Rich Habits Podcast - 37: Interest Rate Work-Arounds for 2024

Episode Date: November 7, 2023

In this episode of the Rich Habits Podcast, Robert Croak and Austin Hankwitz share their three best tips for interest rate work-arounds for 2024. Specifically, how to take advantage of them from a sav...ings perspective, how to use them to your advantage when buying a new house, car, or boat, and how they impact your investment portfolio. ---Be sure to check out Public's new ⁠⁠⁠High Yield Cash Account paying 5.1% APY.⁠⁠⁠ This is higher than anything else on the market and is FDIC insured up to $5M. ---Earn 5.1% APY using a Public HYCA, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Opt-in and share your email, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn more about our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠4-module video course!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download our FREE Budget Template, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠To learn more about Robert: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://stan.store/RobertJCroak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠To learn more about Austin: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://stan.store/austinhankwitz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Contact: richhabitspodcast@gmail.com ---Hankwitz Group LLC has an existing business relationship with NEOS Investment Management LLC. The opinions expressed are those of the author, and the author owns several NEOS ETFs.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 The ride that steals the spotlight every time it hits the road, that's the Volkswagen Tiguan. Its sleek exterior makes a first impression you can't ignore. Step inside to find available full leather seats and wood accents. Under the hood, the available 201 turbocharged horsepower engine gives it a fun to drive edge. The refined Tiguan, you deserve more style. Visit vw.ca to learn more. SUV, German engineered for all. presents Laura versus fruit flies.
Starting point is 00:00:35 Swarming your fruit and terrorizing your kitchen. These little freaks multiply at a rate that would make a rabbit say, yo. Chill. But Laura shopped on Amazon and saved on cleaning spray, countertop wipes, and fly traps. Hey, fruit flies, your baby boom ends here. Save the Everyday with Amazon. Hey everyone and welcome back to the Rich Habits podcast, a top three business podcast on Spotify. My name is Austin Hankwitz and I'm joined by my co-host Robert Croke.
Starting point is 00:01:09 Robert is a seasoned entrepreneur in his 50s with more than 200 million in company exits under his belt and I'm an entrepreneur in my late 20s with a background in finance and economics. Since quitting my full-time job in corporate finance a few years ago, I've built a seven-figure media business and actively advise some of the most well-known fintech companies around. the world. As the show name might suggest, every episode, we talk about rich habits as they relate to business, finance, and mindset. However, we try and bring you two unique perspectives. One, from an industry veteran, which is Robert and the other myself, someone who's still in the process of learning, building wealth, and figuring it all out. Robert, what are we going to be talking about in today's
Starting point is 00:01:53 episode? Today's episode of the Rich Habits podcast. We'll be talking about how interest rates impact every part of your buying power and financial life. There's a quote by Warren Buffett that I really like and it goes like this. The value of every business, the value of every farm, the value of every apartment, the value of any economic asset is 100% sensitive to interest rates. Think about what that means for a second. The value of every economic asset, the value of real estate, they're all tied to interest rates. So in this episode, we're going to share the the three best tips of how you can thrive even in a high interest rate environment. So follow along, please take notes and understand we're going to break it down for you so you all can thrive in what we
Starting point is 00:02:42 consider these tough times right now and really figure this all out. So here's the first way that higher interest rates are impacting you. Higher interest rates now mean higher yields on your savings. Check this out. So let's rewind now to 2020 when the Federal Reserve comes. interest rates to nearly zero in efforts to help boost the economy. When interest rates are low, the everyday person isn't able to generate any sort of yield on their cash savings. I don't know if you all remember this, but you could go type in high yield savings account back in 2020 or 2021, and they were paying like 1%, right, or 1.5%. That's nothing. Today, it's the absolute opposite. Interest rates are hovering around this 5.5% range, which means high yield savings accounts are
