August 13, 2025 • 37 mins
In this hard-hitting episode of Two Mikes, Dr. Michael Scheuer and Col. Mike welcome back Gordon Oliver of Cambridge Credit Counseling to expose the quiet financial crisis crushing the American middle class. From skyrocketing credit card debt—ballooning from $840 billion to $1.3 trillion—to retirees drowning in payments and 68% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, Oliver lays out the grim reality corporate media won’t touch. The discussion pulls no punches on the cultural rot driving reckless spending, the generational ignorance of basic money management, and the looming student loan catastrophe waiting to swallow our youth. This is a wake-up call for every American who still believes in personal responsibility, financial discipline, and the survival of our Republic.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, welcome back to another episode of Doctor Mike and
Colonel Mike on the Two Mics podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We wish everybody a happy spring. We know you're all
into the weather coming.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
And we want to thank you for visiting our show
at Network Radio dot US, our website two mics dot
us and don't forget to visit our website, both of them,
and we got over five hundred shows huh, five million
views on rumble and we're still going. Hey, by the way,
you go to love this next one coming up. Make
(00:32):
sure to tune in every week. Every two weeks we
get another show up there for you. And if you
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Say hellover to the sponsors at two Mics dot ustw
Mikes dot S thank.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You by four three two one, Hey, welcome back around
(01:17):
with two much Doctor Michael Shoyer.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
And Colonel Mike. Hey, if it's not hot.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Enough out there for you, tell us where you want
to be. And for you guys who live in Florida,
God bless you. I don't know how you do it,
but this has been a heck of a hot summer
out here in the Swamp area. We're outside the swamp too.
Mike and I are in the valley and it's not
any better than the swamp. So speaking of swamp, just
for a.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Real quick second, we're going to have our friend back.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
He hasn't been on. Look how long this guy has
been on. Our friend Gordon Oliver up there in New
England hasn't been on since the winter. And I think
the last time we spoke was really freezing and now
it's really hot. So let's move Gordon Oliver back. Because
it's always good to have money. You used to come
on a lot more. We really need to communicate a
(02:03):
lot better because we haven't been doing a lot of
shows Mike and I on the network, two mics. We've
been doing this Monday show, the National Security Hour, So
you know, we need to get some of you good
guys back on here. But you know, we have a
new president. The last time we spoke, I think he
just was in office. We have a new president, we
have tariffs, we have all these things around the globe
(02:26):
we're trying to solve, you know, before fixing everything back home.
So Gordon, tell us what's new in the world of
Cambridge Capital uh with Craig I'm sorry Cambridge Credit Counseling
in regards to with regards to where we are with
death in America and personal debt, not the thirty five trillion.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity beyond and I will do
my part in making sure that we get set up
because the next you know, here's here's the thing for
the consumer. And I really thank both of you, gentlemen
for having me on the news that never serves us
well because they care about headlines and clickbaiting and getting
(03:12):
people to react. We saw that with the student loans,
and now you've got people that are a fan of tariffs,
people that are not a fan of tariffs, And then
what does that do for the consumer as far as
what they need to do to take control of things.
So here's what I do know, and I proudly just
did a presentation yesterday for the Association of the United
States Army for the same reason that we know that people,
(03:35):
even though things look like they're getting better in the
economies rebounded a bit, recessions been tamped down. Accordingly, people
still are dealing with their own aftermaths, and we have
to look at the community of our people as a
whole for what the reality is. Right, So here's some
very simple things that need to be highlighted because this
(03:59):
is what we're dealing with and this is what's important
people though we exist. So number one, your employer employers
have what's called employee access plans, and they typically do
not have a debt counseling option. When an employee cannot
get a bank loan, the financial advisor can help them.
They don't want to be borrowing off their retirement because
(04:20):
they want it to grow over time. Because when it
comes time to use that retirement fund, you want it
to be as big as it can because you really
don't a lot of times at sixty five, sixty eight, seventy,
you don't really have the capacity to work two with
three jobs to make ends meet. So you need those
funds to survive. And god knows what secure so security
is going to look like. So it's important to understand
(04:41):
that access is available to get counseling if you have
debt problems. Now here's why it's important, guys. Number One,
sixty five percent of Americans age sixty five and over
carry debt. Again, most of the time retire, remember, guys,
because of what's gone on since COVID. With the economy,
everything costs more. So if you're sixty five sixty eight
(05:04):
on fixed income and everything costs more, what do you
think is going to happen? Right? Usually on secured lines
of credit get utilized, and I think I told you
guys this, but it doesn't It helps to repeat it.
