I had a pretty good life making tons of money and then all of a sudden everything stopped I bought a really expensive engagement ring how much 40,000 this has to be in the top 10% worst cases that I've seen Dam dude you only have 5 months in front of you then you're homeless welcome to fin action the show where we take action my name is Raman and today I am with Antonio Antonio how are you doing really good thank you I'm I'm really excited to be here awesome so Antonio let's look at your profile so you are 44 years old you're originally from PTO Rico you live in Tacoma which is about an hour from Seattle and you currently work in business development and also as a real estate broker is that right correct looking at the way ladies and gentlemen you raided your personal finances from chilling to MayDay Antonio you ready yourself as Mayday okay at 44 years old it's going to be an interesting discussion and so let's start first with what is going on today well um I had a pretty good life making tons of money and then all of a sudden everything stopped and went on a end and I am grasping at the roots of my financial situation right now okay so when you say grasping at the roots what do you mean by that I am scared um I am looking at my bank statement and wondering where I'm going to be homeless and it looks like it's going to be pretty soon okay so I want to understand number one you mentioned that you at some point had a really good life mhm right tell me a little bit more what what you were making a tons of money at some point so I mean I've I've had pretty good jobs throughout my life you know I was a Sali I I worked really high in places had a comfortable living never made tons of money um I had a little bit more debt than average because I enjoy having a good lifestyle I eat good food going out Etc so I was a little bit financially careless however about 2 and a half years ago I had the job of my dreams it was paying me tons of money how much were you making $250,000 a year okay very nice life was good you know um I was back to drinking burgundy every so often oh okay you know I was thinking is this the month I'm going to buy the boat so from boot to homeless no yeah so you know looking at well I've had Audi before all of a sudden well maybe I can get into the Porsche now you know I I was looking at life um I was making financially responsible decisions don't get me wrong I paid off sunet and stuff like that and then I did the Right Moves um I bought a really expensive engagement ring how much 40,000 o I don't regret that D because it's supposed to be you know 30% of the salary that you're making all that sort of stuff so was trying follow the rules okay holy well if anything it's a little bit less than 30% of the Sal that I was making oh by the way just a fun fact for rings and it depends of what people think I have my personal take on engagement rings yes the real diamonds is the grow I agree but today guys personally I really like lab grown diamonds and you may say ah it's not real well let me tell you number one I am in favor of the conditions of you know Miners and so on that's not the most optimal and number two you can have some of the greatest quality as well in nap but that is my personal take and sometimes it's up to 70% off for the exact quality but that's the take of any still $40,000 okay let's see how this transition maybe we need that money we'll see I enjoy it when I see it though know fa um right so you live you were living the high life life finally felt like I was starting to make it okay cleared the hurdle I could go grocery shopping didn't have to think I have to save money for this or that you know there was so much money in the bank account all the time that um I felt at ease and then interest rates changed I want to say it was in the beginning of the maybe first quarter 2022 and the business started changing a little bit but everything was fine now towards the end of 2022 everything dried up business changed eventually ended up dissolving and I went from making so much money and being employed and just rolling over you know selling home after home to zero zero yeah okay and one you were making those $250,000 you didn't save a dime so I saved with the intention of I'm going to use this money you know I saved 30,000 here like 30,000 I saved that money to I'm going to use this for further Investments okay not thinking that this job was going to disappear yeah okay and the problem was that the further Investments never came into fruition because I had to use that money to actually live on right and today you come in with what two kids two kids two uh beautiful twin girls they're two and a half years old and um and soon to be wife yeah I'm getting married next year okay okay we'll be speaking about that the budget on this for now all right uh does she work no not at the moment okay so she takes care of the kids yes so everything is pretty much on you correct okay so today how do you feel about your finances horrible I'm scared oh yeah yeah I am I I honestly I mean I'll say this in full disclosure um I go to by thinking I'm going to have a heart attack you know because the finan situation is going to like and then I'm going to just croak over or I wake up and like oh God okay so I'll have the heart attack tonight you know it's get it's it's it's scary uh truthfully scary especially um I am thankful that I have a job right now mhm but I've submitted maybe a thousand applications what yeah and it's always you know thank you for everything you're a great candidate but but but okay yeah okay so um as I mentioned previously this is going to be a very intricate situation here especially has the provider for a family a young family how old is your wife if I may ask 28 okay any qualifications like does she has any degree anything no she was actually finishing a degree in ultrasound technology yeah and uh well the kids happened she can always pick you back up right yes okay okay do you have a grandparents uh living in the area from her side yes okay yeah good to know now will guys pay attention