We are talking about the little tactics, tips and tricks
Speaker 4: that credit card companies use against us to keep us
Speaker 4: trapped in this endless cycle of debt.
Speaker 1: Doesn't have to be endlessly, it doesn't have to be endless.
Speaker 1: We can get out of it.
Speaker 4: We can get out of it, so hot. Next one
Speaker 4: I want to talk about is the reward programs. It
Speaker 4: sounds exciting, Yeah, they are.
Speaker 1: They're very enticing little programs that credit card companies put together,
Speaker 1: Like they might have like enticing stuff. You know what,
Speaker 1: sexy cash back, They're going to use that. Do you
Speaker 1: know what else is sexy free flats?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: I love They're going to use that. They're gonna use it.
Speaker 1: They're going to tell you that you can get it.
Speaker 1: I told you before. Lounge access they got me on
Speaker 1: that one. God, so discounts on other things that you
Speaker 1: might want to purchase, Like they might give you discounts
Speaker 1: on like insurance or like tickets to shows or something.
Speaker 1: We've talked about all of these before. Yeah, I can't
Speaker 1: be trusted with them because I literally just told you
Speaker 1: that one of the reasons why I picked my business
Speaker 1: credit card, lounge access, Yeah, insurance. I'm like, yeah, give
Speaker 1: me those reward perks. They are worth it to me,
Speaker 1: but I do know that they are worth it, so
Speaker 1: not in general worth it, but after I assessed the
Speaker 1: circumstances for my business and for myself, it made sense.
Speaker 1: We're not saying they're going to make sense for you, Beck,
Speaker 1: but these are shiny little things that they add. So
Speaker 1: do you want to stay in it with us?
Speaker 3: You?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd love to.
Speaker 4: I'd love to say with you girls, Oh.
Speaker 1: That's so nice.
Speaker 4: If you don't, are only what I want.
Speaker 1: I know I love you. So they programs are essentially
Speaker 1: often designed to encourage spending that you weren't planning for
Speaker 1: and to get you really dependent on your credit cards.
Speaker 1: She it's like a little abusive relationship. How nice. They're like,
Speaker 1: you need us, and I'm like, yeah, I do. So
Speaker 1: you might overspend to reach different reward thresholds. So like
Speaker 1: you might go, oh, well, if I do this amount
Speaker 1: of spending in the first three months, I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: those bonus points.
Speaker 4: That's enticing.
Speaker 1: I would never have spent three thousand dollars normally, but
Speaker 1: I really need those bonus points totally. Please come at me,
Speaker 1: really sexy. I just really want to stay in debt
Speaker 1: now because I want all of those rewards and benefits.
Speaker 1: Why do you think they've got them their peck, Let's
Speaker 1: think about the market. You're not going I really love Beck.
Speaker 1: I wish that she had some travel insurance though when
Speaker 1: she traveled. They really care, They really care about keeping
Speaker 1: you in debt. Yes, like they're like, let's keep Beck
Speaker 1: as a customer. They don't have a team called the
Speaker 1: keep people in debt team. Sure, they do have the
Speaker 1: customer Attention team, which is essentially the same thing. So
Speaker 1: just to remember that all of these things are ultimately
Speaker 1: designed by credit card companies to keep you in debt,
Speaker 1: and usually they win. Gosh, so rude, so rude.
Speaker 4: So this is coming at a funny time because I
Speaker 4: feel like we are getting more aggressive than we are aggressive.
Speaker 4: Let's talk about aggressive marketing tactics.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love an aggressive marketing tactic. I've never employed
Speaker 1: one myself because they just don't think it suits my personality.
Speaker 1: Maybe it does. You need to get financially leacher it.
Speaker 4: Honestly, i'd listened to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you already do though, So let's just
Speaker 1: and that doesn't count. Absolutely not even just saying that
Speaker 1: makes me feel a little bit ill. But essentially, credit
Speaker 1: card companies they invest heavily into their marketing strategies to
Speaker 1: attract new customers because the return on investment it's worth it, right.
Speaker 1: They are not going to invest in things that aren't
Speaker 1: worth it because credit cards have existed for many, many
Speaker 1: a year now exactly, so they've had heaps of time
Speaker 1: to go. If we invest this amount of marketing money
Speaker 1: into this area, we're probably going to see an ROI
Speaker 1: or a return on investment of xys, right, so they're
Speaker 1: going to keep doing it.
Speaker 4: Of course, are the ones that kind of meet cold
Speaker 4: calls or like stand in the maybe middle of a
Speaker 4: shopping center and us, yeah, it could.
