Being in debt feels like a dark hole, a deep pit, without hope or any way out. Struggling to find ways to make extra money can feel impossible as well.
But the secret is both situations benefit from the same free tip Damon Day, and I talk about on this podcast.
You can follow our side-hustle testing at PennyStupid.com.
This trick is based on attitude and motivation and can work in any situation. Applying this simple technique lets you get out of debt and start living a more meaningful life!
But if you have debt questions or need some free advice, I’m here for you.
Steve Rhode – Your Get Out of Debt Guy from GetOutofDebt.org
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey, you’re back with Steve Rhode, Damon Day on the Get Out of Debt Guy podcast Damon. Hello, Steve. Hello to you. Thank you, . That’s the most subdued you’ve ever been on a podcast. I’m still trying to think about if I have anything to talk about under this topic today that we just had me riff off as a one-liner earlier and you went, let’s do a podcast.
[00:00:18] This is actually an interesting subject because it applies not only to the people that you and I meet and deal with in the debt world, but on this other project that we’re doing all about testing side hustles and gigs to find good things that people can do to make money on the side.
[00:00:40] Everybody can use an extra 500 to 2,000 a month. This topic that we’re gonna talk about applies to that as. So standby will be right back.
[00:00:53] You’re back with Steve Rhode and Damon Day, a and get Out Debt Guy podcast.
[00:00:56] So the subject that Damon brought up earlier, which I think is so critical, and I’ve written about this, oh my God, for years, there are posts on the GetOutOfDebt.org website about this is. If you want to get out of debt or you want to make money on the side, it applies to both. The key thing is fixing your attitude and that’s free.
[00:01:23] You don’t need to pay anybody to do that, but Damon, that is such a hard thing for people to do. They just end up stuck in debt or stuck not making extra money just because they don’t have the right attitude. What do we do about that? Yeah, and I’m, it sounds very cliche but it is absolutely true that, having a positive attitude or having a successful.
[00:01:47] Really does make a difference. If you look at people that are generally successful and you look at people that maybe self-describe aren’t so successful, you start to develop or start to notice patterns that develop and their attitudes and just the way they go about life and the way they approach problems.
[00:02:05] It’s very different. I’ve always had the attitude that there’s no sense wasting a perfectly good mistake. If you screw up, something goes wrong. Take your lumps, learn from it. Don’t do it again, and do better moving forward. The other thing is when I run into adversity, Sure it gets me down just like it does anybody else.
[00:02:30] But if it’s something that’s really knocked me back, I’ll just take a day off. I’m gonna take a day off. I’m gonna have a pity party and then I’m gonna get back to it. And it’s the ability to get back to it. Pick yourself up. That seems to separate people. Yeah.
[00:02:47] And a lot of people have pessimistic attitudes about things and oftentimes it’s unconscious or subconscious, right? Where they don’t even realize how pessimistic. If you follow us over at PennyStupid.com, The Penny Stupid Project, I’ve been doing a lot of ride share and trying out different side hustles delivery, dropping off people, dropping off burgers, dropping off Amazon packages, all kinds of stuff.
[00:03:11] And one of the nice things, one of the things I like about doing the ride share, it actually gives me an opportunity to have a lot of diverse conversations with a lot of different people. I’ve done in the last two months. I’ve done I think over 400 rides. Cause I know I got an email congratulations for a hundred rides on Uber like last week.
[00:03:30] And I, I know if you look at. Lyft profile, it’s over 300 now on Lyft. And so anyway I like it cuz you know it just gives me a wide spectrum of people to talk to and I enjoy having conversations with people. You never know you know what’s gonna come of it. But I have noticed there’s just, people have all kinds of different attitudes.
[00:03:48] And I know I said it earlier, but when I’m giving a ride to somebody, I perceive to be successful they seem to be put together. They’re probably paying for a lux Black ride or something like versus somebody that maybe is a little bit down on their luck is not where they want to be.
[00:04:01] I can tell a big difference in just the conversations that I’m having with them, the questions that they ask me. Especially when I’m talking about the experiment doing the ride share and how much money I’ve , get very different reactions for people that I think are fairly successful versus people that maybe could really use some advice on, how to make some extra money.
[00:04:21] My dad was one of those very pessimistic guys. Love him. Miss him. Miss you, dad. And I always said that for him, the glass was never half empty or half full. The glass was broken, dirty, empty, and somebody stole it. , I guess that’s how I learned my lesson. You just gotta keep moving forward and stop looking back.
[00:04:45] When it comes to debt, this is one of the key things that I’ve said over the years, is that you have two choices. You can either turn around and face the past and try to repair the past. Or you can just say, God, I really fucked that up, and learn from what happened and fix the present so you can do better moving forward into the future.