Starting point is 00:03:25 paying about 5% plus on your cash savings. Now, this isn't something we've been able to benefit from as the everyday American for literally a decade now. So definitely make sure you're taking advantage of this and here's how. We talk about having that emergency fund, call it three to six months of expenses, parked in either a high-yield savings account on wealthfront or inside of treasury bills, T-bills, on public.com by simply making sure that that three to six months of savings is sitting in the right account and it's not sitting in your checking or sitting in some, you know, cash in your vault in your basement or something crazy, right? You can now start to earn $500 per year extra in interest on your money assuming you have a $10,000 emergency fund. So making sure you have
Starting point is 00:04:11 your money parked in the right account can be the difference between inflation eating away at my buying power and I'm earning hundreds, if not thousands more per year on my savings. That is a great way to put this and, you know, we talk about this constantly, and it may seem like a broken record to many of the listeners out there, but really, velocity of your money is what's most important. You need to have all of your money accounted for and not just sitting idly in a savings account making nothing because you're going backwards. We always say that if your money is not making money and it's not working as hard for you as you work to get it, then you're going backwards and you're not going to get to your financial retirement goals. So just make sure you're always having your
Starting point is 00:04:57 money accounted for through that budget, through that debt to income ratio, and understanding what you can put away each month, even in tough times, and having that velocity of your money. Okay, number two, borrowing is more expensive, but there are workarounds. We all know higher interest rates mean paying more and more on your debt. This includes car loans, mortgages, he locks, personal loans, and everything in between. And just so, Also, we're all on the same page. The reason why higher interest rates cause us to pay more and more for our debt is because it's now increasingly more and more expensive to borrow money. You all remember in 2021 when interest rates were near zero and everyone and their mothers went out to buy new cars. That's because we were paying nearly nothing for the debt. Interest rates on cars then were like 2%, which is insane. Today's interest rates on cars are closer to 10% and sometimes higher on new cars, which means you're paying $6.000. $6,000 per year just in interest on that $60,000 Toyota you love. That's an extra $500 per month, added to your payment on top of the principal alone. Unbelievable to me to think that just because
Starting point is 00:06:07 some guy with glasses named Jerome Powell wants to change interest rates that the everyday American now has to pay if they want to go out and buy that car, that $60,000 car at that 10% interest, have to pay now $500 more per month on their monthly car payment. It's unbelievable. And actually, we heard from Elon Musk in his Tesla earnings call. I think it was last week, he talked about how higher interest rates are really eating into how well they're able to push through and sell their cars because now these monthly payments have gone from $4,500, $600 to $900, $1,200 for the exact same car, all because Jerome Powell has increased
Starting point is 00:06:49 interest rates. So it's hitting us all. We understand that. But Robert, I think you got some workarounds. So walk us through a couple workarounds here. Love to, love to. So let's say you're shopping for a house right now. Interest rates are through the roof at 8, 9%. You could look to find a deal using owner financing, which is also referred to as subject to. Here's what that means for those of you that have never heard this. So it's subject to, meaning it's subject to the approval and the ability to assume that loan. So what you want to do is find out. So what you want to do is a distressed buyer who currently has a low interest loan. Work out a deal with them to assume that mortgage,
Starting point is 00:07:26 which means you're just taking over the payments, you're taking over the mortgage, you're owning the house, but you're not transferring the mortgage per se or going back to the bank. You're transferring the mortgage they already have in place. And the key here and kind of the pro tip to understand if you're out looking for this subject two type mortgage is that there's only three types of mortgages that qualify. the FHA, the USDA, and the VA loan.
Starting point is 00:07:53 So no matter what the fake gurus tell you out there, not all loans are assumable. So just make sure you're looking for those three types of mortgages because they are assumable. And then you could find yourself getting into a mortgage right now at two and a half, three, four percent interest, which is so beneficial for you finding those distress deals and being able to implement this strategy.
Starting point is 00:08:17 I love it. I think it's great for everyone to really, really research this and get involved in how this could work. I've never heard of this. Seems like I should have done this when I bought my house recently. Does this just apply to mortgages? Can I do this with other types of loans? I'm talking like car loans or like any other boat loans.