to all of those detail as you will see how all of these kind of pictures itself uh in the recommendation section to get out of this because I can tell you from your situation you're just a couple months from being dried dried let me ask you this like when you were making that much money mhm at some point you didn't think like hey you know I'm um going to have a two kids coming up maybe time to uh to play uh to play cautious or play a little bit more reasonable than burgundy every night um I think because of the burgundy the kids came in all right right you know um I see I never thought the job was going to disappear you know the company was well funded extremely well funded it had really high rated investors um it had a solid business plan it had tons of money for marketing um even though our our Market penetration was in the single digits it was you know we were growing when I joined we had 300 employees and then wow yeah and within 6 months we were up to employee number 700 wow you know kind of like a carvana type and then everything dropped oh yeah they went shutting down Department by Department by Department you know boom boom boom boom boom whoa okay yeah all right so let's look at this again methodically let's start first with your income and your [Music] assets hey guys a brief aparty here as we encourage you to share with us maybe similar experience that you may have had um or if you have any personal recommendation as well to our friend and Contin as we think about his story I read all of your comments and I always like to engage with you so please feel free to be part of the journey with us here thank you so you work as a business developer how much do you make uh 65,000 salary wise a year yeah that's a big change from the 250 indeed massive okay uh do you have any other source of income I do get a monthly veterans um check how much uh about 1,000 something 1,70 maybe 1,70 yeah okay that's P tax right that's correct yeah okay so you were in the military yes okay thank you for your service um any other source of income no I mean hopefully I'll sell a house here and there you know on my own but no it's about it um I have done off market sales for off Market property and I made a little bit of money out of that yeah um but as because of the budget is not there for advertising you know it's it's really hard to thousands on ading mons yeah okay so uh yes Antonio will be speaking about this that brings your current income annual at 83,00 M looking at the way that rates for people in your age category between 35 and 44 years old the median so 50% make less 50% make more is 61,500 however yes you're in the upper 50% yeah but my friend you have uh three dependence on you plus an incredible amount of dep they will be speaking together I still feel poor yep no I can understand that I mean your situation is tough and you not making a greatest decision still of two last months MH okay let's be peaceful let's get back into our sense so you're making about 4,859 per month or more less okay moving on to some of your assets thank you for providing us with your statement and here guys follow long there is quite a bit number one you have a checking account here with a balance of 5,882 MH okay you have two saving accounts one with 231 and another one with 767 mhm okay you have a bunch of investment accounts and so I would like for us to dive a little bit on this here um let's start first with a brokerage account can I see how much you have on it yes so okay so okay so here I see that you have two accounts on this one you have an individual brokerage at 3,820 mhm but also you have a traditional IRA with 3,480 mhm but combin gains minus 68% you lost 5 7,500 on this account well the market changed yeah no but the market changed hold on the market change I understand that but this Ira is individual stocks that were picked up mhm and it's not that many stocks it's about five different stocks we won't name them but you've lost 70% of your retirement fence on this [ __ ] yeah who pick those stocks I'm not at Liberty to say oh it's not you no dude this game must get a raise did awesome holy smokes dude okay so just uh minus 70% on a retirement account seriously dude okay so just uh just a friendly reminder guys please do not this is no Financial advice okay I I I'm sorry do not invest in individual stocks for your freaking retirement accounts okay diversify you have so many options and I'm not in Liberty to say but there are so many options where you can bet on the whole market so that you don't end up here on five stocks losing $7.5 th000 in your freaking retirement fund okay thank you very much for the statements but you also have uh and we've recorded that other accounts you also have a crypto account right I do okay how much you have on crypto 25 79 2579 [Music] okay you have any other investment account so I do have a personal what do you call it gambling account where I actually do the research on the stocks and okay if I have any money left over I try to buy what I believe is going to create a profit or go up in value okay let me see okay nice uh 6,850 mhm okay uh gain loss minus 441 so you haven't lost much money on this one at least that's nice I don't know if I would continue to gamble on your own on this okay so in terms of total investment accounts right now you're showing a balance including your retirement FS at 16,700 okay we do you have any other assets well the car okay yeah what uh what car do you drive uh 20 2015 Acura RDX okay do you ear money on this yes how much so 10,000 what was it 10,780 something okay1 not too bad uh how many miles 111,000 okay looking at the KY Blue Book value for it it's at $112,000 so you are you know positive on this car about what $11,300 of equity okay do you have any other car I have an old uh 2002 Audi Allroad A6 Avant how many miles 122,000 okay the k b value for it is at 2,700 so that brings your do you have any other cars no there that brings your total Car assets to about $4,000 okay do you have any other assets here that I have not registered no okay so right