Big D Debt

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it’s your favorite President Donald Trump. Well, it’s an artificial intelligence version of me, not the real Trump, but it’s good enough. You’re here for a remarkable new episode of the list building lifestyle show, brought to you by your favorite host, Igor Kheifets. Now, let me tell you, this guy knows how to run a show. He really does. Alright, folks, let’s get down to business. Today, we’re dealing with a very serious topic, something that everyone, even multi billionaires like yours truly has faced here. We’re talking about that. EAGERs getting personal today, diving into his family’s battles with debt. Now, that’s a story that resonates with many of us, doesn’t it? It’s not just about money. It’s about lessons that will learn battles there were fought and knowing the difference between good debt and bad debt. Trust me, that can be a really tricky business. So, get ready to be inspired and to be educated. That’s what he does best. Right? And a user thought, why not imagine it’s the real Trump introducing this episode? I bet it makes it a lot more exciting, doesn’t it? Alright, let’s get started Igor.

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I’m Igor Kheifets. And this is the list building lifestyle. The podcast for anyone who wants to build a wildly profitable email list working from home. If you’d like to make six figures travel the world and help people improve their lives in the process. This podcast is for you. I also invite you to claim a free copy of my bestselling book, the list building lifestyle confessions of an email millionaire at www.igorsbook.com. Get the free book plus a $3,000 bonus package that includes my best capture page templates, email, swipe files, and traffic blueprints. Visit www.igorsbook.com for details. And now it’s time to claim your list building lifestyle.

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Growing up, my family acquired a lot of debt. Every single month, we started out with a negative bank balance in overdraft. And that’s because we continue to pay off debt. And the problem with debt is that it accumulates very quickly without even noticing. Because most of the time we put it on the credit card. Remember the day that my father got his first credit card after we emigrated from Ukraine to Israel. The first thing he did was to buy a stereo system. It was a long time ago, a big screen TV. And my mom wanted a vacuum cleaner. These three things he spent so much money on that we ended up paying off these items for the next five years on monthly payments, even though some of those items didn’t even last five years. And that set-in motion and process that became detrimental to my family’s financial wellbeing. In fact, it was only after I succeeded, and made my first million, that I was able to go back and pay off all my parents’ debts. But that would be later. Until then, my family would be actually now stuck in this cycle because they acquired initial debt, it would cause them to acquire more debt as we went along. In fact, what ended up happening, we ended up paying for our groceries with tomorrow’s money. My mom would be going to the grocery store, getting groceries and breaking up the bill into 2345 payments. So, the things that we ate, and it was flushed down the drain. You know, in the next couple of days, we kept paying for that food and groceries and all these things for months and months and months to come. And the problem with that approach is that you’re basically using the money you don’t have to pay for the necessities and need today with no guarantee that you’ll have the income tomorrow, which is exactly what happened to my family when my dad started losing jobs couldn’t really hold on to a job my mom got fired at one point couldn’t find a job for a year and a half. We kept on asking for money from relatives and friends. It became a really awkward situation until eventually we hit rock bottom when my dad got a loan from the bank to cover the overdraft. Because otherwise they would slip an even higher interest on us and the rest of our account potentially. And then for the next few years. I kept finding paperwork on the kitchen table of my father getting a loan to cover the previous loan because we could never really pay off. And so, it was only when I succeeded as an individual when I made a lot of money that I was able to end that cycle with a lump sum payment for my parents, but the lesson was learned and I became averse to debt of any kind. In fact, it took me years to gather the courage to get a mortgage to buy my first home only because my idea of financial independence does not include having a million-dollar mortgage on my balance sheet. It was only after I recognized that some forms of debt are positive that they can be used as leverage to build more wealth but only after you’ve become wealthy. It was only then I got my first mortgage but not before. Until then it was all cash, live cash positive rent, if you have to. I mean, I went on for 10 years, without buying a home, I kept them renting and renting because that wouldn’t require me to put out a big cash outlay up front. And I believe I made the right decision because I avoided the anxiety and the and the pressure that comes with a huge debt, the moment you get paid from your day job or business or client, you must you absolutely have to put away at least 10% of what you made aside into a savings account, you know, grab the cash, put it in the box, like when I was broken, I was on my way up, me and my the time fiance, we were taking 10% of everything we were making, putting it in the special box that we put under the bed. Even if we’re only made $1,000 that month, we’ve still put aside $100. And what’s interesting is that at one point, when I didn’t have a job and my fiance worked two jobs, I got a call from my brother, who was at the time already working full time for at least 10 years. And his wife was working full time as well. And he never had the money, he asked me if I could borrow the money. So here I am, just at the start of my life, barely making any kind of money at all. And he’s asking me, because he knows that I have the money. So, at the time, I’ve already saved up $1,500 US and I gave it all to my brother thinking that he’s actually going to give me the money back. But that never happened. So, lessons learned. But you know, it is only to show that even though I was making way less than he was, I had money saved up. And if anything, I could lean on this cushion. And my brother kept making that mistake over and over again. For as long as I have known him. In fact, it was about 10 years after that conversation, that he ended up in a really tricky position. He was working a great day job; he was making a lot of money. And his wife was making just as much money. So, they had two incomes coming in. And they were always just scraping by. They were barely making ends meet because they kept spending a lot of money. And then one day, he had a fight with his boss and his boss fired him. And what happened then was something that my brother didn’t expect, he couldn’t find a job for the next six months, in spite of being extremely qualified for the positions that he applied to. But the problem is that either they didn’t want to hire him because he was overqualified. Or they offered him a paycheck that was about half the size of the paycheck. He was getting with the previous job. So, he went on for six months. Without an income they lived with him and his wife lived on one income. And guess what happened, they sunk deeper and deeper and deeper into credit card debt acquired interest. And they’re still paying that off many, many years later. So the lesson here is, if he had at least six months’ worth of income saved up if he just had some money that he could fall back on by looking for a job, he probably would have avoided this disaster that is now putting him and his kids in a position where they’re still paying off debt for things they bought for just living expenses from many months’ worth years ago.

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Thank you for listening to the list building lifestyle, get access to the previous episodes transcript of today’s show, as well as other exclusive content at listbuildinglifestyleshow.com. Also remember to claim your free copy of my bestselling book at www.igorsbook.com. It explains how I made millions with list building starting from scratch. Plus, I’ll give you $3,000 worth of free bonuses, including my best landing page templates, email swipe files and traffic. Go to www.igorsbook.com. Now to claim your free package