Why Americans Are BROKE: Dr. Phil, Jay-Z, 50-Year Loans, Marriage, OnlyFans and More!

I'm glad to have you back.

Always good to be here.

I just got emailed. Antonia S., she said she loved this company. They helped me when no one else could. Professional, reliable, and were truly committed to solving my situation. Highly recommend. You cleared $32,000 worth of debt.

I love that first part where you helped me when nobody else could.

Yeah.

We get a lot of that because a lot of attorneys want to do easy cases. I like complicated cases. Well, as you know.

I wish you were my lawyer across all sectors.

When clients come in here, they say, you know, I've met with other attorneys. There's really no, no way, no way out of this. That's when I'm like, all right, hold on, we'll figure this out. That's exactly what happened here. Me and a couple of the other attorneys, we looked at the situation, we found a way. A few months later, get a nice 5-star review.

Chad's reviews, that's what made me hire you. And I had spoken to several bankruptcy attorneys. Even though you couldn't give me a solid answer, you gave me hope, right? Because you gave me Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. You can do this, you can do this now, but we can go this way if you want to. That's why I hired you. 5 stars. For real.

My favorite part of the practice, when people come in here and they're like, look, I already know there's no answer, but somebody told me to call you, or I saw you on the show, so I'm gonna talk to you.

Yours just kept coming up. And, and, and you know, it's rare that you see a company that comes up first in bankruptcy lawyers in South Florida, and they actually have the reviews to back it up. I'm talking about thousands, and I went through the lowest rated reviews, this and that. None. 5 stars.

Yeah, we have a great following. We have a great crew, and, and it really comes down to the team. My My team just takes care of people. We're built differently as a law firm because we are client first. You know, the traditional law firms, the attorneys really have a high opinion of themselves, which is fine, but we're very different where it's all about the client.

Daddy, Daddy, we in the office today.

That's right. You looking good. Down 40 pounds.

Wow. You on the same thing?

I got like a 3-pack here. Okay. Nose, I think. A lot of workout. Changing the diet.

I was going to try to spin. I can't get a good spin. Chad said don't put that on him.

No, not as much wine.

Okay.

Not enough. Cutting back sugar, cutting back carbs, keep eating healthier, more protein. Actually, I'm eating more than I used to.

You need protein.

Yeah, I was very deficient in protein. I was very efficient in drinking wine, but now I've switched that. Now more protein than wine.

Okay.

So life is good. And, you know, I got to get ready for the baby. Baby's on the way. I know.

January. Oh my gosh, I hope the baby's a Pisces.

Aquarius. It's Aquarius season.

Come on, he gonna— it's gonna be a Pisces. You don't know yet?

Girl. Oh, congrats!

You look like a girl dad. I think I told you that at our last interview.

So you called it.

I was like, she having a girl, you're a girl dad. I can totally see it. She's gonna be spoiled.

No doubt.

Rotten.

No doubt.

And her mom's gonna hate it when she gets older because she's gonna be trying to, you know, like punish her, and then dad's gonna come in and be like, nope. Oh, she's gonna hate her. Yeah, I'm sorry.

I mean, the nursery's already done and she's 3 months out, so she is—

I wish you guys like a safe delivery, just happy, like just everything. So this is only the beginning of no sleep. I'm built for it, can't wait. The carbs is coming back.

I know, right?

You know you crave carbs when you're sleepy.

That's right.

Listen, but here's the thing. So, um, a lot of success stories. I'm walking in here, Chad, this whole office is like reconstructed. It's expanded. How many people have you hired?

We're up to like 70 employees now. We have—

that's dope—

14 attorneys. We're growing like crazy, serving the entire state of Florida, Western District of Pennsylvania. We actually have some people in different states that are reaching out to us to see if we can expand there as well. So we're going to get there.

Bankruptcy, bankruptcy, bankruptcy, debt consolidation, all that. Damn. Yep. It's a good business. I'm in the wrong business. I'm going to get in business with Chad, like the long way. Listen, but real quick, Dr. Phil, he just— his company just filed for bankruptcy.

Dr. Phil's company filed for bankruptcy, laid everybody off, filed for Chapter 11, which is a reorganization. So it's where you're supposed to reorganize. And the judge saw through it right away and said there's no reorganization here, converted it to Chapter 7, which is liquidation. And it came out that they were trying to pay certain creditors and insiders instead of paying all their creditors. So there might be something that comes from that. The Chapter 7 trustee has the right to go sue people that receive money. And the day before they filed bankruptcy, Dr. Phil opened another company.

Ain't that fraud?

It doesn't look good. If—

because you can't say that, but I'm saying that sounds like fraud.

It will definitely be investigated because there's something where if you have a company, you can't— take all the assets out of that company, put it in another company, and then file bankruptcy for that company. They call it an alter ego. Basically, it's the same company. You're just leaving the debt with one entity and then taking the assets to the other. So it certainly will be investigated. Uh, that's why they put a Chapter 7 trustee— that's a fiduciary that comes in, looks through everything. They hire professionals, they'll track all the money, and they'll see what— what—

see, that's why I want you to start to feel— that does not feel good. And then you laid all them people off. He's a therapist and you laying people off and causing all this stress because you don't know how to manage money in your company. That is messy.

It's very messy. And it was a lot of debt quick. I mean, I think it was over $100 million that got racked up pretty quickly. So, um, yeah, something, something was off there.

See, that's why we need you to have a long-form content— I mean, like, show to keep us updated on what's going on financially. In the industry, because everybody's being hit hard now. You know, the government shutdown, um, just ended, what, 2 days ago?

2 days ago.

How's that been going as far as like government employees? Because now Trump is saying he's going to give them like $10,000 bonuses to cover, but they missed like 2 months of paychecks.

So now they're going to actually get those paychecks that they missed. So all that money is going to come back in. And I did have friends that worked for the government, uh, worked for the U.S. Trustee Program. Where they were actually rotating what day of the week that they would work. And so they should be getting the back pay in coming up with their next paycheck. Obviously, it was tough because a majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. So if you don't— yeah, you don't get a couple paychecks, you're missing rent, missing car payments, all that. From what I understand, for the federal government workers, landlords have been working with them. They understand what they're going through. I don't think that $10,000 is coming through, by the way. That's just my thought.