now my friend at 44 years old your liquidity and you know what I'm actually going to take off the no okay that's fine liquidity and exceptionally this time I am going to include as well the retirement funds we'll potentially see why you are at 29,400 that is assuming you sell every m mhm of course not including the lovely ring of your future wife yeah okay from $250,000 to $29,000 okay that used to be my balance in my bank account actually on average that used to be the balance on 20 to 30,000 does your wife has any assets no nothing no do you guys merge accounts like you guys both uh no but she relies completely on you 100% oh 100% yes she doesn't have any streams I income mm-m okay okay are you expecting any amount of money from relatives or anything maybe parents or something no um I don't have any parents you don't have any parents well they they passed away oh so you had an inheritance at some point uh 14 years ago oh how much was it close to a quar of a million what did you do with it well I liquidated it was all in property so I liquidated all of them yeah but you got the cash yes um what did you do with it I got my pilot license oh so there you go you are a pilot okay pilot license like pilot commercial or private no just private okay yeah pretty much fing the high life huh I it's you know it's way more fun than golf yeah it's way more expensive too it is it is okay uh but you just literally uh I mean you were 30 years old with half you know quarter of a million dollars and you just uh flown it everywhere no well it didn't it didn't all come in at once it came in in Parcels cuz I I inherited like four properties and then I sold one you know made 30 40 but you didn't do anything with that with that money well the license alone was probably like 30 40 Grand okay but there is 220 left I was able to not work for like a year okay you know um so what you would go to luxury five star resort like what no but seriously like think about it what happened that you spent that much money I ate really well I'll say that and you were not thinking at the time like what were you thinking I actually thought this is going to sound hilarious but um I'll be able to write a book you know with all this free time and when the book comes out I'll make enough money yeah that did the book come out no did you actually write something nothing I wrote some TV sketches here and there they never got produced that was about it no no but did you write anything around that book no I wrote some sketches that was about it so you were chilling with the homeboys uh$ ,000 I mean I you know drinking chartreuse every other night and um having a good time um dude you were living the million dollar life huh I was actually and you know um I didn't buy anything I didn't physically buy you were bu experiences yes yeah I was I was drinking good wine I was eating good food you know whenever I wanted to have lobster I didn't mind the price I was having shat Bon every other night oh my God yeah so I didn't you know those a $100 of wines I mean yeah that's one of the most expensive wines mhm so I didn't I didn't you know I kind of I don't know if it was that I had 30 years old and I had a midlife crisis during that time but like I kind of I kind of wanted to get that off my system you know thinking that I was young enough if you have like five grand it's okay but 200 Grand you have to freaking spend it like and you didn't acquire any assets nothing invest like you had no idea what was going on not really I know okay no I was alone living in New York like wow okay all right so you know the past is the past let's look now together at how can we get you out of this [ __ ] oh God okay so no money uh no money coming anywhere anywhere else not at the moment um okay what about uh just you know wondering your your wife uh does she has any money no okay what about her parents maybe but if they do that's not something I want to you know that's that's for them I know you don't want to tap into it I'm just trying to understand completely there but there is money there I would think so okay that's fair all right now that we understand a little bit more about kind of your asset the positive situation let's look together at your expenses and your debt I'm going to start with a fairly easy one first how much do you pay for rent per months so rent alone is 2,800 a month oh God okay yeah all right how much is it with utilities around 3,200 I would say so okay looking at your housing expenses against your income right now is it is at 66% of your income yeah you want it to be less than 28 so you are 2. two or [Music] so where you want to be okay that already is a big freaking I mean it's Seattle still but I don't even own the house that's the hardest part of it oh you're not even building Equity you're just renting no it's renting yeah okay all right let's uh keep this in place moving on cars so you have a car loan that you mentioned right about $10,000 or so yeah what is the interest rate uh we're at 6% okay not too bad how much is your monthly payment $541 with uh 16 okay how much you spend on gas per months 240 yeah how much do you spend on insurance 90 okay any other Transportation related expenses just regular maintenance I'm going to account for that a little bit for $20 a month all right that brings your transportation expenses at 18% of your income we want it to be below 15 it's not too bad I mean $540 on okay it's an Acura it's a Honda I like uh I like this brand at least it's reliable not too many miles I think you should try to hold this for de life until it dies H don't touch this crap that's the plan well at least you have a little bit of equity you're not underwater as many people that come to this show okay let's move on I see uh you know what let's dive right away into some of your expenses hold on for dear life guys because it's about to become very interesting so I start first here with your credit card mhm you have an American Express 3,700 $1 it's a cash card so you have to pay the full amount every month yes otherwise you have an interest at 