During COVID, when I was doing presentations for companies, the
outstanding credit card debt was eight hundred and forty billion.
(05:24):
It's now at one point three trillion. And since that time,
the interest rates have gone up considerably because of the
timeframe of getting from the past administration to this administration.
And obviously again we're seeing great changes, but that doesn't
help people that already got themselves in the trouble. And
(05:45):
on credit cards, interest rates went up about four percent
overnight without people even knowing it. So once your interest
rate goes up on your credit card, what else goes
up your payment, which means that pulls money from your budget.
So this is why people are still dealing. The country
is dealing with a debt problem on both student loans
and credit cards, and that's why I want to make
sure I highlight some of these things. So people understand
(06:07):
that there is a problem out there, and people need
to know where to turn to trusted resource.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Hold on, I just want to break into ant So, Gordon,
you said eight hundred billion, and we're over a trillion.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Now eight hundred and forty billion, now one point three trillion.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Wow, that's a big difference. And this is in how
many years? Four or five years?
Speaker 5 (06:26):
What is it? Nineteen was COVID So we got out
of it. What in May of twenty twenty one, Yeah,
twenty one when the economy started opening up again. So
that's four years.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Even worse, Mike, the statistic of people living paycheck to
paycheck is around sixty eight percent. So even though everything
is getting better seemingly, when people are stuck right, it's
going to take a little time for costs to come down.
It's going to take a little time for the effects
(07:02):
to make the cost of everything, including energy and groceries
to come down. So when people are stuck in their
budget and they're just making minimum payments, the amount of
time it takes to pay your debt off. And guys,
I tell you, one of the best things that happened
in our industry. I used to explain to people that
if you follow the credit card monthly minimum payments the
(07:23):
way they're billing you, you'll be paying it for thirty years.
And I used to get laughed at, Well, what now
the creditor has to put the amount of time it's
going to take you in the cost on your statement
if you filllew the minimum payments which matches up to that.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Oh, yes, yes, I've seen that. I've seen that.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Yes, yeah, And that's why when people get stuck with
their budgets, they don't have all these two double and
triple payments. They're stuck just paying interest, which is a
waste of money.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And you did say something before.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
When you get into like the late sixties and you
want to tap into that money that you saved, the
question is, how do you know you're even going to
be in great health over fifty, over sixty?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Nobody knows that, right.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
So again you hear about starting your retirement as soon
as you can, starting a four to one case, starting
a retirement plan, whatever that looks like, and at all costs.
You want to do everything you can to avoid not
contributing to it, especially when your employer is matching. So
if you think about it. If the employee in matches
three percent and you put three percent on your paycheck,
you're making one hundred percent right there, and then it
(08:23):
goes over time. So we don't give financial advice, but
we do work with financial advisors to help people that
might have a debt problem and say they can't start investing,
to look into solutions that maybe we can get their
interest rate down with a debt management plan and then
their payments down and they can start investing the three percent.
So this is about the theme is about and it's
(08:46):
not like you brought up the heat. The summer is
the worst because when people when Memorial Day hits, everybody
is thinking, what am I doing with my kids? You know,
they're not going to school, so I got to do
something about them. Is there more daycare? We're going on vacation?
Is that going on a credit card when you go
on va? Case? Now everything once more. So it's the
same thing. This is the time of year where people
will come out of Labor Day and be like, all right,
(09:07):
what do we do with the death that we accumulated
in the summer?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, exactly, Wow, that's a big number.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
I'm Mike, I would say.
Speaker 6 (09:16):
So it's a it's I you know, I don't envy
you at all, Gordon and having to deal with this
problem because it seems that that it only gets worse,
and it's always the people that that can least afford
it that take take it in the ear. And I'm
not sure I'm interested to hear what you say about
(09:38):
the tariffs.