I've been hearing people say that in the comments. They're saying, because, you know, one of the White House representatives turned around and was like, thank you for your service, thank you for your service, and handed out these $10,000 checks. But you don't, you don't feel that they're getting—

that's not, that's not coming through. That would have to come through Congress, and it would just take so long. It, you know, as a president, you don't just have a slush fund of money that you can start giving out. So that would have to go through Congress, get approved. And I mean, Congress can't even keep the government open. So talk about them giving an additional $10,000 to the air traffic controllers. That's not going to happen. That's, that's a bigger problem too. I saw that 15 air traffic controllers per day were retiring. It used to be 4 per day. Now it's 15. And it takes years to train a new air traffic controller.

So they're gonna bring them up out of retirement. Yeah, it's gonna happen.

Yeah. And, and they have the right to extend retirement age. I know that's happening. So they're extending it, uh, so they will make offers and to get people back. Because, uh, my mother-in-law's flight actually was just randomly canceled because it was one of that 10% cut where they were just cutting 10% of the flights, and they just cut them even though you had tickets.

Are they refunding these people?

So, so basically they just find a seat on, uh, it was 4 days later, and that's out of Fort Lauderdale too. So not a, not a massive airport.

But have you seen an increase in, you know, the bankruptcies and stuff like that amongst like federal employees, federal workers, people who are affected by—

for sure. And it, and it's a shame because they thought they had a consistent job career, they thought everything was good, and they have a good retirement package coming through, and all of a sudden they're not getting paid, they're furloughed, and they're falling behind on their bills. So we definitely have seen an uptick in that, and, and I think it's just the happening because people are just trying to hold on as the best they can. And once you start falling behind on credit cards, I mean, you get hit with default interest rate, you get hit with fees, you get hit with all of that. So yeah, the good news is, I mean, we do have the bankruptcy options, we can negotiate. So there are options for them, and especially since their income is back now.

Yeah, let that stress go. Call Chad, y'all, for real. I'm so serious. Um, let's talk about this 50-year mortgage that they're introducing. I know you, Chad, that's what I'm saying, like, because I need you to keep the people people up to date on what's happening and how it could affect them. So we're going from 30— a 30-year mortgage to a 50-year mortgage. Not a 30-year to a 35 to a 40, but a 30-year to a 50-year mortgage. What is that all about?

Yeah, so right now the median age for a first-time home buyer is 40 years old.

Nobody's buying houses earlier now.

40 years old. That's when you're starting. So if you're 40 and you get your 50-year mortgage, guess what? You're going to die before you pay off that mortgage. And the number one retirement savings vehicle for Americans has been equity in their home historically. You're not going to have that equity in your home because you have a 50-year mortgage, and it's only going to save you a couple hundred bucks per $500,000 that you're spending. So that it's really not going to save you that much money.

What would interest they're making off of that? And the interest— mortgages. And oh my God.

And that's it. The banks in general, credit cards, mortgage, auto loan, whatever, they never want you to pay anything off. They want you on that treadmill. So you're always paying interest because that's how the American financial system works. If they're not making interest off that money, And there's no money. Yeah, there's no money. Exactly. So they need, they need to lend money and they need you to never pay it off because once you pay it off, the first thing they do is, hey, do you want to do a cash-out refi? Because we need to get you back on that treadmill, right? Do you want to do— you want to renovate your kitchen? Do you need a new roof? Whatever. Take out home equity line of credit. They're always trying to sell those products because once you get that house paid off, you have all that equity. That's, that's, that's your retirement right there. And you don't have that $2,000, $3,000, $5,000, whatever the monthly payment is. Anymore. So the 50-year mortgage, I think, is a fraud. I think it's, I think it's dumb. What really would help Americans, especially first-time homeowners, is a lower interest rate. So we have the FHA mortgage where you have lower down payment, which is a 3% down payment, but you have to pay mortgage insurance on top of that. It's a small amount, but still could be a couple hundred dollars per month. Yeah, we need lower interest rates for those first-time homebuyers. We need to figure out a program that lowers the interest rate. Also, portability of your current interest rates should be a thing as well. That would encourage people to purchase new homes but be able to keep their current interest rate and keep their mortgage when they go to the new home. So if you have a 3%, you can buy a new home and keep that 3%. Because that's why people aren't selling right now, because you have a 3% mortgage, you're not going to sell and then get a 6.5%. Mortgage, and then your payment doubles. So yeah, the 50-year mortgage, I call BS. I don't think it's going to happen. Um, and honestly, you're probably better off renting at that point than—

because I mean, that's essentially what you're doing. Because like, once you pay off your house, you still have taxes, you know, and so they can come take your house if you miss a tax payment and all the repairs and everything else.

I mean, yeah, you've owned homes, it's a lot of upkeep.

It's not easy.

And And again, people are living paycheck to paycheck. So if God forbid a storm comes through, messes things up, then you got to fix it. Where are you going to get the money from? And they said, well, you know, take a home equity line of credit. So you're borrowing, borrowing, borrowing. You just keep paying interest. And that's what they want you to do. So you got to get that paid off. If you're going to own a home, get it paid off. Or if you're going to own real estate, make money off the real estate.

Yeah, I think the average home loan, like interest rate for the home loans, that was like 6-7% for first-time homebuyers. That's crazy. Crazy.

Yep. Yeah, that's it.

We got in lucky when my husband bought our first home, 2%. They, they call him every day trying to get him to refinance. He's like, why would I do that? No.

Well, I'm seeing a lot of Americans, and my clients too, are asset rich but cash poor. So they have real estate that has equity in it, but they really can't tap into it.

Yeah.

Um, so they're sitting on $100,000, $200,000, $300,000 worth of equity Uh, but the interest rate on that, that equity—

yeah, speaking of equity, um, Jay-Z just took a $50 million home equity line of credit to put down on a casino that, um, he lost. And then do billionaires typically borrow from their houses? Because I thought with a billionaire, you know, like how Jeff Bezos does it, or I don't know, Elon Musk, like they have their billionaire friends to help them to make more money, like, or banks.