Starting point is 00:08:36 Is this just mortgages? No, similar to mortgages, it's all about the lender. If you're looking to say you want to buy a car and you have a friend that has lost their job, they have a car payment that's too high, you love the car, you want to get into a car now that it's used, and you can save on that depreciation, but also get that low interest loan. There are car loans that are also assumable in this same fashion. For instance, Capital One does that for car loans and boat loans. So great question, because at the end of the day, you know, one person's problem might be your windfall. And it's not necessarily
Starting point is 00:09:14 a bad thing. You're helping someone out in their car or their home if they can't afford it anymore, or they're in distress. And it's a way for you to get a really good interest rate and be able to work further towards your financial goals and save money for yourself rather than going out and paying these egregious interest rates right now. So I actually have an anecdote to share here. I've been picking up Facebook a little bit more. I've been browsing on the book of face, right? I think it might be just because I'm getting older. I now browse Facebook, which is kind of embarrassing to admit. But anyway, I've seen a lot of people in my like Facebook friend network selling their cars. This brand new car I bought two years ago, I can't afford the payment anymore.
Starting point is 00:09:56 Obviously we know like unemployment's ticking up a little bit. Inflation is still here, right? All these things are definitely still impacting the middle class, which makes sense as to now why this person might not be able to afford that car anymore. So if you're browsing your Facebook and you see Uncle Larry is trying to sell his 22, Tahoe on Facebook marketplace, or your browsing Facebook marketplace to look for some sort of used car for anything, right? Any reason? Check out and see if you can maybe assume just the existing loan, right?
Starting point is 00:10:24 Because, I mean, think about it. If this person bought the car two years ago, Robert, their interest rates probably two, three, maybe four percent at the highest. Compare that now to the 8, 9, 10, 11 percent interest rate that we're going to see anyone kind of get out there at the credit unions or any other ways to borrow money at the moment. So that could definitely help a lot as it relates to your payment, assuming that that payment is still at a decent kind of range there that's within your budget. But I think that's a really good way to think about it. I never thought that you could assume loans of any stretch of the imagination.
Starting point is 00:10:56 Mortgages, cars, boats. I think that's a really, really good workaround for people who are trying to acquire a new sort of asset, quote unquote, and they simply can't because of interest rates. And one of the keys here is to really understand that your interest is. saving the money from paying that 8 or 9 or 10% on a new car and getting that used car for maybe 2, 3%, but also what you can do to add another layer to this deal, you don't necessarily have to take the deal as it stands just because of the benefits of assuming the loan. You can also ask them to participate because what you're going to do, you find this deal. Uncle Bill down the streets like, I really got to get out of this car. It's a car you could really use. You really want to
Starting point is 00:11:39 own it, but what you want to do is you want to check the value, what is the main across the value, you know, across the board value on that vehicle. And let's say Uncle Bill or Bill down the street has negative equity on that vehicle. You can say to Bill, hey, you owe 32. Right now, Kelly Blue Book, Carvano, all of them value this car at 27,000. So I'm going to take this off your hands and get you out of the distress, but I want you to participate by paying back 5,000. So then that way you're getting the car for a great price, but also getting the great interest rate, because what you don't want to do is just look at the interest rate and then pay too much for the car, because then you're going to be taking on that negative equity, and that's something we want to try and
Starting point is 00:12:24 avoid here. So I think the timing for something like this is really good. And like Austin alluded to, there's just so many good ways to make money and save money during a high interest period in our economy. That's got to be an Instagram clip, dude. That was a really good call out. I did not think about the negative equity aspect, man. That was, geez. See, this is why we got the veteran and the rookie talking, trying to figure this stuff out, asking the questions.
Starting point is 00:12:50 I love it, man. Okay, before we jump into number three, let's take a quick break. This episode is brought to you by Nespresso. Hear that? That's your next obsession. Every coffee, a new world. Every sip, a new taste. This is the new espresso.
Starting point is 00:13:05 One touch, endless possibilities. Iceed, flavored, long, short. because some days call for that espresso kick. And sometimes a smooth silky latte just wins. It's exceptional but effortless. Like actually effortless. Simply press, brew and explore. Nispresso.
