Credit Cards are like Chainsaws with Fati Largaespada - 120

[00:00:00] A chainsaw is a dangerous tool if you don't know what you're doing, and the credit card

[00:00:03] is the chainsaw of the financial world.

[00:00:05] How do you handle it properly?

[00:00:06] Let's talk about it.

[00:00:08] Welcome to Money Talk with Skyler Fleming, where money matters become conversation starters.

[00:00:12] Let's get talking.

[00:00:14] In today's episode, we're joined by Fatih.

[00:00:17] She's an Olympic, hopeful for fencing, and coaches fencing, and we're going to talk

[00:00:20] today about her debt journey, about how she quickly accumulated a credit card responsibly? And two, what is a credit card trap that you may fall victim to? Well, of course, talk about those money talking points at the end of the interview, but with those money talking points in mind, let's get right into today's episode.

[00:03:00] Hello, everybody. Welcome to today's interview with. And then I got my MBA, I was a Division I coach there as well. And as soon as I got done with college, I was like, hey, like I want to keep fencing, but I want to be in one of the best clubs in the world.

[00:03:04] And that was in New York City.

[00:03:05] And it's very, I had like, you know, I'm an immigrant. So I was on an OPT then, and I was a property tax company working for my year that I was able to. And then I was done with that. And I was like, well, I have all these days, like, how am I going to pay for this? And so I started like researching a bunch of stuff while also I got a fencing job that

[00:04:23] wasn't honestly like not even paying me enough to be able to get back on track with my good credit and everything. So just kind of I was able to land up as like a company that helped me work with the creditors. I started paying and I was just a little more tied with my spending. Yeah, would you say then, did it feel like the debt just ran away from you?

[00:05:40] Did you realize you were getting into that much debt?

[00:05:42] Or was it just kind of all of a sudden you woke up and you're 11,000 dollars. really think about it. And so I was just trying to save the most that I could. My family, they helped me a little bit, not with the dead, I just would living situation sometimes here and there. But I was able to lock in with this company and they got me on that monthly plan. And like, I was paying like the bare minimum that I could because at that point, I was like,

[00:07:00] if I paid too much and I can't live and like, I need to live, with my 401k, that was something that I couldn't even think about back then, because I had so much debt that I was like, okay, I can't even think about saving when I have all this debt. So that was one thing. So that alone got me a little bit less stress, because I was like, well, something's been saved up. And like, it will be take like,

[00:08:22] I'm going to be taking care of in the future, I'll just make it work with what I have. And then once I actually have time and pay all my debt, I'll be able to look in a credit card. And so, you know, I kind of focus on that. And little by little, I was able to get a new credit card too also and pay all that bit. So it was a long process.

[00:09:40] I thought I would never see the end of it.

[00:09:42] I also, I was working with like Excel sheets

[00:09:44] to see like how much money could I just pay off as much have the time to do that either. So I was able to do that. And I think it helps. I think at first, it can seem a little scammy, I would say. But in the end, I didn't pay more than I owed. So I think that having those people that for me helped a lot. And it's not something that I'm recommending,

[00:11:03] don't get in debt, obviously.

[00:11:04] I won't ever want anybody to go through that.

[00:11:06] Because it sucks.

[00:11:08] You want to do all was like, Oh, this is cool. Like, I was like, I don't, I don't have anything to spend this on. So I was just like, I kept it. And I ended up going on a trip to Orlando. And I ended up meeting the people from American Express. And they were like, Oh, we're giving credit cards out. Like, in your entrance for the park will be free. Like they had some promotion that like dragged me and I was like, okay, like maybe my second

[00:12:22] credit card. And they gave me like a big credit, like maybe being able to build your credit to maybe get a new apartment, like, or just rent a new apartment, right? Those things were available to me then, and then little by little my options to have a nicer place to live, like just were decreasing. Even when I moved into my new place, it was really hard to get a new, a good apartment because of my credit. And so I was like, it's like the one, my one is I paid off and like don't fall in for like the little traps that, hey, like spend this much and like you can get this more. And I'm like, but you really have that much money to spend. Like to myself, I see the promotion. And I'm like, that's really cool. But I don't have anything to spend that on. Neither I wanted to. And then that's just gonna start increasing

[00:15:00] some that I don't even have yet.

