Holidays, everyone. We got our girl Romy back. If you have not listened to the episode, she is on go ahead and do it’ll be in the description, but I’m very happy to have her back again. This whole series of 12 days of giving is about giving back to you and having you reflect and say, Holy shit, they’re talking about me, maybe I should take that next step and they’re all vetted. CFPs are all vetted accountants. Because I only want to work with people that are like me. And so ultimately we got Rami on and I’m really excited to hear their overall story with her. So let’s get into it.

Romy Pickron, CFP®:
0:32

Thank you so much for having me. It’s such a pleasure to be here with you again. And thank you to the listeners. We appreciate you joining in and tapping into hear the stories that we are sharing with you all and happy holidays as well. 1 of the stories that I would like to share is from some of the recent clients that I have been assisting this year. And I feel like this is a common problem that many individuals are. Nowadays, finding themselves in, and that’s in a lot of debt, and it’s a variety of debt. I’ve found that it’s a combination of student loan debt. Credit card debt car loan debt. It’s a variety of debt as I mentioned. And what I found is that a lot of times people tend to believe that these situations are irreversible. And what I mean by that, once you rack up a lot of debt, sometimes you feel like, oh, my gosh, I have all this debt on my shoulders on my back wearing me down. And there is no way out and I want to share with you that there is certainly a way out as long as you are willing to put in the work. And possibly work with the professional, like myself, or any of the other professionals who’ve been on the show, then there’s certainly a way out and there is hope for you. If you are someone who’s listening with a lot of debt, whether it be student loan debt, credit card debt, or any other debt, there is a way out and it does take time and it does take diligence. It’s not something that is repairable overnight. But there is a solution for you, and I do want you to remain hopeful in that you will be able to overcome your debt because it is possible. Oh,

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
2:30

absolutely. It really is. Talk us through what this client profile looks like. Where are these people coming from? What’s their background? Are they business owners? Give us a little feel of like, where these people are coming from in life.

Romy Pickron, CFP®:
2:44

a Variety of places, but mostly I found that it is younger professionals. Younger professionals, millennials who have. Attempted to achieve the American dream by going to college by getting good grades by doing the things that they thought were in alignment with achieving the American dream, but found themselves in. Unfortunately, a lot of debt attempting to just remain afloat and go after those things that they’re looking to. Go after so many are young professionals you and I who have degrees who have good careers who’ve been in their respective fields for over the last 5 to 10 years. And as I mentioned, who. Have been on the path to achieving the American dream and somewhere along that path, they racked up all this debt and have began to feel hopeless. So that’s where they are. They’re everyday people like ourselves, just trying to make it trying to be successful and they found themselves with a lot of debt. Unfortunately.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
3:58

Talking about it’s literally everyone, right? It’s us. It’s all of us who’ve gotten degrees or have gotten, out of our home and are living our lives as young adults is that’s who’s coming to you. That’s how has these problems. And we’re seeing it a lot around America as we speak right now too, right? You’re seeing the reports of highest utilized credit card utilization right now. You’re seeing it come through that people aren’t being… You’ve got student loan repayments coming into play. There is a lot going on right now, and it makes everyone feel like there is no end. There is no escape. What are some… Things that you’re doing to help them, obviously on the mental side that we’re working through of getting Hey, it’s going to be all right. Besides that, what are some like tangible things that we’re taking steps to achieve to help them get