Starting point is 00:13:21 What else? Keep exploring at nespresso.com. So our third way that high interest rates are impacting you right now is the stock market and your portfolio. So let's talk about this because I don't think a lot of our listeners quite understand this one. As an investor, now let's say you're investing into Apple. for example, right, Apple iPhones. As an investor, you always need to be aware and cognizant of the next best thing. Now, for every investor out there, the next best thing is the risk-free interest that you can
Starting point is 00:13:53 earn on your money. That is through treasury bills. We talk about that on public.com all the time. You can literally take your entire portfolio if you wanted, cash it out, and put all that money into treasury bills and earn a guaranteed 5.5% on your money. So knowing that you, you can earn 5.5% on your money, that should be the baseline, right? As every investor, it's like, okay, I can earn at least 5.5%. It's going to be completely risk-free because the government's never going to default, fingers crossed, and all's going to be well. So if you're investing into Apple and Apple's profits for next year of 2024 are expected to rise by 8%, therefore, their stock price theoretically should also rise by about 8% in value because businesses are
Starting point is 00:14:35 sort of, you know, valued by how much profit they're creating. So if you think about it, that you're only generating an extra potential two and a half percent return on your investment compared to that five and a half percent risk-free rate so now the question is what kind of risk are you taking for that potential extra two and a half percent return on your portfolio the answer is a lot right what if the new iPhone isn't what customers expected what if their employees want to have a strike what if their new macbooks aren't powerful enough right there are so many risks that come with investing into companies and if the potential upside is there, then the market is going to discount the stock price to account for that risk.
Starting point is 00:15:15 And we saw this happen in 2022. The Federal Reserve was raising interest rates at the fastest pace in history, and the stock market crashed, right? It was down 22% or something last year, because it had no idea how to price anything now with interest rates rising so quickly trying to predict what the risk-free rate is going to be. Now, interest rates have been more tame. They aren't rising by 75 basis points every month.
Starting point is 00:15:39 and we're likely not going to continue to rise by 25, 50, 75 basis points per month into the future. So we've seen the markets cool down, become a lot more tame and rise a modest 5, 10% this year. Now, we're hoping for that continued relief of 2024. But now that we all have this sort of understanding, Robert, I want to hear from you now. What are the tips on how people can begin optimizing their portfolios with high interest rate in mind? This is a great section, and I hope everyone is following along. and taking notes on this because it just means the difference between sitting idly on the sidelines and actually thriving in a tough market. And so for me, our best tips, the Rich Habits team, are always
Starting point is 00:16:20 going to be to dollar cost average. We scream this to the mountaintops every single day. We've been doing it forever. And this is so, so important to dollar cost average. Make sure you read up on it, make sure you fully understand it because it takes out the need for you to try and time the market and missing out on so many great returns. Secondly, I would say automate your investing to take the emotion out of the equation. Once you automate, make sure you have that velocity on your money and it is already earmarked every single month.
Starting point is 00:16:52 You know where it's going. It's spoken for. It's not just sitting in your accounts and you don't know what to do or you're haphazardly taking stabs at when you should invest or somebody tells you this stock or this fund or whatever it is or this crypto. You're automating it.
Starting point is 00:17:07 That way you've got a plan every single month. I think that is one of the most important. And number three is to optimize for portfolio income. This could help smooth out the big swings in volatility with all of our portfolios. Think the SPYIETF or even writing covered calls yourself. You know what Austin and I have been talking about that lot. And he generated nearly $3,500 in additional income for his portfolio just by writing covered calls on his Tesla stocks. So there are a lot of ways here for us to really be profitable and thrive during these high interest times.