28% that comes in let's look at it a bit what's going on so I see that you have a massive expenses of ,700 from colon what is this colon is a real estate lead Source uh so it's business related correct have you done any leads from this no how much have you how many months have you spent on this I think I'm on month number three so $4,500 if not a little bit more I'm being nice how many leads I've maybe gotten I would say 8 to 10 any fruits of that work no okay so screw them bye Felicia next uh Facebook ads you are spending Facebook ads almost every freaking single day M uh Facebook 75 75 175 125 all right I made it easy how much do you think you spent on Facebook ad last month $400 Y no that's more than that you spent last month my friend $552 so you're not too off how many leads zero Bye Felicia worthless leads God all right moving on I see that you have have something that that's a very fun one pay me to do your homework 478 I don't know is [ __ ] I have no idea yeah you know this what is this [ __ ] what is this I don't know that's that's probably like a mysterious Char or something no but what is this pay you homework what is but what is what is this um oh wait it's it's is your homework for school no what is it then maybe I don't know what is it dummy what is this 500 bucks it it's a tutoring service okay so but do you need it no I didn't need it okay another thing that's Professional realy Services 373 what is this du's um MLS MLS du's no as in when you're an agent you got to pay dues so often how often um twice a year okay I will account for that that's good ladies and gentlemen with no surprise given the MayDay situation what do we have we have delivery let's freaking go Uber it $77 what else Uber trip $44 Uber it $46 I did a calculation on your expenses just on this damn card I calculated the amount of money that you're spending on useless [ __ ] how much do you think you spend on non-essentials and I'm not even accounting for your business I am being nice I am accounting just for crappy stuff that should not be on your card given your situation I would guess them at around $500 $570 you're spot on okay dude this is money that's flowing out the window creating absolutely nothing if not putting you in further depth and that's only one of the depth mhm you also recorded another type of debt PayPal credit $4,200 yeah currently paying 0% however you know how PayPal credit Works they tell you hey you know here is zero credit for 3 months 6 months and then boom the hmer drops 30% and you're three months from that yeah that's going to hit it's going to hurt for this debt you're going to be paying about $100 of Interest per month so it's money that's flowing on the window the thing with you my friend is that you you're making an income I mean it's not amazing because you are a family of four but you have money that is Flowing out your pocket like no tomorrow on things that are creating nothing so we need to completely think about some of your expenses here and uh that is again just the top of the iceberg because you also have a [ __ ] ton of student loans yeah okay can I see your student loans see if I remember oh yeah are they uh at Le uh private yes public oh private okay so you're recording 1 2 3 4 five five student loans oh my god dude you have some with interest of 18.3% 18% on I wasn't even aware of that I thought it was like 11 or 13 no dude $13,400 on 18% deferred of course because you're not paying anything right now then you have another one on 12.5% another one on 7.2% 10,752 how did you get such bad rates a bad credit what is your credit for currently 620 maybe yeah which today is poor what is your wife credit score probably worse than that around around 580 oh my my gosh what happened well funny story so I bought her an SUV right about 2 years ago and uh we used her car traded it in as a down payment to get an SUV because the kids were coming and so at some point there was some miscommunication between the insurance company and the bank so for a whole year we were driving this car without insurance so but you were paying Insurance yes so we were paying Insurance we're making the bank payments too okay but the bank that facilitated the loan for the car never was notified that the car was insured okay so one morning the Caro rep possessed yeah I'm drinking milk and I see a tow truck like start to move the car but usually they call they call you they email you it's not a surprise like when you don't get repossessed like Christmas no no to add insultive injury so she got called and she didn't answer she never answered because it was a strange number oh no and then got emails as well but you know the emails probably went through junk all right so your total amount of private student loan about $336,000 nice what about Federal you also have Federal yeah they're probably around 14 15 oh God did you engage with them to looking for payments so uh luckily the payments on those are low and I'm paying them right now it's $20 a month and 40 bucks a month yeah perfect keep it like this so yeah but you're stacking again on interest so uh together that brings what about about $50,000 of student loans and some of them are crazy high interest yeah deferred so it means that you're going to have to pay interest once you graduate M when are you going to graduate next year when uh January from what interdisciplinary studies so what is this [ __ ] so I was finishing a degree in ironical science oh so that's to become a pilot correct okay um like a commercial pilot yes uh ATP pilot Airline Transportation pilot with th000 hours I can apply to any sort of commercial airline um however I did have some let's say discrepancy in my medical records okay and so when that happens the fa kind of put you on hold and your ground so you're not going to be able to graduate from that I might not be able to keep flying I'm sorry I'm sorry you're going to be able to graduate with a license to fly commercially or no it's up to review from from the FAA at the moment if you don't what happens if I'm unable to fly oh so the the diploma