Speaker 1: Be an advertisement on Telly. I know, the banner ads
Speaker 1: that you see while driving your car, the billboards, see anything,
Speaker 1: and you know what all of those things play into
Speaker 1: human psychology. Like have you ever seen someone holding a
Speaker 1: credit card with like no emotion on their face and
Speaker 1: they're trying to sell it? Absolutely not, No, they look
Speaker 1: so happy. They'll be holding their credit card and they're like,
Speaker 1: look how happy I am with this credit card.
Speaker 4: I believe them every time because you.
Speaker 1: Go, I'm not happy, but I could be.
Speaker 4: I could be really happy. Yep, yep, yep. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I get sold the dream all the time. Do you
Speaker 1: know how by going to my local cafe every morning? Right,
Speaker 1: so there's like the line out the front of all
Speaker 1: the depressed people, and then there's these people walking out
Speaker 1: smiles on their face, holding their fresh cup of Joe Joe,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm going to be like them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I get my coffee.
Speaker 4: That's how your property back. That's very true. I'm joking
Speaker 4: if you just stopped drinking coffee.
Speaker 1: I'm joking. But did you see that that new app recently,
Speaker 1: Threads has come out. Yeah, I love thread I am
Speaker 1: obsessed with Threads. Do I would follow you because I
Speaker 1: automatically follow everybody that I follow. But it's where I
Speaker 1: came to thrive. Like you know, if you thought I
Speaker 1: was okay at Instagram, I'm not. I'm killing it at Threads.
Speaker 4: The Threads is your plate.
Speaker 1: It's my place to shine because I can rely on
Speaker 1: being a sassy little s h one t as opposed
Speaker 1: to like looking hot, which does not work for me.
Speaker 1: I was not born to be an influencer. I was
Speaker 1: born to be a pest, and a pest I will
Speaker 1: continue to be. I'm so happy they made threads just
Speaker 1: for this reason. It was just for me.
Speaker 4: Now you can be as much of a pest as
Speaker 4: you want.
Speaker 1: I am. Anyway, I put up a thread the other day,
Speaker 1: got a lot of attention because I was like, you
Speaker 1: can have your coffee as a little treaty treat because
Speaker 1: we're still not going to be able to afford property. Bye.
Speaker 4: Really made me feel comforted to be honest with you,
Speaker 4: because I'm like, okay.
Speaker 1: Well I did the maths and I was like, look,
Speaker 1: it's like fourteen hundred bucks a year if you had
Speaker 1: a coffee every morning, which is you know, fourteen hundred
Speaker 1: bucks is a lot, but like that's not going to
Speaker 1: get you closer to owning your own home. So have
Speaker 1: your coffee. Be a little bit happy, save in a
Speaker 1: different way. Yes, so true, so sad. Anyway, they really
Speaker 1: helped you. Those aggressive marketing tactics. Maybe they should employ
Speaker 1: me because I'm like really good at them. But essentially
Speaker 1: they are trying to entice you in with ads and
Speaker 1: promo offers and they're essentially, let's be honest, disgustingly, they
Speaker 1: are targeting vulnerable people who might already be struggling with
Speaker 1: debt or struggling to pay the bills month to month,
Speaker 1: because you know, a credit card could be a very
Speaker 1: cool tool to you know, take some financial pressure off, right,
Speaker 1: And that's why we all get credit cards, right, because
Speaker 1: we need access to funds that are not ours.
Speaker 4: That is so true. With all of that in mind,
Speaker 4: let's tell people how they can kind of avoid these
Speaker 4: and maybe some things to keep in mind when we
Speaker 4: are faced with these little challenges. I'm going to start
Speaker 4: off with creating a budget. Should we do something like that?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 1: A budget underrated tool. It's the most underrated tool of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. No one wants to do a budget
Speaker 1: because budget feels like it's restrictive, but corner the days
Speaker 1: of restrictive budgets. A budget for me is a tool
Speaker 1: that tells me how many dollars I have coming in
Speaker 1: and how many dollars I have going out, and whether
Speaker 1: they're being spent in line with the goals and the
Speaker 1: values that I have. You know what if I look
Speaker 1: at your budget back and I say that one hundred
Speaker 1: percent of it is going to uberates. Do you know what,
Speaker 1: I don't care. I literally don't care, because what I'm
Speaker 1: looking at your budget for is to educate you on Oh, Beck,
Speaker 1: did you realize so much of your money is going here?