So it, it, it normally they would not take an equity line on their home. That normally does not happen. I mean, do they leverage assets? Of course they leverage assets, but usually they're investment assets. It's not, it's not your homestead or your home. Uh, and, and obviously, you know, billionaires do hang in billionaire circles. So going into an investment like a casino, it is highly unusual for somebody to leverage their family home to invest in something like a casino. I did hear the story, and, you know, we see it all the time. I mean, there— it's very different between, you know, being a billionaire on paper and being actually worth a billion dollars, meaning if I liquidated my assets today, would I get a billion dollars for them? And people like Jeff Bezos, I mean, they have Amazon stock. They have things that if they liquidated, they would have more than a billion dollars. There are other celebrity types out there that, um, their brand could be worth that if it was sold and if it was making the revenue it is. But it also can go to zero. Like, if you lose fans and you're not popular anymore, you do something crazy like we've seen some celebrities your, your value can go to zero. And for the true billionaires, if you want to call them that, their value can never go to zero because their assets are backed by something, right? Their assets—

if banks want to get behind them because they're going to make money.

Oh, 100%.

So it—

because they know that they actually— the banks want to get behind them, and they know that if they default, that would be the best thing for the bank because they're going to collect all that default interest and and everything because they know they're collectible, 100%.

Correct.

So yeah, using your homestead, uh, to, to get $50 million together is, is highly unusual for a billionaire.

Yeah. So when he lost the casino, he took $17 million of it to, uh, demolish the house next door to say that he's using it. Because, you know, I put out a story and they're coming after me right now for that story because I was like, he had Dubai right now begging for money. Because I'm like, why would— and it's so funny because Nas just actually liked my video because, you know, Nas's casino got approved. This is the second casino, and Nas is heavy in the tech and, uh, investment industry.

And crypto.

He's a— Nas is a billionaire, but he doesn't put it like—

he's a quiet billionaire, right?

He's not on the COVID of Forbes. And people think like, oh, well, Forbes doesn't take anybody. And I'm like, I remember years ago I did a story on the Kardashians, particularly Kylie Jenner. She, uh, you know, basically faked her paperwork, submitted it to Forbes, and they put her on the COVID What's—

you can value an asset like your brand however you want, really. Like, who verifies those numbers and who says what the value is? It's similar to the stock market. Like, you know, they say this should be valued at X x per earnings, like 10x, 15x, depending on what industry you're in. So when you get into some of these industries like, like makeup, like how do you value Rihanna's makeup brand, right?

And they're trying to sell that off. I don't know if you saw that. Louis Vuitton—

I did not.

Yeah, see, these are questions I have for you. So Louis Vuitton has 50% stake in Fenty Beauty, which is, um, you know, a Roc Nation deal. And so they're trying to sell off their 50% stake, and I'm wondering, are they selling it off now because of, you know, the economy. It's just not valued there. Are they trying to cash out really fast? Why would they want to exit from a deal like that so fast, which is going to devalue her brand?

For sure, for sure. Because when you get the backing of a big company like Louis Vuitton, obviously a massive company, and I think it's a conglomerate as well, like Louis owns a bunch, a lot of stuff, right? So when you get the backing of that, that's how you really get a true value, because Louis Vuitton is a publicly traded company. So you can see what the value is. So what they purchase in, if they purchase a 50% interest, you can double it and say that's the value. But if they're liquidating their interest, yeah, that, that's, that's a real issue. And I think that's partly a sign of the economy because I'm having a ton of clients come in right now that work in that industry. And some people just aren't spending money like they used to.

They're not. We were just talking about that with the nails, right? So Nails are on average $150 to $200 for hands, feet. And then of course you get your eyebrows done. That's just nails.

That's crazy.

And I was just talking to you, said your clients are increasing in that industry because they're not making money. And I'm like, that's a luxury for us women. That's the first thing we're going to cut if the economy goes hell. We cut hair, we cut nails, we do it at home.

Yeah, the Wall Street Journal actually did a, uh, an interesting piece years ago, and it was called, I think, the Stripper Index. And they, they can track the market and what's going to happen with the economy by how well strippers are doing.

They raided a stripper club the other day. Ice did.

Are you serious?

My husband sent me the video. He's like, why are you messing with them? They said, why are they messing with them? They getting paid under the table to offer just a little bit of entertainment.

What city?

Check. What city was that? It was in Dallas, Texas. ICE raided the strip club. Wow. Messing with underpaid table workers. You know they get paid off tips.

That's wrong. That's wrong.

Now what are we husbands gonna do?

That's true.

I said, you're right, babe. Like, I gotta protest about this.

Like, have a bunch of guys outside.

Yes. Like, y'all gonna be home more. This is not good for the wives. We don't have no problem. We go out and shop, buy what we want. They in the strip club. Let them. Yes, guys.

That's crazy.

So, but what about the market?

Anyway, yeah, so the strippers are the first ones to feel it. And I would say that's OnlyFans people. I've seen it with OnlyFans as well because that's discretionary spending. I mean, some people will say it's not. Some people say they need it, but whatever.

Have you had somebody have OnlyFans Subscriptions.

I've had a few OnlyFans bankruptcies. And when I look through their bank statements, because, you know, during the initial interview they don't give you all the information. Yeah. Yeah. You know, okay, so, you know, my income's down a little bit. I was like, your income's not down. I see exactly what you see.

The tips going over to the OnlyFans.

They're falling in love. Goddamn.

Ruby Rose says sometimes she gets $300,000 tips from people. Ruby Rose. And then she's wondering why— I told her why she's single. I said, ain't no man gonna marry you.

I had a client paying $1,000 for pictures of feet. I thought that was like a joke. $1,000 a month.

Chad Messi.

Not my— we love him for the winos.

Not my feet. That's why we love him for the winos.

A grand a month. I was like, come on.

Feet pictures? Where do I sign up?

Right?

I have pretty feet, right babe? I have—

should I start a feet only Hey, I don't, I don't blame anybody for doing that.

I promise that you're okay with that. I will get my feet done. I will keep them done. I will put chocolate on them, whipped cream. It will get me out of debt fast, I promise you. I don't feel like that's like beneath me. It's feet.

Yeah, all right.

Well, go ahead. Sorry, Chad.