Speaker 7 (09:39):
I'm I'm I'm kind of on on the on the
board about that. On the on the line, I I
can see good in it, I can see bad in it.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
But we're really in a state now that even even
my family we're we're uh thinking about I'm thinking about
retiring in October or November, and praise the Lord, we're
pretty much debt free. But it still scares the hell
out of me.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
Yeah. I you bring up a very good point, because
what that really means in plain language is it's uncertainty.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Still, Yes, it's not an easy decision. Well, just because
the background I came from, My parents were depression people
and saving was a must for them. And now to
walk away from a job just because I'm seventy three
is is a troubling thought.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Yeah. Here's the thing though, back then, when you put
your money in the bank. You got a great return
on your money, right.
Speaker 6 (10:42):
You know, that's a good question. I've always wondered why
that nobody makes much of an issue of that.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Well, we used to get radios and toasters too.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (10:52):
Yeah, that's a very good point because that's all my
parents had was what they could save in the bank
and the interest they got it there.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So listen, I knew families, Gordon, I knew families that
you know came. There were some.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Irish families had a lot of kids, nine ten kids, right,
and if you needed something new, like a radio or
a toast, the parents would say, go open a bank account.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So So here's here's a couple of
things I want you guys to just think about and
we can this. The good news about coming on every
couple of weeks is this conversation is never old. It's
ever changing. Like the next time I come on, we'll
probably talk about all the student loan landscape because all
the changes up that this administration's dealing with the Department
(11:39):
of Education. There are program changes, there are payment plan changes.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
So yeah, let me ask you a quick question on that,
just real quick. So we have the closed down of
the Department of Education. They're shuffling this, that and the
other thing. And there's student loans that were like would
you say, in limbo or in thin air, where you know,
what is what were people doing? Are they running around
like chicken without heads saying how do I pay this?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Or how do I borrow this? Well? How does this work?
Speaker 5 (12:05):
Yeah? Let me let me clarify a couple of things.
And it's this is very important, right. So what they
were in, Mike was and this is stunning, but it's
what it was. They were for a very long period
of time, probably three plus years. They were in what's
called an administrative forbearance, which means typically when you're in
(12:27):
an administrative forbearance, if you have loans that are unsubsidized,
which most of the loans are interest accruise, so that
means your debt's getting bigger. Right during the COVID time
when they did the forbearance, they offered that at a
zero percent interest to freeze the balances from growing. And
(12:48):
depending on your values, either you could take advantage of
that and pay that balance down at zero percent, or
you could wait and let the news headlines tell you
that everyone's loans are getting forgiven which didn't happen, and
then now you know, last year October people had to
start paying interest in paying their loans again. So since
this administration comes in, we have put out all the
(13:12):
changes and we keep track of the changes that are
going on because we do student on counseling for free
to help people navigate what their choices and their options are.
And I'll do our next segment I can. I'll focus
completely on that, just so people understand what the options
are and note that they can call if they need
to talk to Y at no costs.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
Yeah, and Mike, uh, doctor Blake, I just want to
address what you said too, because I want to. I
want to like, this is not about blame. This is
not about shame. This is about consumers having to take
hold of their situation. Right, So financial wellness. If you're
in debt and you're not doing anything about it and
(13:54):
you're just kind of going every day and knowing that
your your debt's not going anywhere, you've got to do
something about it, right, you have to take a stand.
And here's the We have more and more things that
continue to cause us problems, and here's one of them.
I want to Last September, we put out a newsletter
(14:16):
that basically said, since the legalization of sports betting in
many states, over one hundred billion has been wagered legally
on sports in the United States since twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Now, again, this is not an old situation. Casinos have
existed forever. So it comes back to the consumer. Right.
I'm not suggesting that that's good, better and different. It
is what it is. They passed legalized gambling and it's
probably going to be nationwide at some point. But knowing
that we have that opportunity who gets into things like
(14:48):
that that don't have any experience our youth, Right, our
kids are collegiate kids that are accumulating some debt. Does
that mean it's bad. It's a vice. It's something that's
out there, and it's all about having control of it. Right.
If we budget our money, we have a category for
expenses for hobbies and entertainment, and as long as you
budget for that, you don't extend yourself with credit card
(15:10):
debt over it. Unfortunately, that's not what's happening. So this
is the kind of work that we do to continue
to put education at important topics out there, not to
criticize a product or an angle, but to inform consumers
that there is an option always to get control of things.
Speaker 6 (15:26):
Gordon, when you talk to young people, it seems to
me and I'm like I said, I'm an old cajure.