is kind of is surrendered you it's kind of pointless cuz if you if you don't have a medical that allows you to fly then you you know there's no you cannot I mean you can pursue the ratings but you cannot fly so ,000 for nothing yeah so hence I kind of pivoted really quickly and switch to what can I graduate the fastest for interdisplinary studies which I mean I do have a solid business kind of you know base and then aeronautical science too so you threw $50,000 to the garbage pretty much unknowingly I guess on interest that is up to 18% mhm that has to be one of the craziest uh St no situation and that's I mean it's gosh okay and you said you're graduating in January MH and then after that pretty much 6 months after you're going to have to start paying back yeah those loans can you deferred graduation no what I can do I can go I mean I can continue stay being in school okay and it you know I'm getting myself into more debt under the pretense that oh how much is it well I would get a master's degree or go to law school at this point law school okay you [Laughter] know you know so get green project management useless no man shoot okay so that brings do you have any other forms of debt I think that's about it so that brings you right now at 44 years old with a wife that is entirely dependent on your salary as well have two kids that are fairly young at a net net worth ofus $339,000 it's terrifying okay and you're bleeding money on [ __ ] every month that we mentioned previously like uber and all of that crap mhm looking at some of the rest of your expenses my friend you also have phone that is fair about $200 Communications you have a small pet a cat but that doesn't do much mhm man this is tough I have to say this is pretty tough because you are bleeding money from every situation right now and um you not even have a Frugal Behavior there is no shot right now my friend that you can live in a similar lifestyle that you had at least in the short term you can completely need to reframe yourself are you ready for that I am okay so now that we have a brief understanding and I try to make this as easy uh for everyone to understand because the situation is very complex with so many different accounts I try to very much consolidate that into something that's pretty streamlined for audience and for yourself as well let's move together to our next segment which looks at the money case in this case right now my friend I want to show you physically M how much money you are bleeding per month okay so be ready at 44 years old right now you are bleeding so that means that you are underwater you are losing in equity not $22,000 mhm no $3,000 my friend you are bleeding $3,591 so yeah what does that mean that mean that right now analyzing your assets and I'm not even accounting for some of the student loans that are going to come up if you were to graduate in January looking at your liquidity assuming that you're going to have to pay that platinium card the charge card from American Express and you sell everything you have 18,1 188 MH you have five months in front of you if you don't take action in five months you have zero and not only will you have zero but you also going to still have that $4,200 of PayPal credit card M and 50 Grand of student loans that are going to hit you like a boom and it's not like Federal like you can argue with them yeah five months to shift the boat right now it is a true mayday and you're not on your own I have thought about a plan that we can install together but you're going to have to take action like your life depends on it at this point and it's not just your life it your life your wife and your two new kids mhm are you ready I'm ready all right Antonio from living the high life to now being in a very tough spot we get you back and we're going to organize this fairly simply okay let's do this number one I have identify currently as of today the amount of money that you need to survive okay this means that everything hits [ __ ] hits the floor you maintain your car you currently keep your current accommodation because you cannot exit right now as well as minimum payments a little bit of communication food for you and U your kids as well as Basics around some of the minimum payments that we've discussed on your loans you need to survive $ 5,35 okay that is to survive you're not doing anything you're not buying a dime of freaking Uber eat right you're not taking a any of those Facebook ads any of that call Rent leads that give you zero mhm okay that is 109% of your income so right now your needs in your current situation are not not even matched M by your income so forget about anything else that you're adding on top business related that are giving you zero back I'm going to be tough but you have to forget at least for a while anything and like I'm sorry about that you wants I cannot give you a scent on your want if you were single maybe I could have given you a little bit because you know you are on your own and it's your responsibility but you currently have the responsibility of your children's and to a certain extent of your wife but your wife I mean we'll be discussing about the recommendations on that M but I want you to completely shift your mind about now thinking about your family and so for your want I am giving you absolutely zero I can know so uh given that there is no money left there is no gold okay but we'll be speaking about a recommendation methodically this is what I would do if I was in your shoes right now analyzing everything that we've mentioned so far it's going to be a multi-step process so follow along MH number one we need to stop the Titanic what I mean by that is you have money flowing out like no tomorrow hitting your liquidity and your Equity you have nothing else really to rely on right now so what does that mean I want you to tonight speak with your wife mhm and tell her exactly what you've seen today and even if it's a little bit on your pride she needs to understand 100% that she cannot longer take any Uber Eats or any of that BS you're bleeding 3,500 and