Look, to end up filing for bankruptcy because of that And truly, that was the reason I'm seeing the credit cards, swiping the credit card. Okay, I need more.

Whoo.

Yeah. So times are crazy right now.

And isn't it a form of entertainment? Because during the Great Depression, they said they saw like the sex industry go up.

Yeah.

You know, movies go up, alcohol go up.

Oh, for sure. And that's how, you know, people escape the reality of their life. And, you know, people are into different things, whatever, you know.

Yeah. No judgment here.

Definitely no judgment here. Whatever you're into, but just make sure you can afford it though. That's the one thing like, you're like, truly, they're letting their health go. They're letting other things in their life go. They're letting their marriage go. They're letting it— and for what? And I guess that dopamine hit whenever your inbox gets a few pictures of feet. Like, I don't mean to laugh, but—

Chad, don't you laugh when you see my feet cross the internet. Don't do that. I'm gonna be like, send these payments. Don't judge. Go ahead.

Yeah, if I see that pull up on a report or something, that's how you're making money, I'm, I'm out.

Damn, that is crazy. So they're seeing— so basically they're measuring the market by how well people spend in strip clubs and stuff like that.

Yeah, exactly. So you start with the discretionary spending. So once you see people in industries where the discretionary spending goes down or being impacted So they're filing bankruptcy. That means that the people that were making that money, spending the money, they're starting to struggle. So, so it's, it's a trickle-down effect, if you will. So, you know, if you start making less money, then you're like, you know what, I'm not going to get my nails done every week or, you know, now I'm going to go biweekly. Now I'm going to do once a month.

It's once a month for me. It's always been that way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And well, I didn't know how expensive it was until you just told me.

You're about to go talk to your wife, Rachel.

Yeah, we're about to go once every other month.

So sorry, Miss Van Horn, uh, for snitching on you like that. When he see the bills, he's like, what?

I might learn how to do nails now. I didn't realize it.

$200. He, he goes and I'm like, babe, get your feet done. We can't afford it.

No, because you get bored, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's real. It's real. Yeah, people are struggling though. And it's like every day or every week it's like an unprecedented event happens. Like, this is the longest time our government been closed. You know, just every day something else comes out. And now we got the Epstein files coming out.

That was so amazing. I called my husband, I said, are you seeing the news today? They got Trump in the emails. That government shutdown ended. They flipped one of the, uh, the Democrats to Republican, and the Democrats said, fuck this shit, it's on, it's on.

And people go through every email too. Like, it was like like millions of documents. People are finding every email. Former president in there as well, talked about him. But you put— you put his name out there, you end up getting missed. Don't say that name.

Oh yeah, they got the former Secretary of State. But my thing is, I'm with that former, uh, first lady because the former president has some, so she get to have hers Man, but I remember the people just end up unliving when they talk about them though, so I don't want to be part of that.

I told you, I told you, talk about it.

You're a celebrity now, you're next.

No, man, you've got to. But could you imagine if you knew that you had some emails out there with them? Like, how you'd be sweating, like you calling those congressmen like, nah, we can't release those.

It'll be my WhatsApp messages between my husband and I. And even in my WhatsApp, I don't even have— it's not even my true identity. So it's like, I don't know who that is. Why they— I don't know. It's actually— you'll never be able to find it, but it's a trans woman. That's my WhatsApp logo. But listen, so Trump is undoing what the Biden administration did, and he is putting medical bills back on the credit report.

He is. He is. It's going to help my practice. It's a really bad thing for a lot of people out there.

Is it bad if they have you?

No, because we can get it cleaned up.

That medical debt, you think that's the first thing goes?

It's like, sorry, medical debt, catch them in another lifetime. Easy to be discharged. Easy. Actually, one time though, it wasn't. I had a lady that came in and she got, she got a boob job.

See, you can't do that.

And she did it legitimately without telling me. She was already filing bankruptcy. She did it the day before we filed bankruptcy, didn't tell me. So, yeah, she had to, she ended up paying for that because that's fraud. You can't, you can't go in and get elective procedures the day before filing bankruptcy and then try to get rid of that. Like, obviously, unfortunately, you know, our healthcare system, sometimes you got to go to the emergency room because there's nowhere else to go. So, you know, that is discharge, that's taken care of. But yeah, if you're getting, you know, if you're getting—

why is he reversing that though?

You know, it had— the only thing I can think of is the medical industry came in and said, you know, you got to do this because obviously it encourages people to pay if you know it's going to negatively impact your credit. So there had to be some lobbyists that came out from the medical industry, maybe insurance companies as well. They came out and said, you know, you got to do this because there has to be a stick that says, if you don't pay, we're going to hit your credit. That's the only thing I can think of. I think it's crazy. I mean, we all know the medical system's broke. It's been broken for a long time. I don't know what's going to fix it, but this is certainly not going to fix it. I wish that they would just have like normal businesses where they'd have pricing that you understood.

They don't because it's like, oh, well, this specialist was called in, this specialist was called in. It's just, it's, man, we could, we could spend hours—

oh, a whole day—

conversation with the medical industry. Yeah. Whereas if I go get seen in another country, everybody's right there, there's one price, done, done. It's like I ain't got no hidden bills coming weeks later. I'm like, I didn't even know what y'all did. Y'all just basically pricing out everything and not telling me.

And, and there's a price for you and then there's a price for insurance. There are two different prices and we both paying, and I'm still paying insurance. Yeah, yeah, that's insane.

So I get penalized. I canceled my $1,500 a month insurance plan for the family for— I was like, we don't get sick enough. I do my checkups. I, I was just telling him I went to get blood work this morning because I got to go see my doctor in New York for my endocrine, for my thyroid. And I'm not going to say the company's name, but there's one company that charges $900 for the blood work that I get, and on insurance they charge double. If you pay out of pocket, they give you a discount. Right? If you have insurance, they're inflating that.

Wow.

The company I go to, $100, same blood work.

How's that make sense?

I literally had to search around because I was like, we're not doing this. Even, even when I had insurance, I still did not let them use it. I was just like, no, I'll just— so we just save and put aside for our medical expenses Yeah. Yeah.

And I just saw Oura Ring, which I love the Oura Ring. They teamed up where they're doing for— I think it's $90 or $100 as well, where it'll connect to your Oura app. So you go to a local, a local company that they have, that they have, and they upload all the results. They analyze it with your sleep, your stress, everything else, and they give you medical.

