back to index590-Who_Should_Never_Have_a_Credit_Card
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I am your host, and today we continue our credit card week here on Radical Personal 00:00:40.800 |
Finance with a discussion on who should not have credit cards. 00:00:46.800 |
All this week and last week, I have been focused on the topic of credit cards as we celebrate 00:00:50.880 |
the launch of my newest course, which is called How to Borrow Money Safely and Never Pay Interest 00:00:58.640 |
And so on Monday, of course, I shared with you one of my arguments, an excerpt from the 00:01:02.680 |
course called Credit Card Debt is a Very Safe Form of Debt. 00:01:06.000 |
I also shared with you on Tuesday another argument called Credit Card Loans Can Provide 00:01:09.800 |
a Way to Privately Purchase Goods and Services. 00:01:12.680 |
On Wednesday, yesterday, I shared with you an excerpt of the course called How to Manage 00:01:19.840 |
And today, I'm not going to share with you an excerpt, but I want to answer one important 00:01:23.320 |
question, which is who should not have credit cards and frankly, who should not take my 00:01:28.320 |
course because as I said to you on Monday, my course is designed if you have a credit 00:01:33.040 |
card currently of any kind, one or 50, or if you think you might ever have a credit 00:01:37.600 |
card in the future, I really want you to learn from what I have to teach you in this particular 00:01:43.800 |
So remember this week, if you sign up before we go on, sign up this week prior to Monday, 00:01:48.600 |
October 15, 2018, you can save 10 bucks by going to radicalpersonalfinance.com/creditcardcourse 00:01:54.360 |
to sign up and then using the coupon code creditcard10, T-E-N, that'll save you 10 00:01:59.240 |
bucks, brings the total cost of the course down to $29. 00:02:01.960 |
So do that now if you haven't done it yet because tomorrow I am hosting a live Q&A call 00:02:07.280 |
for anyone who has purchased the course and I really want to actually have some callers 00:02:12.600 |
And I want to answer your specific questions in that Friday live Q&A call. 00:02:18.040 |
Now let's talk about who shouldn't have credit cards. 00:02:21.440 |
Here is the major challenge in the world of credit cards. 00:02:25.240 |
There are a lot of us who have been burned by debt. 00:02:31.540 |
One of the worst things about credit cards, one of the big arguments against credit cards 00:02:36.800 |
is that they make overspending very, very easy. 00:02:43.820 |
If I were to go and to try to figure out what I think is an archetypal example of how credit 00:02:49.920 |
card debt works, I would go back and use my own story because I think it's probably about 00:02:58.920 |
I first signed up for my first credit card on my 18th birthday and I did so because I 00:03:02.720 |
was a personal finance nerd and I'd read all kinds of books on how to improve my credit 00:03:07.360 |
I knew how important my credit score was and I decided that the best way to do that was 00:03:12.200 |
So, of course, it was a very small credit card. 00:03:14.660 |
Now when you're building up your credit score, one of the first things that you want to do 00:03:17.900 |
is start to establish credit accounts and then to let those credit accounts season. 00:03:22.720 |
They need time because, of course, one of the big influences on your credit score is 00:03:29.220 |
And so I started to use my credit card, but I was very, very focused on always paying 00:03:40.800 |
Most people sign up for a credit card with a clear intention of never carrying a balance. 00:03:46.020 |
I have again and again and again heard people say, "I use credit cards and I never carry 00:03:56.020 |
I did the same thing for at least a couple years. 00:04:01.400 |
And then at that point in time, I was kind of in a bind. 00:04:04.300 |
I think this happened during the end of my sophomore year of college. 00:04:15.220 |
I paid for my own college and I'm very thankful for that. 00:04:19.180 |
My parents always said, "We'd love for you to go to school, but pay for it yourself." 00:04:25.220 |
So I paid for my own college, but I didn't have enough scholarships to cover all of my 00:04:30.400 |
tuition, and I chose to go to a fairly expensive private school. 00:04:35.100 |
I also chose to live on campus because I wanted to have the full so-called college experience, 00:04:40.700 |