[00:05:09] That’s probably a sentiment that you agree with. Yeah, absolutely. And stressing about it doesn’t do anybody any good. It’s just about focus on, okay, where am I at right now? It doesn’t matter that much how you got there. It matters obviously a little bit, as far as the problem at hand, it’s about what do we do?
[00:05:24] What’s the line you always say, how do you do better moving forward? And that’s the thing you really want to focus on, not beating yourself up. I have some clients like that, that just constantly beat themselves up over what they did, or I shouldn’t have done that, or I’m super embarrassed about this.
[00:05:37] And it’s Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re here now. It is what it is. Yeah. Now what can we do better today? And then start moving forward. What steps do we need to take to get you out of this situation that you’re. Whether you know you, it is through a series of bad decisions or circumstance or whatever it is, dwelling on the past usually is not gonna help you fix the future.
[00:05:58] Yeah, it’s funny. People worry about what other people might think about their situation. Nobody really thinks about you that much. Yeah, . And you’ve got to get to a point where you just don’t give a shit what people think because you’ve got to live your own life. And life is a one way journey. You , I hate to be peeing your Wheaties, but you’re dying a little bit each day.
[00:06:24] So there’s no sense, worrying about a decision that you made in the past that’s behind you, do better moving forward. And that’s the same thing we’re talking about, like making money on the side, which is really, people only have themselves to blame. That might sound too harsh. It might be, it’s true.
[00:06:47] Sometimes people need to hear it and Hey, it’s our radio show, right? We can do whatever we want, . And speaking that’s how the context of this attitude thing, that’s how it came up when we were talking earlier. Because like I said, I get a lot of different conversations and one of the big things when I first started driving Lyft for this Penny Stupid Project in October.
[00:07:05] The first month I made $6,500, in the evenings, and I was blown away by that. I didn’t think I real, I had no idea what my expectation was. I was thinking maybe 500 a week, but I was like, holy shit, this is some like, Decent money for extra. This is 6,000 extra , on, on top.
[00:07:23] And so I would talk to a lot of people that I’m driving. It would come up and I would talk about, I’m doing this experiment and I’m driving Lyft and Uber and DoorDash and all this different stuff. And that they would be interested in it. I’d talk to ’em about it and I’d say, the first month with Lyft I made $6,500.
[00:07:38] And inevitably I’ve never had somebody. Never one time did somebody say, oh, that’s all like every time. It was always like, no shit. Really? Are you serious? And so they would hear that number and they would, get excited about it. And then here’s where I, you can separate people with a defeatist attitude versus, the go-getter positive attitude, the types of questions I would get.
[00:08:01] I would get a lot of questions, like immediately when I would say that they would then ask things like how many miles did you drive to get that? Or Right. They would how many hours did you have to work to get that? Or what about to wear and tear in your car? Or whatever.
[00:08:13] All of these questions, even if it doesn’t seem like it on the surface, maybe it’s subconscious or not. But most of these questions I feel are maybe this person doesn’t want to do it or they feel bad because maybe they’re in a situation where they should do it, but they’re too lazy to do it, or whatever it is.
[00:08:31] Yeah. And when they ask these types of questions, essentially what your mind is looking for is the reason you can grab onto. And say, ha, I knew it. That’s why that’s not a good deal. Or That’s why that’s not gonna work for me. Instead of saying how many miles did you have to drive? And then trying to look for an answer that you can say.
[00:08:50] That’s why I don’t want to do that, because I don’t want to drive, 5,000 miles and they go, oh my gosh, 5,000 miles. And they freak out. What you should do if you’re in a situation where you need some extra opportunity, you need some more money, and somebody says, Hey, I was just doing this thing where I have my phone and I point my car in the direction the phone says people get in and then get out.
[00:09:10] And I get money instantly. And last month I made 6,500. If that sounds like something that could help you. Even a fraction of that. You don’t say, how many miles did you drive? You say, Hey, can I buy you lunch? Exactly. And pick your brain for an hour for a $15 hamburger and find out how in the hell you made $6,500 delivering people in the evenings.
[00:09:31] Cuz I would like to. To learn. Maybe that might be an opportunity, maybe not, but I don’t know. I don’t know anything about it. I just know that 6,500 sounds good. But when you start asking how many miles and how many hours, that’s just your subconscious. So what’s the number that the person wants to hear?
[00:09:47] Do they want to hear five hours? No. Do they want to hear 60 hours? You’re just like trying to grab a number and you have no concept of whether this opportunity would be good for you. So lemme give you a good example. So people ask. How much was gas, right? That’s a big question. Oh my gosh, how much was gas?