And I need to get a deal with Oura Ring for real. So you get to monitor your— what's your blood pressure, oxygen, all that. All of it.

Sleep, sleep, stress, heart health. It's, it's incredible.

And so you're like, you need to go run today. It—

oh, it yells at me. It sends me a little message like, you've been a little inactive today, you're sitting at your desk too long, walk around.

So yeah, yeah, that's the issue I have. I'm at my desk a lot, but I do CrossFit, so it like, it whips me into shape like that.

Same with me.

That is insane. So I want to ask you something. Mentally, because people are still scared to call you.

Mm-hmm.

To wipe it away. Do you understand? I'm still trying to get my sister to call you. I'm like, how long are we going to sit on this? How long are you— I mean, what is like— what would you say to viewers anybody, not viewers, let's just take that out, people that are scared to call you? What is the mental block? Have you figured that out yet? Do you have a therapist here that works in the practice?

You know, I saw a video recently, I think it was an athlete, you might, you might remember as well, where they were talking about how many years you actually get to live. I think it was a basketball player, a retired basketball player. They were talking about, you know, you're going to sleep for this amount of hours. You're going to be broke for this amount of hours. You're a baby for this. And you really get to like live your life for like 20 years, 15 years, like a real, like in your prime, it's like 15, 20 years. Do you want to waste that? Like dealing with that? And a lot of it's because, you know, the economy sucks. COVID happened. The tariffs killed your business.

They—

you don't need to make excuses, but there's reasons things happen. You could have been doing everything right. Like a lot of these government workers that didn't get paid, they were doing everything right. You work for the federal government, of course your paycheck's safe, right? It's bad.

You were the only people that get paid from our government. Yeah, no other country does. Yeah, that's why they're laughing at us right now.

Oh, 100%.

You got people in third world countries like, government help y'all, y'all crap. Like We don't get that help.

Like, so, yeah, so you only have so many, so many years. Like, why are you dealing with that stress when you can take care of it legally, professionally? Like, nobody's really going to know about it anyway. You could let people know if you don't, or don't, but you're— they're going to know because you're going to be happier. As soon as they meet with me, as soon as they sit down, 5 minutes into the conversation, they're like, Wait, that's legal? And I'll be done in 3 months? Why didn't I do this years ago? Because, and I've seen the impact it has on people's health. I've had friends, I've had family members. I've been stressed. I mean, we all, we all go through it unless you're born with a golden spoon in your mouth or whatever they say. We've all been stressed with money. Luckily, in my earlier age, I was ignorant to it, so I wasn't stressed. I probably should have been. Yeah, right.

Yeah.

But you learn later. And, uh, and then you learn better habits from it. But, you know, things happen in life. It's what you deal with it to get out of it. And if you have a solid plan moving forward where, all right, I got this plan, and in 12 months I'm going to be debt-free because I'm able to pay this, I'm going to get a bonus here, I'm going to do this— great, you have a plan. You shouldn't be as stressed because you have a plan. But, but if you're sitting there, you know, playing for the billion-dollar lottery, you're just going deeper in the hole because you're not going to win that lottery.

Talk about lottery, please. It's a scam because people— I, I remember I was probably about 10, maybe 11. My dad, I think the jackpot was like $2 billion. The entire neighborhood got together, put like thousands of dollars into a pot and went and bought a bunch of numbers. And they said, if we win, we're all gonna— and I saw them reading pages and pages and pages and They didn't win shit. They didn't even get 2 numbers. I said, what do y'all think? And I knew at that age, I was like, where do you think they're getting the money to pay y'all?

And did they, did they have the money to give?

No, we were eating free lunch. We went to food pantries.

See, that's, that's it. Over 90% of the money that goes into the lottery are from people that cannot afford to lose that money. Rich people don't play the lottery.

No.

So it's really— there are two things. It's another tax. It's a tax, and unfortunately it's a tax on people that can't afford to be taxed. And it's there to provide false hope. You know, they want, they want the public, especially people that are, they're maybe down and out, to say, you know what, with this one ticket, a dollar, I could be a billionaire. And they changed the algorithm recently to make it where it's going to be a larger jackpot, so less people are going to win. So it's going to go loser, loser, loser, loser, loser. So the jackpot gets bigger because they saw that once it hits a billion, they double the revenue. And, and you also see the payout is over 25 years unless you take the cash now, which everybody does take the cash now. But that reduces it. So if it's a billion, that reduces it off the top to like $600 million. So there goes 40%. And then you get taxed on that. So that $600 million becomes $300 million that you net. So the government makes $700 million off of that. You get $300. Now still $300 million. Who cares at that point, right? If I hit for $300 million and I net $300 million, but they wouldn't know what to do with it.

You don't understand money.

Correct. And that's the other thing is, uh, over 50% of lottery winners that win $1 million or more end up filing bankruptcy after they hit the lottery. Because— and I think another part of that was you get a taste of that good life, but you don't have ongoing revenue income coming in. So you're just spending that money because, you know, I love a good steak too. Everybody loves a good steak. When you get used to it, it's hard to say, oh, now we're going to go back.

$1,000 steak.

It's probably delicious.

It's amazing, right? I let another creator pay for it for me. Tony the— shut up, Tony the Closer.

That's the best way to do it.

He was showing off to me and said, oh yeah, I got it. I said, do you have it? When we saw the bill, I said, you got this? Because I can't get this. We don't have it. $1,000 gold— it was a gold steak. He said, I want Drake on my steak. I said, what is Drake on your steak? So when they brought the steak out, it was covered in 24-karat gold.

Are you kidding me?

Yeah, and they played Drake music and blessed it with Drake music and took it to the back, and we all shared a $1,000 steak. And it wasn't— it was just like that. It was like a porterhouse.

Was it good though?

It was— do you feel like it was worth $1,000 though, Shaq?

That's a different—

that's a— you see what I'm saying?

What is worth $1,000?

Exactly. We can get the same steak at Capital Grill.

Yeah.

No, Longhorn. Y'all be playing on Longhorn. Longhorn Longhorn got good steaks.