which also brought a whole bunch of other expenses, which in hindsight were unnecessary 00:04:46.860 |
That was the decision that I made as an 18-year-old. 00:04:50.480 |
My freshman year of college, I worked a total of about three jobs throughout the year in 00:04:56.700 |
And I was able to get through my freshman year of college without borrowing money. 00:05:02.420 |
I had scholarships that covered some of my expenses. 00:05:05.980 |
I had an on-campus job in my dorm that gave me a small amount of income. 00:05:11.020 |
I spent my weekends doing construction work during the day, especially Saturday. 00:05:15.460 |
I had one employer who was building an addition on his house. 00:05:18.560 |
He was also in the construction trade, and so I'd go and work with him every Saturday 00:05:22.020 |
in addition to some other stuff whenever I had school breaks. 00:05:25.340 |
And then I also drove a bicycle rickshaw around the city where I lived on Thursday night, 00:05:30.780 |
Friday night, and Saturday night to provide income from driving the bicycle rickshaw around. 00:05:38.620 |
And frankly, I was tired by the end of the year. 00:05:42.780 |
And I spent so much time working that I missed out on some of the other playing that I could 00:05:48.620 |
have done if I hadn't been spending so much time working. 00:05:52.120 |
When you go and on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, you have a job in the afternoon and evenings 00:05:58.880 |
outside of your class, then on Thursday evening, you go down and ride a bicycle rickshaw from 00:06:03.740 |
what, I guess, probably about six o'clock till 10 o'clock. 00:06:07.820 |
And then on Friday, you go and ride from five o'clock until 2 a.m. 00:06:11.460 |
And then you get up early and at 8 a.m. you're on the construction job site, work from eight 00:06:15.260 |
till four, and then four o'clock, go home, shower, put on your clothes, and go ride the 00:06:19.140 |
bicycle rickshaw from five or six until 2 a.m. again. 00:06:22.660 |
Well, you could understand I was a little bit tired. 00:06:25.020 |
And so I decided that I was going to take it easier. 00:06:28.420 |
So I pulled back and in my sophomore year of school, I pulled back my course load from 00:06:32.800 |
I think I'd been taking 15 and 18 hours my freshman year, pulled it back to 12 or 15 00:06:40.680 |
And so I took out student loans, but I didn't know enough to take out more student loans 00:06:46.080 |
I just took out student loans for my tuition, which also covered my room and board. 00:06:51.720 |
And I didn't know how to cover my other expenses. 00:06:54.600 |
So I went ahead and started using my credit card to pay for food, put gas in the car, 00:07:00.000 |
And my credit card started, debt started to build. 00:07:03.280 |
Now my junior year of school, I studied abroad. 00:07:05.740 |
And I, again, my credit card debt started to build. 00:07:08.840 |
And I wound up coming back from my study abroad with significant amount of student loan debt 00:07:13.840 |
and significant credit card debt, not knowing what to do. 00:07:18.960 |
And I experienced that first place that most of us have been. 00:07:22.400 |
I've got a bunch of debt, and I don't know how to pay it off, which means I had to go 00:07:30.400 |
Now I worked really hard my senior year, and I paid off the credit card debt, paid off 00:07:35.040 |
the credit card debt, paid off my student loans, was able to graduate, sorry, was able 00:07:38.160 |
to pay off all my debt before and graduate debt free, which was great. 00:07:41.840 |
Until a number of years later, when I was building a business and I didn't have enough 00:07:46.120 |
money and I started borrowing money and credit card debt again. 00:07:50.200 |
And along the way, I've made all the decisions about, I'm never going to borrow credit card 00:07:56.640 |
And then I'm going to embrace credit card debt fully. 00:08:01.080 |
A major influence on my life when I was in college was the teaching of Dave Ramsey against 00:08:12.960 |
At least once or twice, I entirely canceled every credit card that I have. 00:08:17.200 |
I shared with you last week that when I was in college at that point in time, I had worked 00:08:22.000 |
hard to build up my credit card, available credit limits up to about a hundred thousand 00:08:28.480 |
Well, after college, when I got out of debt, I canceled all of those and I had no credit 00:08:35.080 |