Speaker 1: You might go, yeah, because I love it, and I go, great, Beck,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what we want to hear. Or you might go, oh,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, no, I had no idea. Oh, maybe
Speaker 1: I should change a few things about my lifestyle because
Speaker 1: that's not something that I actually want to engage in.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize how much that added up, sure, And
Speaker 1: I think that often we forget how things can add up.
Speaker 1: So like, you know, our coffee here and there, you
Speaker 1: might go, you know what, my five dollar latte every
Speaker 1: single week or every single day. If you're me, it's worth.
Speaker 1: Like I think I've said on the pod before, it's
Speaker 1: one of my favorite things in the entire world. I
Speaker 1: go for a walk with my husband and my dog
Speaker 1: and we get out overpriced lattes every single morning, not
Speaker 1: from the cafe I've got beef with. Don't worry, I've
Speaker 1: got a new cafe. Good. It's all right, It's all right.
Speaker 1: I've got a new cafe, got a new hood. But
Speaker 1: I adore that. It's one of my favorite things in
Speaker 1: the entire world. So if I sat down with someone
Speaker 1: and they were trying to help me with my budget,
Speaker 1: and they said, hmmm, Victoria, because I've looked at my budget, Steve,
Speaker 1: and I spend more than three thousand dollars a year
Speaker 1: on coffee. Well that's a lot, right, because it's for
Speaker 1: two people, it's course for one course. But to us
Speaker 1: that three thousand dollars is so much more than just
Speaker 1: two cups of coffee. It's that time that we have
Speaker 1: to get in the morning, it's that connection. It's so
Speaker 1: much more. And I think that it's so rude when
Speaker 1: people just look at your budget and go, oh, Beck,
Speaker 1: that's not worth it to me, So you should get
Speaker 1: rid of it, right, You need less streaming services? Okay,
Speaker 1: well maybe I do. But have we thought about my lifestyle,
Speaker 1: maybe my entire life? And this is absolutely not true
Speaker 1: for you, Beck, because you are the most social butterfly
Speaker 1: I have met in the entire world. I swear every
Speaker 1: Monday and Tuesday that we sit down together, I'll be like,
Speaker 1: how is your weekend? You're like, I was at a
Speaker 1: house party. Hew, am I wrong?
Speaker 4: You are not wrong that it's very nice. That's you too.
Speaker 1: You are the most social person ever. But take my
Speaker 1: streaming service off me. I'd be like, wait, what do
Speaker 1: you mean? Like that's like my wind down time. I
Speaker 1: don't actually go out that often. I don't go out
Speaker 1: for dinner once a week at all. I'm lucky if
Speaker 1: I go out for dinner once a month. Yeap, Like, yes,
Speaker 1: I could afford to go out for dinner, but like,
Speaker 1: I just want to be at home. I want to
Speaker 1: be with my pets. That's something that I value. So
Speaker 1: I think it's so important to look at a budget
Speaker 1: and go, all right, let's develop a really realistic budget
Speaker 1: that's reflective our goals and our values and what we're
Speaker 1: trying to achieve, so that we can track our income
Speaker 1: and expenses and prioritize debt repayment without being judgmental, Because
Speaker 1: what's that help? Does that help it all? To sit
Speaker 1: down and do a budget and be like, oh, I
Speaker 1: feel so bad about this. No, who are you helping nobody?
Speaker 1: You're just making yourself feel trash about it for no
Speaker 1: good reason. Exactly, you're going to change it. How good?
Speaker 1: It's just like forget about the feeling bad part. But essentially,
Speaker 1: by following a budget and allocating funds towards paying off
Speaker 1: debt and credit card, you are preventing yourself from spiraling
Speaker 1: out of control. But you're also putting yourself in a
Speaker 1: position of power because sometimes, and Beck, I know you've
Speaker 1: been here, paying off debt feels like trash. It feels
Speaker 1: like you're just flushing money down the drain and spend it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you create a debt repayment plan, Let's
Speaker 1: pretend you are repaying debt four hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 1: Ill that feels yuck. Right, I'm flushing four hundred bucks
Speaker 1: down the drain. No you're not. Once you've finished paying
Speaker 1: off that debt, Beck, you're going to be saving four
Speaker 1: hundred bucks a month. Yeah, look at that habit you've started.
Speaker 1: Look at that you've created. So the second that debt's gone,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, you're going to turbo charge your savings.
Speaker 1: You're going to be an investing queen. You were going
Speaker 1: to do so many things that you've always wanted to do.