But there's just a senior lack of common sense in
not realizing the road that they put themselves on as
freshmen by the time they get by the time they graduate,
and not quite sure they're going to have a job.
(15:47):
Where do they think that the relief is going to
come from?
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Oh man, doctor Mike, this is a This is a
generational issue, right. I remember the day, and I suggest
maybe you guys might too. My grandmother and you brought
this up about you know, our elders teaching us things.
I bring this up in my workshops a lot where
you know, when I had a car loan, she would
(16:12):
tell me, as soon as you've done paying the car loan,
keep making that payment into your savings account, and just
until you need a new car, you'll have a fund
for repairs and everything else. So I think a lot
of it comes down to Look, this is my opinion.
These cell phones, these iPhones have just changed culture in general.
(16:35):
I want to in discussion. Right, Remember when you guys
were young lads, right, we were out playing in the playground,
riding our bikes. The amount of data that would go
through our eyeballs was minuscule in comparison to what our
kids see through their eyeballs every day through these phones.
And now you've got parents addicted to it. I go
to restaurants, the kids are sitting there with an iPad,
(16:57):
and they're sitting there with electronic devices, and then they
go home and play electronic games. It all comes down
to the family. Kitchen table needs to come back, like
people need to sit at the table and talk about
the family and talk about this, you know, the forecast
of the week, and talk about finances. In the workshop
I did yesterday in budgeting, I talked about the family
(17:18):
needs to include the kids when they're dealing with budgetary issues.
If the kids don't know that they're managing their money
and they're saving some money, and when the child wants something,
we have to develop a plan the same for that item,
not throw it on a credit card. That's the kind
of discussions that need to happen. But I fear that
those conversations the more we get electronic are not happening
(17:40):
as much as they used to.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
You know what, I live in a pretty rural area.
The Colonel does too. And my wife and I went
out to breakfast last Sunday morning after Mass, and there
there were two tables just across from us. One of
them was all the parents open, one young baby in
a high chair, and the table next to them were
(18:03):
five apparently five boys who were theirs, ye, and every
one of them they weren't talking to each other. They
were looking down at that damn phone, waiting for breakfast
to come.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
Yep.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
It's just remarkable. And it's just not like we went
to a place that's not very expensive for breakfast, but
when you go out for your anniversary, you go into
places that are quite expensive and there's adults like that,
a man and a woman at a table, not talking
to each other, just watching those phones.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
It's crazy.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
It is, indeed, sir, it is indeed. I don't know.
Parenting has become a.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
Well, Mike, I think you know what it's like. You know,
we grew up, Gordon grew up at different time, and
you and I did too. It's just taking control, you know.
I see it all the time. I see these kids
that first of all, they're too young to have a
big screen in front of their face, you know what
I mean, their room and there you know, they're too
young for this man a little bit. Yeah, you want
(19:03):
to play the game twenty minutes. But you see this everywhere,
you know, sixteen years ago, seventeen years ago, Gordon and Mike.
I used to visit younger people my neighbors in another
neighborhood I lived in years ago, and you would go.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
To their house and they'd.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Have dinner and everybody sat in a different place, in
a kitchen, in a dining room or a living room
with a TV on, and all they did was play
with their phones with the plate.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
On their lap. I'm like, you guys got to be
kidding me. Yeah, the communication it was silent night, silent night.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
So so take it a step further, guys, and this
is not a fearmonger thing. Just think about it as
far as common sense is concerned. Someone, let's say they
get their phone when they're I think there's a stat
that just came out that if you give a child
electronic devices or phones or whatnot before the age of thirteen,
like the suicidal tendencies are like, oh right, Yeah, Now,
(20:00):
the real danger is when we talk about our generations ahead.
The twelve or thirteen year old that gets a phone,
now when they're twenty two, twenty four, what constitution are
they going to then be teaching their children if they're
not being introduced to a structured way of breaking away
from electronic devices and doing family work right, which is
(20:24):
sitting at the dinner table, no electronics, we go out
for dinner, no electronics in the restaurant, We're going to
sit and talk about the week, talk about homework, talk
about the plan, teach them to cook, you know, all
of these things. I think eventually, because it's just the
nature of thing, there'll be enough concentration on this to
(20:45):
try to make an opportunity for some leaders to really
start doing some targeted implementation of things that families can do.