And that's what I'm saying, like, the value of a $1,000 steak, it just—

it's mental. I think it's just the fact that I can afford to pay for it.

Yeah, it's just— it's for this. It's Instagram, TikTok, it's to show off.

Yeah, but, um, Publishers Clearing House. Yep, I was saving that one for you because I covered that a little bit of that because I was dumbfounded when I saw that the people that were winners of Publishers Clearing House— and I remember when I was a kid, I used investing. We used to get those advertisements all the time. I would fill them out and send them back. Never happened for me.

Waiting for that big check to come in the door.

Somebody come to your door, say, for a lifetime, you go, we're gonna give you $5,000 a week. And they were taking the lifetime payments. And now Publishers Clearinghouse has filed for bankruptcy, and they're not getting the money. And they're saying, we're broke, what do we do? And I'm like, you got $5,000 every week for 20 years and you're broke? So you were living paycheck to paycheck.

You get used to it.

And that— no businesses, no nothing.

Chad, that is the biggest problem, is lifestyle creep, they call it. We're all right. So now, you know, I remember when way back in the day when I started making $10 an hour, I thought that was a lot. I was working at Foot Locker.

Oh, that's— that was a lot back in the day.

10 bucks an hour. I'm 41.

See, back when I was— it was like $8, which is good.

But I remember like double digits for me. I don't know why that was a milestone, right? Double digits per hour, it was Like, I mean, even $11, like, man, I was like, I worked 10 hours today, got $100. Yeah, spend it right away. Uh, and that's the problem though, is when you start making that money, you're like, all right, I gotta spend it. All right, now I gotta level up my, my shoes, I gotta level up my clothes, I gotta level up where I hang out, what I drink, where, where I travel to. You get used to it. So now, now I'm making $20 an hour. All right, now I got a salary. Now I'm making $60,000 a year. Now I'm making $100,000. Now I'm making $200,000. I've met broke people, broke, broke, broke people that make a million dollars a year, live in New York, have child support, likes to go out. Um, I'm telling you, if I needed to borrow $500 from them, couldn't get it. Broke, making a million dollars a year. A million. You know how hard it is to make a million dollars?

Yeah, I know. I said, right, my blood pressure was through the roof, right? But I brought it back down. Yeah, I was like, if I got this, I can get more.

Like, and, and what that proved to me is it really isn't about how much you make, it's how much you keep. How much you keep.

I think people change their life, and that's the thing, like, and that's what I love about my husband. And I was just telling you, you know, like, my bag here People ask me all the time, where'd you get this bag?

Beautiful.

Fendi.

Is that what the F stands for?

Yes, it's got Fendi, but fake. My girlfriend, when they be out and they put in— listen, and you see the heart, this hardware looks like beautiful. It's beautiful hardware.

How much would the real be versus $5,000? Yes.

50 bucks.

What's up? Well, I was just telling you about my client.

I told you about— oh, with the Cartier? Yeah, the Cartier watch. So my thing is like, I don't think it has anything— I think people do that because I, I remember I was at the— I was at dinner with my sisters a couple weeks ago, and the server comes over, she's like, where'd y'all get y'all bags from? And my sisters had YSL bags, and these bags were like $1,000. And she was like, well, where you get your bag from? I said, girl, the flea market, it was 50 bucks. Now mind you, I make more money than everybody at the table, but I'm like, I'm trying to keep it. That's the reason. Like, I love, I love my sisters, they're doctors and stuff, but like, I just, I, I can't justify it. It's like, if I got this money without getting this stuff, what makes you think I need it now when I got— like, I was broke building.

Yep.

Didn't have it and I was fine. I'm not gonna change that. I'm sorry.

Yeah, you shouldn't, unless they're gonna sponsor the show.

Exactly.

And then let's ride. But that's an investment then. Yeah, 100%. And it's funny because I talk to, you know, clients every day. Um, you know, I think we signed up like 500 clients last month. It's the Tasha K effect.

Um, we love that. I try to tell them, and they call me and they say thank you. Yeah, on the tip line.

But what women, especially more than men, they lie to themselves with these bags saying They're an investment. I'm gonna sell them eventually. How many bags have you sold? Zero. I mean, my wife tried to try that on me once during COVID because everybody was, um, you know, buying the bags that were coming out and then reselling and this, that, and the other. She bought a couple. So, all right, so when are you gonna sell these? So I really like it. Like, hold on, hold on. Yeah, these were investments. No, they were not.

The bag industry is the biggest scam. They came out— Dior, Dior this, this iconic saddlebag, and they were paying, I believe, like, what, $30 to make each bag?

It's crazy.

And they were selling the bags for $3,500.

Well, the biggest scam— have you— diaper bags?

They got diaper bag scams now? They—

no, they have Dior diaper bags.

I'm in the wrong business.

Yeah, somebody's like, are you gonna— I know I'm not gonna Dior diaper bag.

Personally don't feel like anybody should pay pay over $200 for a bag, man. I just do not believe that's feasible. And these Hermès bags and, you know, all these like name brand bags, and it's like— and people say, oh, you can sell them. There is a bank in California, it's a bank but it's a pawn shop. The celebrities hate that I know this spot. They take it into the bank, they go upstairs. Upstairs is where the Grammys are. Oh wow, the bags the jewelry, the artwork, all of that stuff. And then they go downstairs and then they get the money from the bank so it doesn't look like they're pawning their shit.

Wow. And what they do—

pretty much on Rodeo Drive. Wow.

Of all places. Now I gotta go. Exactly. I don't want to see it.

But the thing is, it's like, if you don't come back and get it, of course it works just like a pawn shop. But they're not giving you— if you paid $100,000 for a Hermès bag, you're probably getting $5,000, $10,000 at the most.

Cost. Yep.

And they're gonna sell it for $20.

Yep.

That's crazy, the depreciation value. But they get so mad at me online, Chad, when I talk about this stuff. They're like, you don't know money, you don't know that they're investments, you don't know that they can sell this on eBay. I said, when I buy stuff on eBay, I buy it because it's cheaper than the real thing. So the fact that you're saying that these bags appreciate— they don't appreciate. I don't care what the bag is. The only way it appreciates is if somebody feels that your bag is valuable, they're gonna buy it. But you don't get to just go up and say, oh, I want to get $200,000 for this $500,000 bag, or I want to get $600,000. It doesn't work like that.