Starting point is 00:17:44 And finally, just have the perspective. The stock market, the cryptocurrency market, every single market moves up and down over time, but has always shown to recover and continue to trend higher by about 8 to 10% per year. So please, please, don't have knee-jerk reactions based on a downturn in the market of 5%. When you see something on the news, it says gloom and doom, remember, all of this news, all of this clickbaiting information you're going to hear and see on a daily basis, all has a purpose. And trust me, it's not your best interest of being that purpose. So just try to understand that your investment goals should be long term and that the markets always recover. As long as you display rich habits, you are consistent, and you execute on your plan, you will always throw. I couldn't have said it better myself, right? Dollar cost average. Automate your investments so you're not emotionally excited or sad in despair and so you want to sell or buy or whatever. Like just take a motion out of it. Dollar cost average, automate those investments. Optimizing for income,
Starting point is 00:18:52 to Robert's point here, yes, I've generated nearly $3,500 in income, right? So think more money added to my portfolio because of investments already in my portfolio using the covered call strategy that I've done with Tesla now for the last two months. We are working on a webinar. It's going to be completely free. We're going to have a bunch of people join and it's going to be great. It's going to be mid-November, mid to late November. I think Robert is what we're going to do here, but we're going to teach you all what I've done, everything and how you can do it in your own portfolio. So stay tuned for that. But to Robert's point two, right, have some perspective. Markets go up, markets go down, markets go in circles, they go left and right, they zig, they zag. Having perspective and knowing
Starting point is 00:19:31 that if you zoom out, and you can see that over the long term, they tend to go up by 8 to 10% per year on average over a long period of time. And keeping that perspective can really keep you grounded in times of euphoria, as well as in times of despair. So just keep all that in mind. Yes, that is amazing. I love that takeaway. Thank you. Now before we jump into our question and answer, let's have a quick word from our sponsor. This episode of the Rich Habits podcast is brought to you by Nios Investments. Neos currently offers three unique exchange traded funds, SPYI, BNDI, and C-S-H-I.
Starting point is 00:20:09 All three aim to offer their investors monthly passive income with tax efficiency in mind. Their management team are pioneers in the option-based ETF space with decades of combined experience creating and managing ETFs that pursue income as the outcome. And during uncertain economic times, Nios ETFs can also be thought of, a way to turn market volatility into opportunity. While giving exposure to the S&P 500, U.S.
Starting point is 00:20:38 aggregate bond ETFs or T-bills, the NEOS team uses unique option strategies with the goal of increasing monthly income for their investors. So if you're looking to add tax-efficient, monthly passive income to your portfolio, you can learn more about NEOCTFs by visiting NiosFunds.com. As with all investments, investors should carefully consider their investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of NEOS Exchange traded funds before investing. To obtain a prospectus or summary prospectus containing this and other important information, please visit NEOSFunds.com. Please read the prospectus carefully before you invest.
Starting point is 00:21:15 NEOS ETFs are distributed by Foreside Fund Services LLC. An investment in NEOS ETFs may involve risk, including possible loss of principle. The equity securities purchased by the funds may involve large price swings and potential for loss. A fund's income may decline when yields fall. Fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and the funds may use derivative instruments to seek income, which involves risks different from or possibly greater than the risks associated with investing directly into securities and other traditional investment. With that being said, let's jump in to the question and answer segment. And also want to remind people, don't forget to email us, right? All of these questions are
Starting point is 00:21:59 going to be pulled from our email from this episode, Rich Habitspodcast at gmail.com. I know there's been a ton of people that have emailed us and we're trying our best to get back. We've got about a hundred questions sitting in our email inbox that we're working toward getting back to. But don't forget to send us an email. Now, our first question comes from Jorge C. Jorge says, at what age do you think children are old enough to start learning about money and money habits? I have a nine-year-old niece and I want to make sure she's moving in the right direction. Robert, do you want to kick this one off? Sure, I would love it. What a great question. There are so many ways, ways to teach the youth of our society better financial habits early on. But I think starting
Starting point is 00:22:36 out nine is plenty old enough because you can really introduce it in a simple way. Maybe you get the custodio Roth IRA set up for her, start investing in that a few dollars a month and show her what it's doing and how it works. But also just really talk and create situations where you can bring up money and finance and wealth building in a way that's simplified, that she can learn from that and take that into her teen years and then into adulthood. So I think it's really just all about you recognizing the importance of it because many of us never had that handed down from family members. And once you institute these habits early on, I think they will carry out through her life. So I've got three points. One, I hope you're investing toward a 529 plan or some sort of
Starting point is 00:23:26 a similar plan as it relates to college saving to make sure that she's not just inundated with student loan debt. Two, I would imagine that as a nine-year-old, so I remember when I was a nine-year-old and a 10-year-old in that age range. I didn't know money. I didn't know anything about money. And so I don't think that money needs to be in the equation maybe until like high school, right? Maybe late middle school, early high school, so call it 13, 14, 15, when they're old enough to start getting that first job. or thinking about saving for their first car or things of that nature. They're old enough to start babysitting, maybe, right?