[00:10:02] And I say the first month gas was about $1,200. And they go, oh my God, $1,200. That’s, I can’t even imagine having to pay $1,200 for gas. And I’d be like, Yeah, but I made 6,500, so you take 1200 dollars in expense. I still made $5,300 net after gas. But their mind grabs onto that unfathomable number of who spends $1,200 a month on gas.
[00:10:29] So yeah, what I’ve done is an experiment. Sometimes I’ll say it like this, instead of saying I made 6,500 and I spent 1200 on gas, so I netted 53. Sometimes I’ll. Yeah, my first month with Lyft, I made $5,300 and they paid for all my gas . And what do you think the difference is in the reaction?
[00:10:47] I said the same damn thing. Yeah, the same thing. Oh my God, that’s great. Yeah, the oh my God. Tell me more. Tell me how to do that. It’s the same fucking thing. It’s the same thing. It’s just how you perceive it, how you think about it. A lot of times your mind just wants to find the reason it’s not gonna work.
[00:11:04] It doesn’t sound good. Or, how about this? I could say, yeah, my first month with Lyft, I made $5,300 and they bought me a Tesla. Yeah. And they go, what? How do I sort, how do I do that? How can I get a free Tesla? It’s the same thing cuz that’s what I bought the Tesla for right now.
[00:11:20] Lyft technically didn’t buy me the Tesla, but I looked at what I was paying on gas. Borrowing my wife’s car, 12, 1500 bucks a month. Yeah, it’s a lot of money to spend on gas, but I’m making four to five times that, okay, wait a minute. If I’m gonna spend 1500 a month on gas, why don’t I take part of that $1,500 and put it towards a Tesla payment, and now I’m spending on fuel, a fraction of what I was spending before and I actually get a car out of it.
[00:11:45] In a roundabout way, again, it’s how you perceive it. Me driving for Lyft gives me $5,300 and a free Tesla. But you tell somebody that versus tell ’em, I made 6,500, but I spent 1200 in gas. They just grab onto that 1200 in gas, right? And they just not gonna work for me.
[00:12:04] Let’s turn this around because this also applies to the debt world. The people that we talk about with that have financial issues. They come to us and they say I’ve got this terrible problem and I can’t make any extra money and I don’t know what I’m gonna do. And you say maybe we should consider something like bankruptcy.
[00:12:24] And the same excuses come out of their mouth except this time they’re like, what about my credit score? What are people gonna think of me? My life will be ruined if I file bankruptcy. But the reality is, To resolve either a situation, either your debt situation or making extra money, it requires you to get information, to do some research, to get the facts, and then make good decisions.
[00:12:51] Stop assuming. Yeah. Just defeating yourself. Yeah. And all comes back to attitude about it, right? It’s the attitude, it’s the approach. And for a lot of people it’s subconscious. I, what I recommend wholeheartedly is self-help stuff. I don’t care if it’s books, it’s audio tapes, it’s whatever. I devoured that stuff, especially as a kid.
[00:13:09] I love that kind of stuff. Just self-help, motivation on mindset. Having a good attitude, having a positive outlook, having a can-do attitude instead of a can’t do attitude will change your fucking life. It will. I promise. It just will. I don’t know how it works. I don’t know what magic you tap into by doing that, but I just know, you bring about what you think about, it’s just when I was growing up, in fact still to this day, my mom would always say, can’t, never did anything. And to this day, if you’re talking to her and I can’t do that, she’ll look at you and say, can’t never did anything. She’s right. I can’t never accomplished anything. Here’s a good example. I just got off a cruise and Pam and I, my wife Pam and I were sitting in a restaurant.
[00:13:56] It was a nice restaurant on the ship, and I ordered breakfast, got my eggs benedict, I got crispy bacon, fresh squeezed juice, and the guy directly behind me ordered almost the same damn thing. And we’re back to back and he’s talking to his wife about, oh, my toast is too cold. Oh, my egg’s not right. Oh, the bacon is too crispy.
[00:14:21] Oh, my orange juice isn’t right. I’m gonna give people a piece of my mind. They’re gonna hear about it. This is the worst experience of my life. Like dude, enjoy what you’ve got. Be appreciative for the opportunities that you have to be in this restaurant to be eating that meal. Other people in the world, other people in the United States, other people on this ship don’t have it as good as you do.
[00:14:50] Shut the fuck up. Yeah. And just appreciate life. And when you’re open to opportunities just happen to show up. Just the way it is, and I’m sure, like you said, you had about the same meal. You probably Other than having to listen to that guy bitch about it.