you have five months is what you should be telling her no more of the BS expenses you're going to have to take the belt so when it comes to shopping for food yeah okay oh this is going to be tough huh but uh I would start looking for one options that are affordable like Outlets grocery outlets for example things like this mhm there are also apps that you can use let's say good to go which gives you uh you know food that is about to perish from restaurants that you can buy at a very affordable price not sponsored and dude this is going to be tough you're going to like this I would start even considering like food banks and so on okay okay MH I we need to reduce your expenses to the scent so anything that you can do right now to bring your cost of living down is going to be very beneficial so look for Alternatives ways of course as I mentioned to you no unnecessary expenses and that include buy to all of the marketing BS on real estate that are providing you absolutely zero outcome you cut all of that [ __ ] at least in the short term yeah you've done you've made money of this so you are good with doing this but right now it's about stopping the Titanic MH and we can't afford this in the short term I'm not saying that maybe you won't transition back into this at some point but we need to put you into a position that you know you're not going to have that hard attack that you mentioned or end up homeless yeah or end up homeless so if you cut all of that Facebook ads leads all of those subscription BS are giving you you you're going to save at least 2,200 per month so already you can breathe a little bit okay but that's that you're still losing money yeah number three how many hours do you work a week right now around 50 okay it's not with the one job I'm sorry I need you to start finding a second job because this is the number that you need to think of you need to bring this year an extra $40,000 mhm that Le $2.5 to $3,000 a month yeah so I'm sorry this is going to take time of uh your kid mhm but um somehow that is the option number one option number two remember this guys given that your wife has this is going to be tough to swallow but right now you have to think right now you put your bandana and it's survival mode it's no longer bangers your wife I would encourage her to finish a diploma how long does she has uh about a year and a half actually [ __ ] she still has a year and a half she needs to get back into the workforce MH I would leverage the grandparents to take care of the kids if there if you think that it's something that's possible on your own right now given what you've been telling me for jobs it's going to be very difficult if you're on your own on this you could do it but it's and I'm not 100% positive about the relationship with the grandparents but you know you definitely cannot for private um no there is no shot so that's probably why your wife is taking care of the kids yeah itself but if there are many couples family that are relying on the grandparents to take care of the kids for a while at least until you can recover in addition given your financial situation please your wife at some point will need except if you win the lottery to go back into the workforce and with high tech position she can expect an income you know between $85 to $100,000 a year mhm so she needs to know that that it might be coming especially now that the kids are older MH she may not be need to be I know I would love you know to tell you hey you know one of the two parents take care of the kids but it's financially unstable right now yeah okay number four I considered for you credit card consolidation but with a score of 320 might be very difficult uh um you know think about what you can do right now to help boost your credit score at 320 you are going to have access to pretty awful rates for your consolidation on your debt okay uh why do I think you have a bad credit score well I hav't ask you but do you have any collections no right I have one charge off actually that's the one that kind of messed it all up what is the charge off so I years ago I did take out a happy money a payoff loan to pay off the rest of the credit cards okay and I got myself into that whole game of like well I'm going to take this money pay off the credit cards now I only pay this and then I ended up using the credit cards again oh no yeah so the behavior is completely off yeah look I'm going to be frank with you mate you had $25,000 at 30 years old you had $25,000 salary a couple years back yeah your behavior or your mentality with your fin say needs to completely shift mhm because it's a repetitive I I'm seeing repetition in the behavior okay like with much respect you know the $40,000 ring is crazy it is um so so so it's going to be about really shifting that behavior especially when it comes to credit cards you're using credit card it's like it's right it's uh it's tough huh so so yeah I I I would think about how you can right now try to increase your credit score at somehow either by reducing your uh depth your your credit limit utilization on some of your cards um so so maybe use some of that liquid money that you have to reduce your credit utilization this way you have a better ratio because potentially at least in the short term I may want you to start looking for depth consolidation uh that gives you a little bit of reliefs but not to screw around like you mention with other money that you're sping on the side okay it's going to everything here is going to be about timing MH because you have just five months in front of you but you have to use everything that you can to keep that buffer mhm okay stop the Titanic is what I want you to put in your in your wife's mind with regards to accommodation why am I putting this late because uh when can you get out of your current housing situation February okay you need to get out of this ASAP you cannot afford this I would relocate to suburb of Seattle where you're going to have something right now given your current income you your budget for accommodation should be about $1,500 M and