Starting point is 00:24:01 Do those little odd jobs and start earning some income. And the last thing I'd like to share is that kids, especially 9, 10, 12, 15, 16 years old are impressionable. And they absorb conversations that are around them in the household. So if mom and dad are fighting about money, you know, maybe it turns into a bad relationship with money for that child. And so I remember I had a couple friends growing up whose parents always did fight about money. And they ended up having unhealthy relationships with money after they started earning money out of college. And so I think at the end of the day, as long as you're trying to introduce money habits and money mindsets to this child, once they're able to now figure out the difference between trading time for money, right, working for that money. And now once you have that money, you're able to say, okay, you have this, you worked for it.
Starting point is 00:24:54 Remember, you just spend all that time, energy, working for it. What do you want to go spend it on? And if you don't want to spend it, let me teach you about this thing called saving or, you know, things like that, right? That is how I think I would kind of approach that situation. Love it. Our next question comes from Philip C. Oh, this is a good one, Robert. Philip says, I have a condo on a 15-year, 1.9% fixed interest rate.
Starting point is 00:25:16 I still owe $120,000 on the mortgage and it praises for $245,000. I want to take out the equity to invest in more. real estate. Do I do a cash out refi or do I do a he lock? He lock. He lock. He lock. He lock. This is a great question and I think you understand the sentiment on this side of the screen and that is you have such a tremendous fixed interest rate. You should never, ever, ever do a cash out refi or as long as you can hold on to that rate and not pay it down. So I definitely think the he lock is the right way to go. because even if you did the HELOC right now and say it was 7.5 or 8%, if you were to average that out between your main mortgage and the HELOC,
Starting point is 00:26:03 you're still going to be at 4%, 4.5%, which is really inexpensive money for you to borrow right now overall. So I think you're definitely on the right track. Please don't cash out refi. Do the HELOC, and I think it's an incredible idea. So Philip and anyone listening, there is a new program out right now that is the Fannie Mae 5 5% mortgage that has great, great criteria. 5% down payment.
Starting point is 00:26:30 You can buy up to $1.3 million in property value and up to four doors. You could buy a duplex, triplex, quadplex. I think this is a great, great program that is going to help a lot of people on their wealth building journey. So in your instance, Philip, you could take just that 5% down instead of 15% or 20% down that you would normally have to put down on a traditional mortgage. and really accelerate your growth in the real estate market. I think it's a tremendous program.
Starting point is 00:26:59 I'm looking for a property to use it right now myself. Okay, so actually, Robert, maybe do you want to explain like the 80% loan to value ratio for the people listening right now? Yeah, so if you have a $200,000 home and let's say you owe $100,000 on it and you can borrow up to the 80%, then the simple math is you would be able to borrow the $60K from that different. of your amount you owe on the house versus the total value. That's the simplest way to put it, just so people can understand how much they can borrow because I think there's a big misnomer out there that people can borrow all of the equity or against all of it, and you just can't do that. Yeah, so, Philip, keep that in mind, right? Because just doing some quick math, 245 times 80%
Starting point is 00:27:45 is $196,000 and you have $120,000 mortgage, which means you can only borrow $76,000 of equity, not 125,000 like you might have thought. So just keep that in mind, Philip. So our last question, Robert, this one's going to be for you because I have no experience with this. But it comes from our friend named Felicia F. Felicia said she got a letter in the mail 17 years ago pertaining to a $300 city credit card.