Romy Pickron, CFP®:
4:46

out of debt? The 1st thing is that I share my personal story with them, because I feel like a lot of times people tend to feel like professionals within their fields and hours happen to be finance or specifically financial planning people tend to think that our finances are perfect and that they’ve always been that way. And that’s completely far from the truth. I found myself in a lot of debt at 1 point throughout my financial journey, and I’ve also found my point myself at a point where I had a negative network due to the amount of debt that I had and not having enough assets to balance out that debt. So that’s the 1st thing that I do to relate to my clients, share my personal story with them. So they can see that even though that I have the highest credential within the financial planning field, I still made some mistakes along my financial journey. I wasn’t perfect and my finances have not. Have not been perfect, they’re still not perfect to this day. And so I try to share that with them so that I can come off as relatable and to let them know if I can, if I did it, you can do it also. And then you’re working with someone who’s been through the process and is now on the other side, thankfully. So that’s the 1st thing that I try to do. And secondly, I attempt to establish realistic expectations. Often it takes a lot of time to build up debt for most people. So I’m seeing a lot of times, meaning 3 to 5 or 5 to 10 years. So this debt has built up over time. And that means, in order to pay it off, it’s going to take time. Also, it won’t be paid off overnight. It usually won’t be paid off in the short term. It usually requires a long, but Term plan, and so I attempt to set those expectations, realistic expectations with individuals to let them know hey, this is what we can expect going forward. We’re not looking to take care of this within the next. Few days or months, but we do have a solid plan to get this taken care of, to get your debt taken care of. And once people see that it provides them with that bit of hope because we have a plan going forward to address the debt.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
7:13

Yeah. And that’s like the most of it. And that ties into our financial planning too. Not just that, is ultimately as human and everyone, we just want to have a plan, right? We just want to know how to get there and how to achieve it. I think that’s something that we’re doing a really good job of. Obviously me and you and everyone that we know is ultimately getting people to focus on the journey and the grind of those things, as opposed to. Am I getting 10 percent return? Am I out of debt tomorrow? Are my student loans paid off tomorrow? Like everything is so instantaneously and that’s not. How you do your wealth. That’s not how it works. Life doesn’t work that way for, 99. 9 percent of us. And I want to allude to a little bit of the time, right? Everyone’s going to be like how realistically how much time does it take? And you had mentioned a little, five, 10 years in that ballpark, you’d mentioned that a little bit as well. And ultimately I always say this, if you have more income than you do in expenses, then a five, 10 year situation, no matter what your situation is going to be. A pretty good sweet spot now, obviously, if you get paid more and you get bonuses and, you throw those variables on there, then that changes as well. But I want to ask you this question

Romy Pickron, CFP®:
8:28

is all that bad debt. No, absolutely not. But before I address that, let me just throw in this that just for people regarding planning research shows that when you have a solid financial plan, your net worth is 3 times the amount. Of people without a plan, so I know that we’re speaking about debt, but overall financial planning leads you to 3 times the network of someone who does not have a financial plan. So I just wanted to stress. The significance of having a financial plan, and it may start out with you having debt, but ultimately lead to you having assets. And according to research, having 3 times more the net worth of someone without a financial plan,

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
9:20

that’s a big number. 3 X is big, right? I

Romy Pickron, CFP®:
9:25

love it. Yes, but to go back to your original question, you asked if all that was considered bad debt. No, absolutely not. Because a lot of times people are using that to make investments, whether they’re flipping houses or using debt to invest in your education or mortgages to purchase your home and create generational debt. Excuse me, generational to create generational wealth. So all that absolutely is not bad debt. Usually what’s considered bad debt is the retail debt, like your credit card debt, where you have a 20 something percent interest rate, especially where we’re in a high rate environment. So that means you’re paying much. More money on this dead and that it just continues to compound and compound. That’s the debt that’s considered a bad debt. Those payday loans, those are considered terrible. Items like that are considered bad debt.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
10:29

Yeah. And I think everyone there’s a lot of people that get that misconstrued. Like debt is bad. I want to be debt free. I want to have zero debt and really the ultra wealthy and anyone to build wealth. That’s not how that works. Correct. Let’s not have bad debt, but good debt equals leverage. And that’s what you were saying is all we’re doing is leveraging money. We’re either leveraging money from the bank. Or as business owners, we’re leveraging humans like our staff in order to grow a business, right? Who’s listening? Bad debt, yes. Personal loans, credit cards, etc. Good debt is everything that can be leveraged to get you ahead, whatever investment that is. And that’s a very key point for people to understand. Being 100 percent debt free is, in my opinion, is not the way to go if you’re wanting to really grow your wealth. Now, ultimately at the end of the day, it’d be nice, but if your asset pays for the debt and makes you money, that’s a

Romy Pickron, CFP®:
11:24

Win. That’s what it is.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
11:27

So we build this plan and as all plans happen, right? They change all the time. They change drastically for us. Student loans have been changed drastically over the last few years. We’ve got increasing interest rates that are happening. The government’s has before given a lot of money to business owners. When. When you’re going through a bet, a debt payment plan, how does those things affect in change for your clients and how do you prepare them for it or, and, or how do you adjust when, something like that

Romy Pickron, CFP®:
11:58

occurs? With a debt

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
12:00

payment plan, yeah, when you create a plan and all these things happen what is what do you do to help them and immediately understand what’s going on?