I know it's not a lot but if you go out in the city you know up or down you might be able to find something that is decently safe yes it's not going to be luxury it's not going to be the prime location but it's going to give you Rel at least for a couple months if not a year plus that's the budget that you should have in mind 1,500 yeah that's it with regards to the college and uh kind of the money that's about to hit the fan when you're going to graduate because you're not going to have so much time yeah I would try and see if you by any chance you can maybe stay a little bit in college or defer anything that is not costing you money because I want you to try to defer those payments M on the student loans the problem is that you went private party and so you're not going to have any help it's not like you you went Federal so you need to defer some of those payments uh somehow either by extending and taking maybe a one class because right now you're getting absolutely no fruit of your the fact that you graduate yeah the your graduation is a $50,000 Dept that you're getting pretty much with all of this together my hope is that you can maintain that buffer and ultimately if your wife is willing to get back into the workforce as well as like your your wife needs to go back to your wife needs to go back to the workforce there is no other shot yeah seriously so overall it is stop the crap mhm get a second job have your wife get a job mhm relocate change the your approach to money and to your behavior five months and then and then then I mean if you if you don't if you don't act right now I mean the situation dude you're already feeling here but imagine you're two months from this how how much is going to be your wedding uh it's look like probably like $40,000 or $50,000 who's going to pay for that thank god let's put it this the her parents are pretty gracious when it comes to that so actually so far I haven't been asked anything on my behalf you know man you're not going to like this I I would expose the situation to your wife mhm and I would ask if um by any chance you could get some type of of relief from her parents mhm so dude you seriously think about this you I don't know when the wedding is but if you don't change your spot you're about to have look at this that is crazy a $50,000 wedding mhm with a net worth of negative $40,000 like think about this yeah it's kind of upside down it's upside down yeah doesn't make sense does it mhm yeah that wasn't the plan that's not the plan and right now we've not even thought about your children's like your children's preparation safety and potentially education should be a prime thing for you right now and then my friend I know it's not you but your your spouse I'm sorry your fiance MH is showing $570 with you on B of BS expenses stop everything and sit with her make her realize what you are into ASAP it's going to be the both of you I don't think right now you can do it on your own it is pretty dramatic yeah and the question I have for you though is number one do you think think that you're going to be able to have her support frankly once she sees the reality of it which I think we've had this conversation but she hasn't been able to grasp how in your face this is you know how close we are to this Cliff she has to get on board like she there there's no option I I think that for I mean for me I'm able to mold and like I you know I'll figure it out right like I like to think that but then for her she's never been in a position like this so I you know it's sort of like well she doesn't even know how to react to this I think she doesn't she doesn't have that how to even think about a situation like this because it's her first time this in your situation has to be in the top 10% worst cases that I have seen in the past decade damn yeah okay I was kind of hoping it was going to go the other way but and I was going to make like this other chart but you know but but you can do it you have the skills you have the Hustler mentality though yeah you don't have much time the alarm needs to raise your teeth needs to be on the floor grinding this and not for you mhm for your kids I know any final words as we wrap up our discussion woo it kind of felt thought like I went to the doctor and all of a sudden you know I like I have this pain here and then you took an x-ray and said you have a tumor we need to get to surgery you know I'm like oh I didn't thought it was that bad it's like no we need to get this removed you're going to die from it um so thank you of course so I'm going to follow up with you in a months okay I'm going to put this on my calendar in a months I want you to tell me that you've stopped and resigned all those [ __ ] real estate expenses mhm and that you found a second job yeah and that you had a discussion with your wife and you guys have a plan together to go at this because I can't do it here in an hour and a half but in an hour and a half though what I did is I showed you exactly the situation that you're in mhm and it's going to be up to you for the most part to find here another solution to all of this do you shake my hand that you're going to do this I do all right hey Antonio this is Roman I know it's been about 3 months since we've both recorded our finance action I have a lot of questions for you but first I want to know how are you doing so life has gotten a little bit better okay my fiance got a job nice you were able to speak with her mhm I had to brutally say okay cool so I can give you money for you to get Uber or we can be homeless wow so you went all in oh yeah 100% so that actually enraged her so much that she went well screw this I want my Comforts I'm getting a job now with the with the you know additional income it works out way better how much is she making 48,000 a year 48,000 okay and you were making 65 last time we we discussed are you still making 65 or you found a new job no no so I'm making I'm making a bit more now actually um I did sell a couple houses whoa okay have been good yeah wow did but did you stop you remember when