[00:15:05] You probably enjoyed your meal . I did. I did. I went there every morning for the same thing. Yeah, it was delicious. Now action breeds opportunity. Opportunity can lead to success. The worst time you wanna get involved in either making a rash decision on how to handle your debt or a rash decision on how you wanna make extra money is.
[00:15:32] When you are desperate, you will make bad decisions. In desperation, you will make better decisions in inspiration. Ooh. All right. That’s so true. Look at you, Mr. Self-Help Guru.
[00:15:48] And you’ve just gotta find a way to say, I am going to start today. I’m gonna make a, I’m gonna find the right information, I’m gonna get the facts, I’m gonna make informed decisions, and I’m gonna take. Action. And when it comes to the debt world, that often means the people who are sitting there saying, I’m afraid of what people are gonna think.
[00:16:11] I’m afraid of my credit score. I’m afraid of my creditors. And what they’re really doing is they’re pissing away a million dollars in lost retirement by refusing to take the action they need today. Their fear is going to manifest itself in being broke, hungry, and poor when they’re older, and those people who have money and have resources have made the right decisions.
[00:16:40] There’s luck in life, but for a lot of people that I have met, they have self-made luck. They have done what they need to do to make good decisions, to set themselves up for the future, and that’s what people need to do. Whether it’s in the debt world, we see people making stupid decisions all the time by talking to some salesperson and believing what they say.
[00:17:07] Trusting just anybody and in the I need to make some extra money. Side hustle world, we see people who believe every multi-level sales pitch every, you’ve seen many more than I have and just fall into those traps of spending money that will never be repaid. Here is a classic example in this side hustle world.
[00:17:31] I’m the one that’s testing how to make money as a seller on Amazon fulfilled by Amazon selling products on Amazon. How do we crack the code and make this work? And Damon, over the years you have talked to, I don’t know what number of elderly or senior people that have just been totally scammed by these, we’re gonna sell you a business in a box.
[00:17:58] You’re gonna be an Amazon seller or an eBay seller, or we’re gonna set you up with a website store and they just, they lose their retirement. Yeah. Yeah, it’s unfortunate. But yeah, there’s been a lot, it’s very common, especially in the elderly, where it’s man, how’d you’re 65, 70 years old, you’re on social security.
[00:18:16] How do you, what? How do you have $65,000 in debt? Oh, it’s this business and that business and this other business and this thing. And they were just trying to, it started by them just trying to supplement their social security because it wasn’t gonna be enough, and all it ended up doing was just put ’em deeper into debt.
[00:18:33] Now when people make bad decisions, And nobody likes to point the finger at themselves. Not my fault. I didn’t do it. Nobody likes that. No, I don’t. I don’t like that shit either, man.
[00:18:42] I blame all the bad decisions I have made on you. Yeah. And that makes me feel better. I know when something’s my fault. You’re usually just quiet. If I make a bad decision, you don’t say, dude, that was a bone head move. But you don’t tell me what was wrong with the what happened, and then I know by you not telling me what went wrong, I know I went wrong.
[00:19:03] That’s just his way. Here’s the thing. If you think somebody else took advantage of you, That’s a real problem for me. Now, it’s true. Somebody else might have put one over on you, but it’s your responsibility to be a smart consumer, a smart shopper, a smart side hustler. You have to make good decisions.
[00:19:23] You cannot trust other people to make them for you because if you feel like you’re a victim, You will always feel powerless. Yeah. You will never be able to take action to make your life better. You’re always depending on someone else to pull you up, well climb your ass out of the damn hole yourself.
[00:19:46] Build a ladder, find answers, find opportunity. Drive 5,000 miles. Look at your car as a tool. Every time you get a DoorDash order, you want to deliver and you. I don’t know, five bucks or whatever, say thank you and go and do more. And that’s how you’ll dig yourself out. Yeah. Just about your, and it all starts with your attitude and having a good attitude is what Steve. It is free. It costs you nothing. You don’t need to pay a consultant. You don’t need to buy a book. You don’t need to watch a movie. It’s free. Start today.
[00:20:23] The funny thing. The, not the haha. Funny, the ironic, funny is that people actually have all the tools they need right at hand. If we’re talking about making extra money, there is so much opportunity to make that extra 500, $2,000 a month if that’s what you want. That’s crazy how much opportunity is out there.
[00:20:48] If you have the desire to do it, you can make. I don’t care what the side hustle is. We’ve been through a bunch of, the only one I would go thumbs down on is online surveys. Amazon Turd. Yeah, Amazon turd, online surveys, inbox dollars, Swagbucks, those kinds of things. That’s a thumbs down.