[00:15:02] So I might be like prioritize the things that you want.

[00:15:05] Like for example, I have a credit card right now

[00:15:06] that gives me a billions of dollars. Like they have so much money in research to figure out how to get you into debt. Like they know what they're doing. They're not just giving you points out of, yeah, they're not just giving you these points and this money with this promo out of the goodness of their heart. So you got to be careful and be aware of that sort of stuff. Like the one thing that I do like about that is that you can turn that into money too.

[00:16:21] Like some of those points.

[00:16:23] And I'm like, cool, I can buy more trips

[00:16:25] or I could like pay off the debt, you know?

[00:16:26] Like, and that's something that kind of caught me I'm a lot and like for me having a credit card that benefits my travel as in like getting free bags or like getting to the lounges or maybe if you travel ones, you'll get double points like those things like really help me because of my lifestyle. I will also think like if you like my next goal is to get a car right to like in my building off're paying your credit card off, that's when you feel like you're getting a real win. Those are really fun things to take advantage of. But awesome, I think that great conversation around credit cards, I think that's really interesting. Hopefully it's eye opening for people. But one thing that I think is also going to be eye opening is if they go and talk about this with other people.

[00:19:01] Which is where I want to move us to is talking about money.

[00:19:05] What do you enjoy and why do those little things that make you and your your people happy. And I think that a lot of my friends like that grew up in like in the different in a different, you know, like lifestyle, like it has to do a lot with how you were raised. Like for example, my mom is always like, Oh, you should say you should say and I'm like, I'm saving, but I'm also going to live.

[00:20:23] I'm also going to do the things that that you shouldn't be afraid of talking about. I think you should be comfortable talking about money because it's something that we all have or we don't know like what to do with it right like sometimes we

[00:21:41] don't know what to do with it and sometimes we're learning as we go like

[00:21:44] how do you know about investing if you little value talking about this because like, like I said, like depending on how you grew up, you experienced money differently.

[00:23:00] And you have like your things about like your own thoughts about money.

[00:23:03] And like, for example, like I said, my mom is always like, Oh, you should say you should

[00:23:07] save.

[00:23:08] And I'm like, with this, you know like and it's not embarrassing because it's not like you grew up and everybody taught

[00:24:22] you how to like spend your money and like where to approach that person and say, Hey, can you help me get out of debt or do you have any ideas about this?

[00:25:43] How did they start the, I did nothing in the moment. But afterwards I was like, yeah, I could have talked to a bunch of people and a bunch of people would have been like, here are the options maybe, or we'll just listen. You know, I think that you shouldn't just like

[00:27:02] compartmentalize that because it's something very

[00:27:06] like psychological. and even coming out of debt and still saying credit cards are good and can be useful. But also I really hope people were able to take some away from this conversation about how to start their own money talks and how to ask people those hard money questions. But, Fatih, thank you so much for joining me today. If there's any information that you're doing online or anywhere where people can find you if they have questions about getting out of debt, please share.

[00:28:22] Is there anywhere people can find you?

[00:28:23] Yeah, I mean, I don't have a full business importance of that. But if you're being proactive about your financial situation, that means you know that you need to be saving money. And you're not just trying to spend every dollar that you come in contact with. And being aware of your financial situation means that you know you maybe have a hard time managing a credit card so you stay completely away from them. You know that you might want to spend every dollar that you come in contact with, which means the

[00:29:42] dollars that you haven't come into contact with to get out of debt. We talked today about how that helped Fatih get out of debt because she knew that she had to live

[00:31:02] a little tighter so that she had the money to be paying interest on your credit card to build your credit score. You don't need to let $10 stay on there at all times to build your credit score. It's okay to pay off your credit card in full and not pay any interest to the bank.

[00:32:20] How I like to handle it is by paying my credit card off monthly.

[00:32:23] It's one way that I manage my credit cards responsibly? Like I shared I make sure our credit cards are paid off once a month in full. How do you manage credit cards responsibly? Do you make sure you pay them off with each transaction because you're just getting started with credit cards and you don't want to let that debt run away from you? Do you make sure to pay it off monthly? How do you manage your credit cards responsibly? I would love to know

[00:33:41] leave a comment on YouTube or send me an email my email of courses in the