Speaker 1: But I promise it starts with getting rid of your debt,
Speaker 1: because there is no point having a heap of savings
Speaker 1: in the bank but also holding significant debt because they
Speaker 1: counsel each other out. Yes, it's not sexy in saying that. Yes,
Speaker 1: I do genuinely believe that everybody who is in consumer
Speaker 1: debt needs to have an emergency front still to stop
Speaker 1: them going further into consumer debt. Yes, but that's a
Speaker 1: different conversation for another day. Beck, that is a really.
Speaker 4: Good point, Vie. This point I'm about to make, I
Speaker 4: did it really, really poorly. But basically I tried to
Speaker 4: consolidate my debts, and I think that what I was
Speaker 4: thinking at the time was I'm gonna consolidate these debts
Speaker 4: and I'm gonna ask for way more than I need
Speaker 4: so that I have a little bit of money to
Speaker 4: spend on bills and view whatever else. Yes, and then
Speaker 4: that just snowboard and snowboard and snowboard. But that aside,
Speaker 4: it is not a bad idea, would you say to
Speaker 4: try And maybe it's not.
Speaker 1: A bad idea at all. I mean, don't go and
Speaker 1: take out more money because it's attractive. But if you
Speaker 1: have multiple credit cards with high interest rates, debt consolidation
Speaker 1: is something you could consider looking at, because what debt
Speaker 1: consolidation does is it rolls all of those debts together
Speaker 1: and usually gives you a lower interest rates so you
Speaker 1: can pay it off with less interest going to be
Speaker 1: incurred over the long term. I think when it comes
Speaker 1: to debt consolidation, there's two streams of thought. There's that
Speaker 1: thought of let's consolidate it so we get a lower
Speaker 1: interest rate and we can pay it off reasonably over
Speaker 1: a period of time that suits us, and we're not
Speaker 1: crippled by consistent debt repayments. It's overwhelming when you have
Speaker 1: so many credit cards that you actually need to pay off.
Speaker 1: So I do feel like consolidating it into one payment,
Speaker 1: even if it is the same amount of I guess
Speaker 1: interest can feel a little bit free because you've only
Speaker 1: got one payment right and there's really really solid terms.
Speaker 1: I do think it can be a little bit of
Speaker 1: a trap for some people too. If you see consolidate
Speaker 1: to this particular credit card and you'll get zero percent
Speaker 1: interest for the first six months. Unless you can actually
Speaker 1: pay that debt off in six months, that change is
Speaker 1: probably going to shoot you in the foot. And I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people in our community have been
Speaker 1: bitten by that because they'll go Oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: don't want to pay interest for six months. That's great.
Speaker 1: And so they take their eighteen percent credit card and
Speaker 1: they roll it into this other one. They get six
Speaker 1: months of interest free time. But because it was interest free,
Speaker 1: they didn't prioritize it because whatever, Like, it's just interest free, right, beck.
Speaker 1: And then after six months it changes to twenty two
Speaker 1: percent interest and you're in a worse position than when
Speaker 1: you start it. Sure, so we need to make sure
Speaker 1: that debt consolidation is done properly. So go see a
Speaker 1: finance broker. Obviously shameless plug. Our team at Zella Money
Speaker 1: do that, but essentially simplifying your payments, it can essentially
Speaker 1: save you money in the long term.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love that. And then finally I think we
Speaker 4: can both agree on this one.
Speaker 1: Seek professional help exactly a podcast, my friend. If you
Speaker 1: are in this sticky, sticky position, not enough, I mean,
Speaker 1: hopefully it's been enough to like motivate you. And you're like,
Speaker 1: I want to get my budget and cash flow in place,
Speaker 1: and I really want to be out of debt and
Speaker 1: I don't want to rely on credit cards. Like that's
Speaker 1: the sexiest thing I've ever heard in my whole affects.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited about it. But essentially, if you're finding
Speaker 1: yourself in overwhelming debt, there's no shame in reaching out
Speaker 1: for help. Nobody, I promise nobody cares more than you do.
Speaker 1: Like nobody's looking at you going, oh, Beck, can't believe
Speaker 1: you just admitted to that ill. They're literally like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, Beck, congrats on taking the first step to
Speaker 1: being out of this circumstance. The sooner you reach for help,
Speaker 1: the sooner you're going to be out of debt, and
Speaker 1: the easier the circumstances are going to be. I promise
Speaker 1: the longer you leave your head in the sand, the
Speaker 1: worst things are going to get. So I have a
Speaker 1: few of my I guess favorite and trusted resource is
Speaker 1: that we will obviously put in the show notes. The
Speaker 1: National Debt Helpline is one of my favorite resources. And
Speaker 1: it's not just because it's easy. It's because it's free,
Speaker 1: free financial counseling.