Romy Pickron, CFP®:
12:09

I paint the picture for them because it’s important to understand what’s happening with the economy. As we mentioned interest rates, whether we’re in a high interest rate environment, a low interest rate environment, what we can expect exactly with upcoming things that’s happening in the economy and so I try to paint the picture for my clients to let them know, like, where we stand with the economy and how that affects things are regarding your finances and then go back to establishing realistic expectations because a lot of times individuals don’t know exactly what’s going on with the economy and how that impacts your overall financial. Your overall financial situation. So I try to paint that picture and then provide realistic expectations. Hey, we know exactly what’s going on and we know how to move and shake depending on what’s coming up within the economy or what changes we may.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
13:09

Yeah, that’s a big point. So you don’t need to know everything that’s going on in the economy. Hell, we don’t know everything that’s going on with the economy. Don’t get stuck in the media and driven by what they’re saying and talking about. Find a professional and just stick to what’s going to affect you because there’s a lot of things out there that will not affect you at really at all. Or you won’t even be able to tell that it’s happening. aS we wrap up and we get to the end of, overall story of, Hey, the client that’s out there with debt, which there’s a lot and there’s more and more coming to us every day as this economy does this, as we’ve gotten through the pandemic, what do you want to leave people with? To get them to go and take that next step to get out of debt. What do you want to say to them?

Romy Pickron, CFP®:
13:53

I would say address it now, address it sooner rather than later. I am so grateful that some of my clients have come to me right now at this very moment, because the longer you wait. The more debt you’re accumulating, and it’s just going to take you longer to get out of it. So address it now, start having the conversations now, even if you’re not ready to develop a plan, start having the conversation now, start gathering as much information as possible. On how you may be able to address it and get educated on the things that you can do. So that way, when you’re ready to fully address it, then you can be all in, but start having the conversation. Now, start taking a look at things now, because oftentimes people tend to put things off and off. Open up those credit card statements, open up your bank accounts and take a look to see exactly where you are so that way you can begin to address it when that time comes, start

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
14:55

now. And I’ll add something to that is don’t feel bad about your situation. Just don’t. There are millions of people involved with that us as professionals. We’re not judging you. We’re here to get you on the right track and to help you get to where you want to go. So don’t feel bad about it. We’ve seen it. We’ve dealt with it ourselves personally as well. You’re not in this thing alone. We’ve got your back, but you need to start now. You need to rip off that Band Aid so we can stop this bleeding and heal you up. So I appreciate your time, Rami. Absolutely.

Romy Pickron, CFP®:
15:27

Thank you. Same to you. Happy holiday.

Black Mammoth:
15:43

The proceeding program was sponsored by Black Mammoth. Any awards, rankings, or recognition by unaffiliated third parties or publications are in no way indicative of the advisor’s future performance or any individual client’s investment success. No award ranking or recognition should be construed as a current or past endorsement of black mammoth. Information regarding specific awards, rankings, or recognitions is available on the Black Mammoth website, www.blackmammoth.com. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. Investment strategies such as asset allocation, diversification, or rebalancing do not assure or guarantee better performance and cannot eliminate the risk of investment losses. There are no guarantees that a portfolio employing these or any other strategy will outperform a portfolio that does not engage in such strategies. This broadcast should not be construed by any client or prospective client as a solicitation to affect or attempt to affect transactions and securities or the rendering of personalized investment advice due to various factors including changing market conditions. The information discussed in this broadcast may no longer be reflective of current positions or recommendations. While information presented is believed to be factual and up to date, Black Mammoth do not guarantee its accuracy, and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. The tax and the state planning information discussed is general in nature, and is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal or tax advice. Listeners should consult an attorney or tax professional regarding their specific legal or tax situation. Past performance is not indicative of future results.