Starting point is 00:28:10 Felicia said she never paid it and now she's being sued for $5,500. What can I do in the situation, if anything? I want to purchase a house, but I don't know if I can do that until I clean this up. Well, first and foremost, you have to look and see if it's even on your credit. A lot of times it will not show up on your credit report because they haven't taken action yet. But there's a few things to look at here. The statute of limitations is likely up for this debt. And they can send you this scare letter and hope that you pay it.
Starting point is 00:28:38 That's their job because they probably bought this debt for $100. I recommend, but I would talk to your lawyer. I would recommend ignoring it and checking your credit to see if it shows up. But in most states, the statute of limitations, going to be anywhere from three years to 20 years on a debt such as this. But if they've held it for this long, I personally wouldn't touch it and I wouldn't pay it. But check your credit first. See if it shows up. If it does show up and you're fearful of a default and it's going to hurt your credit, you can always call them and try to settle it. Because obviously, if they bought it for a
Starting point is 00:29:16 couple hundred dollars back when it was $300 and they're just adding on all of these massive fees and penalties, they're going to settle the debt for a lot less, probably 10 cents on the dollar from what it is now. But just realize one thing legally. If you reach out to them and you're afraid and you want to settle it and do something with it, you have to remember once you call them, agree that it's your debt and agree to any payments, then you have reinvigorated this debt to where then they can go after you. So you just have to make sure that when you do this, you are prepared to settle because they might say, okay, we'll settle this debt right now today for $1,000.
Starting point is 00:29:56 You can cry wolf and say, look, I don't have $1,000, I'm in a bad state. Can you take $500, but you just need to be willing and ready to pay it? Because what you don't want to do is get a settlement and then drag it along for a couple more years because then they will likely come after you and attach it to your credit and maybe even go four. But generally with smaller debts like this, they're just never going to pursue. pursue it. So personally, I would ignore it if you haven't received any updated information other than a fear tactic letter. And this is what you don't do. You don't call them and say, yeah,
Starting point is 00:30:31 let's settle the debt. It's my debt. All cool. And then they say, okay, great, what's your account number and your routing number so we can take it from you? Heck no. Do not ever hand over your banking information to these people. These people are doing everything they possibly can to try and get any amount of money out of you. And they're not just going to take the thousand. They'll take $2,000. They'll take all $5,500 from you, right? If I learn anything about settling debt from listening to random people on the internet, it's this. Always have it in writing. So if they come out with some ideas, sure, let's settle it for $500. Make sure it's in writing. Make sure they sign it. They mail that to you. You sign it. It's all in writing. It's all there. And two,
Starting point is 00:31:11 take a debit card and pay it off with a debit card, right? Do not ever give them access to your bank account because that just opens up a jar of worms that I don't think anyone wants to get opened up. I love it. Yeah, for sure. So with that being said, everyone, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Rich Habits podcast, walking you all through how interest rates are impacting you. We talked about having high interest rates on your savings to earn more money, the velocity of money, how important that is. We talked a little bit about the workarounds to get around paying a seven, eight, ten, twelve percent interest rate on your auto loans or an eight, nine, ten percent interest rate on your mortgage. And finally, we talked about how interest rates are impacting your
Starting point is 00:31:51 portfolio, the stock market, cryptocurrency, all that fun stuff, gave some examples. And we gave you our three best tips to help smooth out the volatility and keep you moving in the right direction. Massive shout out to Jorge, Philip, and Felicia for asking us questions via our email at rich habits podcast at gmail.com. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at Rich Habitspodcast, as well as join our Discord group in the show notes below. You can connect with other like-minded investors and community members, ask questions, and be a part of the growing community. And finally, thank you all so much for rating our podcast at five stars, sharing it with a friend
Starting point is 00:32:28 and continually to come back and join the 70,000 other people that listen to our podcast every single week. Yes, from the bottom of our hearts, we're so appreciative to all of you that follow along each and every week watching and enjoying the Rich Habits podcast and we appreciate all of your support. We love what we do and we appreciate all of you more than you know. Have a great start to your week.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.