Now here's what I've learned watching and doing financial counseling with many people. 00:08:40.560 |
Most people's experiences will reflect my own. 00:08:46.940 |
In the sense that we are committed to not carrying a credit card balance until we actually 00:08:57.240 |
Or we're committed to not borrowing money on credit cards. 00:08:59.920 |
And we may even cancel our credit cards until we wind up in a situation where we see no 00:09:07.560 |
And then we go ahead and apply for them again. 00:09:10.000 |
I can't remember the exact details of when I applied for credit cards after having canceled 00:09:15.600 |
them all, but it went much like many people's lives where I had canceled all my credit cards. 00:09:23.960 |
And hopefully this doesn't sound too harsh, but you're probably just about like me because 00:09:31.400 |
in my years doing this, I have stopped believing people when they said, I don't carry a balance 00:09:42.080 |
Now it's not that people are necessarily insincere about that. 00:09:45.920 |
I believe people when they say, yeah, I don't mean to carry a balance, but life happens. 00:09:54.280 |
And I could take 15 minutes and describe specific people that said, I don't borrow money on 00:09:59.320 |
credit cards or I don't carry a credit card debt balance. 00:10:04.160 |
And then a couple of years later, I found out that they had one. 00:10:13.000 |
And it hurt me for a while because I stopped counting on people. 00:10:15.520 |
I stopped believing anything people said till I just realized that just like me, they believed 00:10:21.540 |
it when they said it, but they hadn't thought ahead to understand the situation that they 00:10:29.780 |
And I don't think this credit card business of should I have a credit card or not have 00:10:33.180 |
a credit card is as simple or as black and white as many people wish it were. 00:10:38.540 |
Because although credit cards can be extremely dangerous, they can also be extremely safe. 00:10:42.560 |
And although credit cards can enable routine overspending, they can also be a way out of 00:10:47.920 |
Many people have tried to start a business using their credit cards and have failed completely 00:10:54.720 |
Many people have also successfully started a business using financing from their credit 00:11:08.280 |
But circumstances are different for different people. 00:11:12.660 |
Now here is the conviction that I have come to. 00:11:17.180 |
I make this very clear in the course in a module called, "Should You Use Credit Cards 00:11:25.000 |
It's my personal belief that you should never accumulate credit card debt. 00:11:33.780 |
You should never accumulate credit card debt. 00:11:38.620 |
And I will fight tooth and nail to try to persuade you of that position. 00:11:46.260 |
I will fight tooth and nail to try to help you to avoid what I've seen so many people 00:11:53.060 |
Most commonly, somebody loses their job, they get their hours cut back at work, something 00:11:59.540 |
happens and they don't curb their spending because they think it's a temporary problem. 00:12:05.660 |
That's where most people wind up in credit card debt. 00:12:09.080 |
They think, "Well, I just got laid off, but I'll probably get a job in a month or 00:12:13.800 |
two so it won't be a big deal to pay off a month or two worth of credit card debt." 00:12:20.580 |
And then six months later, they're still unemployed and they're stuck. 00:12:24.460 |
Or they get their hours cut or their pay cut for whatever reason and they think, "Well, 00:12:27.980 |
it's only temporary, it's only a small amount," and they don't make drastic decisions. 00:12:31.540 |
And I'm here to beg you and plead with you, don't do that. 00:12:36.820 |
First, don't be a stupid young person routinely overspending as so many of us have, buying 00:12:42.580 |
stupid things that you can't afford and paying retail prices because you just swipe 00:12:48.780 |
And I'm here to beg with you and plead with you, don't ever allow yourself to choose 00:12:52.980 |
to go into debt when you're facing personal hardship. 00:12:57.100 |
It will be easier for you to always cut your expenses quickly than it will be for you to 00:13:06.460 |
It'll be much easier for you to make that decision because it shortens the overall length 00:13:15.900 |
If you lose your job and you find yourself without choices, meaning you don't have income, 00:13:22.020 |
but yet you need to put some food in your refrigerator, don't use a credit card. 00:13:29.780 |