Nope.

So I'm like, y'all can— y'all can tell what— y'all can say whatever y'all want to say, it's cool. Like, I, I know money, and I feel that money aren't stocks and bonds. Money are— money is in real estate development. Yep. Money is in—

well, and I think when you're—

bankruptcy.

And I think what you're talking about though is wealth, right? You're talking about building wealth.

Yes.

Not just bringing in money, right? You're talking about things that build wealth. And that's a long-term plan where eventually it'd be nice to not have to hustle as much if we don't want to.

Yeah. By the time I'm 50, I'm like, I'm not going to be stressing over shit.

And I'm there with you.

Nothing.

And I want to have the luxury of being able to spend time with my daughter. And that truly is a luxury. And the only way you can afford that is by building wealth.

You gotta like drive in the same damn car.

That's—

I've never owned a Mercedes, anything like what they call like a Jaguar, Mercedes, Porsche, none of that. It depreciates immediately. It depreciates.

I'm just like, it's so expensive right now. I mean, all of it. And now that even with the car loans, they're going 7-year car loans, 8-year car loans.

You're never gonna own a car. To here. Buy here, pay here. And if you miss a payment, gone. No, they cut the car off in the middle of the street. In the middle of the street. That— I said, what the— I was like, I'm in the wrong business. Every time I see somebody hustling somebody like that, I'm like, y'all aren't actually doing it.

That is gangster though. You gotta— you gotta be— you gotta be built different too. Like, who is the person that's pressing the button too? You think they're enjoying it? I guarantee they're enjoying it. They call them like, hey, they can do it with the Teslas.

People don't even realize that.

Oh, for sure.

Actually, I think, uh, uh, Elon did it with a rapper. A rap— yes, he did. A rapper made a video with the Cybertruck in it. You remember that story, Jason? A rapper made a video with a Cybertruck in it. He sent the rapper a cease and desist saying take it out. Yeah, the rapper refused to take it out. Elon cut off his truck.

Couldn't move it. Couldn't move it.

I said, see, that's where it's gonna get to.

That's too much control.

Yeah, that's way too much control. Just give me a hoopty and, you know, make sure it's nice and clean on the inside, and I'm straight. I remember, seriously, I, I just can't get— I just can't get down like that. But listen, you got any specials you doing for Black Friday on bankruptcy, man? I'm here to ask.

Yeah, for the winos, you know, for the winos. Okay, I was gonna give them 10% off. Okay, can I give them 10% off?

We'll give them 10% off.

TK10.

Yeah, TK10.

If, if they say TK10 from today to December 1st, I'm gonna give them 10% off.

10% off from today to December 1st. When can you get this video out? How fast can you get it out?

Tomorrow, man.

So we'll put it out tomorrow before the live, right? TK10, 10% off your bankruptcy. Please let your people know who they'd be like, we don't know what you're talking about.

Just, just ask for me. Just ask for me. I'll make sure you get the 10% off. But I'll let—

I'll put him on the spotlight.

And I'm like, listen, hey, we got to provide value to the winos, and you know, and you know we do. And we have payment plans. That's the other, that's the other thing that people don't know.

You do a firm? Which one? You do Care Credit?

No, we do our own.

Okay.

Yeah, we do our own because, you know, Affirm, CareCredit, they don't like me because I discharge all their debt too.

So they don't give you no— It'd be funny if you come to them and be like, yo, so I got these, these people.

They would not.

They would not do it.

I swear I'm on some list for credit card companies. I swear I am. I mean, we, we have, we've discharged like $1 billion.

You don't have personal security?

Not yet. I probably should. I can't afford it. Sounds expensive. Um, and, and I'm an easy target too. I'm on my Vespa, just—

I go to the same 3 places. I told him the story the other day. I had, I had some of my unnamed crew crossing the news saying I was going to jail for bankruptcy Friday. You walked past me drinking and I was like, you, huh? You don't talk to Susan?

That's it.

That's it, man. Am I going to jail? You like, you in jail? No, yeah, no, no. But I promise you, like, this is my second bankruptcy. I tell everybody all that all the time. I filed my first bankruptcy at 28, 29. Yeah, I think I was around 28, 28, 28. And, um, man, was I stressed going in. But when my bankruptcy— and my bankruptcy lawyer, I kid you not, he had one office in an office building, and he had a stack full of folders, and it was just him. Old school, old school. He just sat there, he had his glasses on. He said, give me a list of your assets. I said, what's assets?

Never had one of those.

I was like, what's that? He's like, you own a house? No. Car? No. Like, no. I just had a bunch of bills from like the transport company. But $600 he charged my husband and I. Wow. He said, I'm gonna need you down in Maryland to just say you swear you ain't got the money. And it was gone. I kid you not, probably a month later I got an offer from Capital One. Shout out to Capital One. And built my credit back.

How are they not a sponsor yet, by the way?

I know, Capital One, man, for real. And Discover. I sent them so much business.

100%, they're gonna reach out.

Maybe because I, you know, we have a way to discharge it too.

But I'm like, but you, but you made them more money than this.

Exactly. Exactly. I was so mad to get my Amex Platinum over to you and my Discover card, and I was like, ah, I can build it again though. I know how to do it.

Yeah, yeah.

I just chose not to do it. I think I'm gonna relax though on the credit cards.

Yeah. Hey, living a cash existence is good.

I know, it really is so much more like just peaceful. My husband has an 800 credit score. What is yours?

Fantastic.

Oh, I thought it was $800 because I know he said tell Chad he's crushing it. Yeah, I know, he's crushing— mine's all fucked up.

Yeah, you'll be good.

I know, he saves me. That's why we're married. Get married because you have a partner that saves you. So you— one person take the debt, the other person takes the get out of debt. You understand what I'm saying? So you guys can help each other.

But the number 2 reason for bankruptcy filing is divorce, so just be careful. Who you marry. You gotta marry the right person.

I just saw a story the other day, we actually posted it, of a guy who said his ex convinced him to not come to court during the divorce and she took everything. He said he believed her. Oh yeah, I believe she's like, I got this, it's gonna be easy, you don't need to show up. And then they gave everything to her.