Speaker 2: Beck.
Speaker 1: The team there are gorgeous. I have worked with them before,
Speaker 1: not on a like they've paid me way, I have
Speaker 1: reached out to them and been like, how do we
Speaker 1: work together? Because you guys are legends, and I think
Speaker 1: that what you're doing is epic. They provide guidance and
Speaker 1: tailored advice to your circumstances. They have financial counseling. They
Speaker 1: can send you to a financial advisor if you're in
Speaker 1: a super super tricky circumstance. They can help you with
Speaker 1: a partnerine debt agreement, or they can help you with
Speaker 1: filing for bankruptcy, or they could talk you through what
Speaker 1: those things mean. They can talk you through negotiating with
Speaker 1: your credit card company some time off if you need
Speaker 1: some time. They can do so many things, and I
Speaker 1: would reach out to them. Yeah, Honestly, they can help
Speaker 1: you with the specific advice you might need to pay
Speaker 1: off your debt, and I guess regain financial freedom. And
Speaker 1: then I guess if you're not in as sticky a
Speaker 1: situation as needing the National Debt help Line, let's just
Speaker 1: do a little shameless plug my budget and cash Flow
Speaker 1: master class I created for me to get me out
Speaker 1: of debt because I'm a bit nearer, spicy, and I
Speaker 1: need a lot of structure and I need it to
Speaker 1: work for me. So I'm not the type of person
Speaker 1: that you can sit down and be like, oh, Victoria,
Speaker 1: write a budget, right, and then I go yeah, great, old,
Speaker 1: stick to this absolutely. Not like, if I write a budget,
Speaker 1: I'll be like groceries X, you know, gym membership X,
Speaker 1: rent X. What do I do? Go away with that
Speaker 1: budget and do what? Beck? Am I meant to implement that?
Speaker 1: I'm not going to implement that? No, So I created
Speaker 1: this budget and Cashlow master class that essentially takes that budget,
Speaker 1: overlays it into a banking structure and tells you how
Speaker 1: much you need in each account to live the lifestyle
Speaker 1: that you've said you are living from your budget. So
Speaker 1: I will say, all right, here's your food, your fuel,
Speaker 1: and your fun money each and every single week. Beck,
Speaker 1: if you run out, you're eating noodle this week, And
Speaker 1: that's okay because it means that every other bill in
Speaker 1: your life is catered for. Yeah, you're not gonna miss
Speaker 1: your redro, you're not going to miss your rent, You're
Speaker 1: not going to miss anything. But if you just kind
Speaker 1: of like threw your money up against a wall this
Speaker 1: week in your spending amount, well that's all good because
Speaker 1: like we can just live on noodles until next Thursday. Right.
Speaker 1: So I created that to put you in their best
Speaker 1: possible position. Literally thousands of people have done it now.
Speaker 1: People have used it to get out of debt, to
Speaker 1: stay out of debt, to save for their first homes,
Speaker 1: to save for overseas trips, and save for six million things. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I'm really proud of it. Do we think we should
Speaker 1: give them a discount? I think we should give them
Speaker 1: a discount.
Speaker 4: I'm in a good mood. Let's do it.
Speaker 1: So it's not active at the moment, but I will
Speaker 1: make sure that by the time this episode goes live.
Speaker 1: The code pod five zero, so Pod fifty is a
Speaker 1: code to get fifty bucks off the budget and cashular
Speaker 1: Master like, Oh, she's good, it's so generous.
Speaker 4: That is so nicey.
Speaker 1: I'll make sure just turns that back on. If it's
Speaker 1: not on, please message me and it will be the
Speaker 1: kick up the butt that I need.
Speaker 4: Yes, if you're listen to this, hello end please Hi?
Speaker 1: I love you, gotcha?
Speaker 4: Court? All right, I think this is a really good place.
Speaker 1: I'm so done. I'm so tired, and I heard there's
Speaker 1: a fancy lunch going on, so let's go.
Speaker 4: I can hear them celebrating.
Speaker 2: Let's go eat.
Speaker 1: All right, have a good day, guys, love you, Love
Speaker 1: you guys.
Speaker 4: Bye.
Speaker 5: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
Speaker 5: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
Speaker 5: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 5: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
Speaker 5: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
Speaker 5: the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice.
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Speaker 5: Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are authorized representatives
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