Because if you do use a credit card and you go out and this month you spend your typical 00:13:39.460 |
You'll accumulate $700 of credit card debt, which you'll then maintain until six months 00:13:51.180 |
But six months from now you're going to have a food budget again of $700. 00:13:57.660 |
So now six months from now you're going to have double the food expenses. 00:14:04.740 |
You're going to have $700 of, let's just pretend that today is October, so six months from 00:14:11.020 |
You're going to have the $700 April budget and you're going to have the $700 October 00:14:22.740 |
You say, of course, nobody would pay $1,400 off in a month. 00:14:31.620 |
And what that means is this month, the October food budget, this month will get extended 00:14:38.020 |
out over the next few years because it's going to take you years to pay off the credit card 00:14:43.620 |
When you finance a problem using debt, you extend that problem far beyond where it ever 00:14:50.140 |
So if you lose your job and in October you need food, don't put October's food bill on 00:14:56.900 |
Rather, October should be the time when you cut your budget down and you change your diet 00:15:02.260 |
and you eat beans and rice and peanut butter and bread every day. 00:15:05.780 |
October should be the month that you go down to the food pantry and ask for help. 00:15:09.460 |
October should be the month that you apply for food stamps and get the money and go to 00:15:15.580 |
October should be the month that you say yes to your neighbor who wants to give you bags 00:15:20.460 |
October should be the month that you go over to your parents' house and say, "Mom and Dad, 00:15:24.900 |
And they say, "Sure, here's a $200 gift certificate to the local grocery store." 00:15:29.100 |
Do that in October because then in April, when you're well employed, you will only have 00:15:37.100 |
So I don't ever want you to go into credit card debt. 00:15:40.180 |
I don't ever want you to be in that desperate situation. 00:15:44.780 |
Now if you're in that situation, my course will help you to get out of it, but it will 00:15:57.660 |
So who should not have credit cards and who should not buy my course? 00:16:03.460 |
If you're a debt addict, as with many addictions, I think you better be pretty careful. 00:16:14.620 |
If you made a solemn promise, a solemn vow to yourself to say, "I will never borrow money," 00:16:26.260 |
and I mean that comprehensively, if you make that solemn promise, "I will never borrow 00:16:30.740 |
money," and you are absolutely committed to that, and I mean absolutely, then of course 00:16:44.340 |
Now I've never really met the person who would make that solemn of a vow. 00:16:52.140 |
Dave Ramsey has made that vow, and I'm sure that there are some people who have. 00:17:00.180 |
I have talked to a few people, and frankly, I am much closer to that than probably you 00:17:13.780 |
But if you're in that situation, then you don't need credit cards, and you don't need 00:17:18.500 |
But I want to ask you, are you absolutely there? 00:17:27.420 |
Because if you're not absolutely there, I still want you to learn what I have to teach 00:17:34.220 |
Because most people are not absolutely there. 00:17:45.860 |
Because the time where that 10% matters is not normal life. 00:17:59.180 |
The time to think about what you're going to do then is now when you're not in crisis. 00:18:04.900 |
Now I don't have addictions that some people have. 00:18:10.680 |
In the past, the closest I've ever gotten to an addiction in the past, I was addicted 00:18:15.960 |
If you've ever been addicted to something, you know how hard it can be, how hard you 00:18:21.380 |
have to fight to think in advance what you're going to do in that circumstance. 00:18:27.900 |
If you were an alcohol addict, you know that if you're going to choose not to drink, you've 00:18:33.860 |
got to put up major, major safeguards against drinking or drugs. 00:18:40.340 |
If you're a pornography addict or if you've ever been addicted to pornography, you know 00:18:45.260 |
that perhaps somebody might be able to go there. 00:18:48.100 |
Somebody else might be able to go to that website. 00:18:50.840 |
But for you, you've got to stay 100 miles away because that will trigger those chains 00:18:57.280 |
It'll trigger that well-worn groove in your mind that winds up in a place you don't want 00:19:07.780 |
And part of maturity is recognizing where you are weak. 00:19:12.820 |