[00:21:07] But everything else, Amazon delivery. Package. Delivery. Thumbs up, man. That’s good. Side hustling, delivering food products or packages or people or doing something online where you’re making a product, or Etsy or anything. There’s no shortage of things that you can do to make money. The question is, this kind of stuff was available when I was, 20.
[00:21:31] This is crazy at what the opportunities are right now. I wish it was too . They didn’t even have phones then. Steve . Back then the scams used to be vending machines and payphones. Yeah your phone was attached to a freaking wall, so you couldn’t pick somebody up. No, there, there have always been some sorts of opportunities.
[00:21:49] I look I started my first business when I was 14 years old. I started a bike repair shop in my neighborhood. And then when I was 15, I started a lawn mower repair shop, repaired lawn mowers all through the neighborhood. When I was 16, I started a car repair shop and did tuneups and oil changes and things like that.
[00:22:11] There is opportunity out there for everybody. Yeah. I had a paper route in fourth grade and I sold gum. I had a little business. I, back then it was called, it wasn’t Costco back then. It was called Price Club. And I would go to Price Club when I was in junior high, and I would buy gum and bulk and I would sell it at school until I got caught and my business was shut down.
[00:22:31] So my, the school was like the Amazon of the day where it’s like you can sell and make money until you get caught and you do something they don’t like and then they just shut you down. There’s no way to appeal it. You’re just done . And it was same day delivery. . Yeah, it was right there, right on the locker.
[00:22:49] But the guy, the principal’s. You can’t sell gum at school. And I was like, why not? He was like You because it’s against the rules. And I said, no, it’s not. He’s you cannot chew gum at school. It says on the signs all over. And I said, I’m not chewing it. I’m selling it. There’s no sign for that.
[00:23:05] Didn’t your school have a store? No. No. Like where you could buy supplies and stuff like that? No. They didn’t have a store. Yeah, mine did. No. They had a cafeteria where you can buy lunch and I sold gum, got the money and bought lunch. Look, that’s, that is ingenuity. Is that the word I use?
[00:23:24] Find the right one. No that’s the word I screwed up,
[00:23:27] If we have advice for people who are dealing with financial problems right now, dealing with debt issues and concerns, or people who wanna make an extra 500, $2,000 a month the funny thing is the advice is the same for both. It’s all about attitude research, making good decisions for yourself and.
[00:23:50] Then deciding what steps. Just one in front of the other, one foot in front of the other. You don’t need to make giant decisions. Just take some small steps towards something instead of sitting. In the same spot and bitching and whining and complaining that nobody loves you. The world’s against you.
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[00:24:13] There’s no opportunity. I can’t make money. Everything else, Damon, here’s one more thing since I’m on my bitch fest. Here is. We’ve talked recently about people who are in areas where they just don’t feel like there’s any opportunity. I can’t find the job. There’s nothing for me to do. Again, this is where attitude comes to play Now.
[00:24:38] Oh my God. I have not lived a perfect life, . That’s for sure. Any wisdom that I have. It’s from doing the wrong thing or observing people doing the wrong thing and learning from all of that. But lately we’ve talked about people who feel like there’s no hope, no opportunity. I’m never gonna get ahead in my day when things were not working out where you were.
[00:25:05] You know what you did. You picked up your ass, you packed your shit, and you moved somewhere else where there was opportunity. The world’s not gonna hand it to you. You gotta go get it.
[00:25:18] Especially now with the potential looming recession that keeps getting whispered about. Who knows, might come, might not, but now’s the time to prepare, get yourself out of debt and get an extra stream of income if you can.
[00:25:31] Yeah. I think there’s opportunity. Selling things online, whether it’s eBay, Facebook marketplace, Amazon is a little tougher to deal with, but it’s an opportunity for people. I’ll see, you’ll correct the code. We’ll figure it out and subscribe to our YouTube channel at Penny Stupid, and you can watch Steve figure it out.
[00:25:50] Or fall on his ass. Who knows? Either way, it’ll be entertaining. I’ll guarantee you this. I might fall on my ass, but I’ll be damned. I am picking myself up. And is continuing the journey because I am not, he falls on his ass. He’ll have a big shit grin. Yeah. and a video. Yeah. I’ll make a video about it.
[00:26:10] And a good attitude. . All right, Damon, any last words for people about attitude? No, other than my wife just peeked in. I was supposed to pick up my son two minutes ago, so I’m screwed, but can’t, never did anything. All right. Talk to you later. Thanks. Bye bye.
Source: getoutofdebt.org