we looked together at your expenses you had a bunch of uber and all of that crap are you still paying for all of that stuff or no no nice we try not to Uber anymore okay we have done it but we we weren't as careless as we were because they had to get to the point of reality you know of of like hey we need to stop this now and uh her being completely aware and awake of it we were also buying things that you know the food in America is not the best right it's very processed chemical Laden and all these sort of things that's right it in all honesty it's just better like if you're going to make any sauce it's cheaper just to buy the ingredients yeah make it at home you know same thing with any other recipe too that's right okay so you guys have been changing your food grocery purchasing behaviors CU you were rolling on the big life huh yes actually uh you know partly truthfully it's because the wedding is happening how much are you going to spend on this wedding Antonio oh that's all that's all paid for I I didn't have to put in uh any money that's paid by the parents by the parents of your of your spouse yeah yeah so so we're GNA be okay have you been able to pay back some of your debt yes a little bit yeah how much maybe three or five grand combined that's it chipping in away little by little hold on so you've been selling homes your commission must have been pretty good and you're only putting three to five Grands against it part of it is I had to uh get uh stabilized first okay and then actually be like all right let me start chipping away tipping away the commissions are not all the time too you know like I'll make I see and it depends I'll make 5,000 7,000 here 10,000 there it still helps to like okay well let me pay the rent for two months first and then slowly tackle that no I hear you did you consolidate some of your uh High interest depbt or no did you look into that I did I didn't I haven't found a plan yet where I can actually get a lower interest rate than what I have already okay I have PayPal and that's it and PayPal is five grand So within the next three or four months I'll be able to pay it off completely what about your student depth you you had stacked up like 50 Grand or so if I remember yeah that's going to be the next one I'm going to pay off PayPal and then start paying down my student debt did you get approv to fly or no no not yet do you think it's going to happen I don't know because that's gonna also take some money in order for me to prove that I am able to with the whole thing that happened with the government so that's going to be on hold for a minute while I kind of stabilized my my life first I see Antonio last time we chatted you felt like you were going to have a heart attack on your Finance where are you now actually so funny thing happened I ended up in the emergency room like three days ago what because the high blood pressure yeah but it wasn't it wasn't anything in regards to the to the heart attack I was so stressed out I just happened to have high blood pressure because I ate I ate pretty salty food not too long ago but other than that I feel I feel kind of more at peace now and at ease I don't feel like the heart attack is going to happen okay if your wife is working who is taking care of their kids the grandparents sometimes so we we've been able to now kind of figure out a schedule where she can go to work I have the kids I go to work have the kids and then on times when when we're both working you know we kind of get help from the grandparents and they're on board they understand you know that we're busy and that we have to be busy right now to get to get back to where we used to be that's awesome dude you've you've been doing everything great I wish you would have invested just a little bit more into paying back some of your debt but your wife is on board your family is on board your behavior is seems to be much better man I think I'm I'm pretty happy with what with what I'm hearing Antonio I think this is really good dude yeah no no I'm I'm happy too you know in fact um which is kind of funny because we're both trying to eat healthy not eat out not Uber eat you know not spend money yeah since we've been actually eating cooking more at home because we're more conscious of what we're putting in our bodies we've we're not only lowered our expenses in food but we've actually lost weight too oh wow dude you're agen on everything just increase your payments on your high interest Dept as fast as you can okay I have a a two sales coming hopefully next month and if they happen that's going to go all straight to death boom okay Antonio you're back on track next thing next thing start thinking about your kids dude put some money aside for them even if it's 100 bucks a month I don't care the goal is to generate that behavior and then progressively you increase for them okay yeah 100% that's in the work too okay do you have any last things that uh that you want to tell me maybe that I haven't uh asked you that you want to voice yeah no I want to say thank you uh because your analysis of my financial reality kind of forced me to wake up and sound the alarm because I was I want to say that I was kind of trying to sound the alarm but it didn't you know nobody was listening and then you put it in in realistic perspective where I was able to get through through my fiance and and and she kind of clicked and now we're both on this like hey well this is what we got to do we're both working as a te as a financial team together to make life financially better rather than just take for granted yep Antonio I am very I'm very proud I'm very happy with this update I think you're on the track man you got this and uh congratulation to you for taking the right step dudes that's well done thank you thank you I uh I check with you again in a couple months okay that you don't slip again cuz right now you're uh you're doing great okay no no absolutely yeah please do all right have a great rest of your day and a great weekend to you mate you as well ra thank you so much take care bye bye-bye oh