Part of maturity is recognizing that you're simply not a robot and making good decisions 00:19:18.620 |
in advance so that when the door is opened, you don't walk through it. 00:19:27.580 |
If there's something to you that's important, then you'll put in place safeguards to make 00:19:34.520 |
sure you don't go where you don't want to be. 00:19:41.100 |
So if you are addicted to overspending, if you've proven again and again that you don't 00:19:47.740 |
have self-control, it's not a bit of problem in my mind if you just recognize that and 00:19:55.100 |
Now while you're on your way out of debt, I think you need to take my course because 00:20:00.340 |
But it's fine with me if you cancel all your credit cards on the other side. 00:20:04.140 |
And I don't think you should feel ashamed about that. 00:20:16.320 |
Make sure you are 100% committed to saying, "I'm never going to be in debt." 00:20:23.380 |
Make sure it's absolute because if not, well, you'll wind up stuck. 00:20:33.040 |
You won't have done the stuff that I think you should do to prepare yourself for it. 00:20:37.340 |
And you'll wind up exploited by the credit card industry instead of learning how to exploit 00:20:47.260 |
I don't think you're stupid for avoiding credit cards. 00:20:52.860 |
I don't think you're stupid for avoiding credit cards any more than I think that somebody 00:20:57.060 |
who entirely avoids ever drinking any alcohol is stupid for entirely avoiding alcohol. 00:21:04.840 |
Please don't ever let yourself feel stupid because you make an absolute decision. 00:21:09.220 |
If your dad was a stumbling drunk and you say, "That's it. 00:21:19.460 |
And the same thing applies to credit card debt. 00:21:22.140 |
If you come from financial ruin and your dad was a stumbling debt addict that's in your 00:21:33.380 |
And if that's the case, then I say, "Good for you." 00:21:42.420 |
Number of years ago, I read a lot of fancy strategies. 00:21:47.100 |
I talk about a lot of fancy, sexy financial strategies. 00:22:01.340 |
I spent years as a financial advisor and of course the biggest, the number one most powerful 00:22:06.680 |
financial guru and most listened to voice in the United States of America is Dave Ramsey. 00:22:11.780 |
And you want to talk about a guy who just annoys financial advisors generally, Dave 00:22:21.460 |
Now there's a fair argument to be made that's overly simplistic. 00:22:24.420 |
I appreciate actually his over simplifying at this point because it's effective. 00:22:29.820 |
It's more effective than what I do sometimes. 00:22:32.700 |
But the reality is that if you just follow simplistic advice, it works. 00:22:40.420 |
Now you'll get made fun of for it, but it works. 00:22:56.780 |
Same thing applies to debt as it applies to anything else in life. 00:23:05.460 |
If you never take your first drink of alcohol, you're never going to become an alcoholic. 00:23:13.580 |
If you never do drugs, you're never going to be a drug addict. 00:23:18.980 |
If you never go on long business trips alone with people of the opposite sex or put yourself 00:23:24.780 |
in situations of people with the opposite sex, you're not going to cheat on your spouse. 00:23:31.260 |
And if you don't open credit cards, you're not going to be in credit card debt. 00:23:48.580 |
I don't think you're right for everyone, but I don't think you are wrong and hope that 00:23:55.580 |
Credit card debt can be a tremendous, tremendous trap. 00:23:59.280 |
And if you are absolutely committed to never ever having a credit card and never ever borrowing 00:24:06.220 |
money in any form, because that's where I want to emphasize, I would rather borrow money 00:24:10.980 |
on a credit card than many other forms of financing. 00:24:13.620 |
But if you're committed to that, hey, go for it. 00:24:16.380 |
Now for everyone else, go to radicalpersonalfinance.com/creditcardcourse. 00:24:19.380 |
Again, radicalpersonalfinance.com/creditcardcourse and sign up for my course. 00:24:24.820 |
Please use coupon code credit card 10 this week until October 15, 2018. 00:24:34.400 |
Guarantee you, you'll learn how to save potentially thousands and thousands of dollars of interest. 00:24:40.840 |
Go to radicalpersonalfinance.com/creditcardcourse. 00:24:46.960 |
If you have purchased the course, join me tomorrow for a live Q&A call on any question 00:25:00.660 |
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