Done. Oh yeah, it happens a lot. And I see the, I see the aftermath of it. Unfortunately, I see sometimes too in the middle. Yeah, because you Obviously financial issues lead to divorce, unfortunately. Just stress in general, I think, can lead to stress on the relationship. So I see it happen from the beginning where, you know, people are coming in, they're already stressed, and then they end up going through divorce. But I also see the other side once they go through bankruptcy, and it could be one of the individuals. And I do highly recommend that if you are a couple all of the debt is in one person's name and the assets can be in joint name, because I think that's a fantastic estate planning strategy and asset protection strategy, especially in states like Florida where assets owned jointly are exempt by tenancy by entireties if you own them jointly with your spouse. So you need a joint creditor to break that. So it's a great asset protection strategy.

And they, they prioritize the marriage.

Correct. And I've seen so many marriages get better after somebody's filed bankruptcy because they are focused. They are able to spend more time in the marriage with each other, with each other, instead of stressed out working overtime trying to pay interest and all this and deal with lawsuits.

And I was going to say that because you have the ability to save marriages too. So like, if y'all are fighting right now over money, that's dumb. "Call Chad, like he'll fix it." You got to prioritize.

And that's it. People prioritize. I don't know if it's ego. I don't know what it is. Prioritize their credit score, but their credit score has already taken the hit normally by the time they call me. They prioritize, like in their mind, you know, filing bankruptcy is a failure or whatever it is. But you're going to let your marriage fail over in your mind just going through a legal process and you're debt-free in 3 months? I mean, it's crazy. Especially, you know, when your spouse, but then if you have kids on top of that, you know, you got to prioritize what's important, what's important, which are your children, which are putting food up.

They come first over a credit card.

100%. And it's just, well, I've always paid my credit. It's like, okay, well, now you're not, you're not able to. So let's deal with it.

And that is okay.

100%.

It's okay. Call Chad. Chad is adding. Chad, what's the number? What's Chad? What's the number?

954-637- 7000.

Joke. So they were in the chat the other night and they were like, Chad got about 30,000 phone numbers. I do. The White House said that. I do. They was like, I don't think Chad knows all of his phone numbers.

I don't, I don't. We have a lot. Do they all—

they all pipe back?

They all come in here.

They all literally said that.

And the reason is we have offices, you know, throughout the country now. And so we have, we have local phone numbers for all this. And also when we, we want to be able to track if Latasha Kebe callers in, we want them to have a priority line so that we know how many people are calling from, from special.

We're special.

100%.

Okay, special. And they actually thanked me the other night because we had like a private like sleepover live, and they were like, Tasha, we don't just follow you for celebrity gossip. No, we follow you because you help us to laugh, be better. Get stress-free, get healthier. Thank you for introducing us to Chad. They talk about that.

It's important. It truly is life-changing. And that's what I love about— we've been hiring over the last few weeks because you've made us so busy. Um, and everybody, and everybody that even applies to work here, the reason they want to work here is because they see the life-changing great things that we do.

Yeah.

And they want to be part of that. And it's, it's different to have a career where you're changing people's lives and you're just clocking in, clocking out.

Yeah.

And I love that about my team. And, uh, that's why I love working with you as well.

I love working with you. Listen, let'sfixdebtcome— let'sfixdebtcome— let's fix the debt before the holidays.com so you ain't got to buy nobody's shit that they ain't gonna use. Let's fix .com. I ain't buying no— everybody's like, what you getting for Christmas? I'm Christmas. Hello, Merry Christmas, right? I'm here.

My presence is a present type deal.

And having a good time. I don't do that.

I love it.

No, no. Yeah, my mom called and asked me for $5,000 the other day, and I hung up the phone on her. I said, Mom, what do you need $5,000 for? I just got some bills. I said, so, you know, I my husband. I'd be like, call, call Shay. They never call him.

Never.

They never call him. But she's like, well, other celebrities buy their mom's houses and stuff. And I'm like, yeah, but they're all broke right now, Mom. Have you been watching the news? It's bad out here. It's bad. Because they're trying to buy you a house, buy them a house. You have a house, Mom. You have a car. You're not wanting for anything. So what, what? Yeah, I did this on purpose so she could see this.

People are reckless.

dot com.

I ain't buying.

No. Everybody said, what you getting for Christmas? I'm Christmas. Hello. Merry Christmas. Right.

I'm here.

My presence is a present type deal. King. And having a good time. I don't do that. I love it. me for $5,000 the other day and I hung up the phone on Her.

I said, mom, what do you need $5,000 for?

Wow. I just got some bills.

I said, so, you know, I use when you get that.

Exactly, exactly. She was like, well, they do this, they do that. I'm like, well, Mom, go listen, go claim them as your kids.

Is she using the camper at least?

Barely.

Oh no, that's the worst.

Barely. Like, I'm like, where are you going today? It's just sitting there collecting dust.

It reminds me, years ago now, it was actually COVID times, everyone— everybody's buying those, uh, those three-wheel vehicles. What do they call them? I know what you're talking about, those little motorcycles, Raptors, or I don't know what.

Yeah, I know Sling shot. They're popular down here though.

But man, it was in every bankruptcy at one point. Every bankruptcy. I was like, why do you have 3 slingshots?

How much were they?

They were like $25,000. I'm like, what are you doing with 3 slingshots? He's like, nah, me and my boys, we take them Nobody now. Liquidate everybody. You had a slingshot.

I am so done, man. Let'sFixDebt.com. Let's do it. Let'sFixDebt.com. Go to the website, contact Chad. He'll help you. He'll clear this shit up. And I don't know about y'all, but I would love to be debt-free at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, my debt is a lot higher than y'all's, but y'all need to take advantage of it, okay? So by January, I would say February, before springtime, you outside again. You back on the cruise boat, back on the island in Bali, debt-free.

It's a real— like, this is a reality that can be, people, if they just have to make the decision, make the phone call, go to the website. That's it.

I love it. Thank you.

So good to see you. Thanks for coming to the office.

I know, I know. I was like, we gotta get in here. We've been doing too much virtual stuff lately. So we're gonna get in here more often. This is great. Yeah, you're always welcome. Thank you.