Because again, all the studies are out there about the
addiction to the devices. So now we have to just
figure out how to make it so that there's like
a workout plan or like a diet, there's a regime
(21:05):
that you're going to go through where there's time spent
without electronics to do family type discussions and things.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, most most kids they're just zombies. You know. A
lot of kids are just like yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
And for some parents it's a good thing because like
I don't want to be bothered, you know, I don't
go in the room play with the thing. But you're right,
it's not just suicidal. A lot of these kids they're
like empty. You look at them right, good and they're empty.
They have it's like no soul. They don't want to
say hello, then won not at all. Have you been
(21:39):
have you been in stores?
Speaker 2 (21:40):
I have?
Speaker 4 (21:41):
You know where you know you go in and somebody
is looking at their phone and they work there, right,
and you have to wait a few minutes till they
finish whatever they're doing on the phone.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
They go, can I help you?
Speaker 4 (21:52):
And I don't like to be sarcastic all the time,
but I say, oh, I'm glad you.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
I'm glad you found time to say a load of me,
you know, like you're getting paid.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
They got cameras everywhere you could go in a store.
How do you permit this? You know, I could see
like on your break you got to use your phone
or emergency They called the store right Hey, you know, Gordon,
we're looking for you at home. We can't find the lawnmower,
you know, But why do you have to have a
phone in your pocket and look at it every five
minutes when somebody's paying you so much an hour?
Speaker 5 (22:21):
Yeah, I mean, I'll take it one further, Mike. I've
been in a department store where the employee walked into
the closing rack because they were looking down at their
phone and they didn't realize it was right in front
of them. Right, But bring it back like so, think
about the credit card conundrum. Right when credit cards were introduced.
I remember my parents they had to go to what
(22:42):
was the name of that household finance?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yes, yes, I remember that right, yes, So if.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
They wanted to borrow money, they had to go in
and sit with the bank, right, borrow money for an
appliance or whatever it was. Once you took the credit
card and it became the dominant thing, it's like casino chips.
There's a reason other than safety that catches and use
the casinos because one hundred dollars, bill Field, it's a
lot different than a black chip that's one hundred and
a shift that's five dollars. You don't know the tangibility
(23:09):
of it. Once it's not cash it's the same thing
with credit cards. So bringing it all back to these
things that you have to go back to basics, Right,
even though there's electronic opportunity to budget and things like that,
you've got to kind of have your mind in it.
You've got to be paying attention to it. And the
reason credit card debt gets rampant and people get stuck
with it, it's not typically for overspending or irresponsibility. It's
(23:34):
typically because there's no real game plan, and when a
shift in life happens, like our economy did three years ago,
and people weren't making more money, something has to shoulder
those expenses, especially if people aren't budgeting or paying attention
to what they're spending. So it becomes just now it's
a thing that happens. You put gas on your credit card,
you put groceries on your credit card, and then the
(23:57):
bill comes in and all this onff. I can only
pay the minimum. Oh, well, I'll do with the next month.
And then next month happens and the car needed repair,
and now you had to put five hundred dollars on
the credit card, and now you can't afford to pay
that down. That's the kind of thing that happens in
an economy like this, which is why that credit card
jump has happened so high, inclusive of the interest rates
going up and the payment's going up, which is putting
(24:18):
people in strains. So all of these things. Mike, you
doctor Mike, you brought up common sense, right.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
That's his nickname, by the way, Gordon comes up. I
love it because it's not a show we do. I'm
serious and I'm not knocking Mike. I love it, but
there's not a show we do that the heat doesn't
wind up getting a couple of times common sense of
the conversation.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Because it really is the truth. People don't have common sense,
and why don't we have common sense? You know what
I mean? Yeah, it's just amazing.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
Well, I think one of the reason for I'm sorry,
I'm go ahead, doctor, Michael ahead.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
No, I was just going to say, I think one
one problem we have is since the end of the
Second War, the universities have been the enemies of tradition,
and maybe they have you know, maybe it's gone too far.
It's you know, it's okay to be you don't like
the tradition of a black person not liking a white
(25:12):
or whatever. The tradition was those things got to be fixed.
But it seems like they attack every tradition. There's there's
got to be hundreds of very smart people out there
who know that this electronic business is killing our children.
And yet, and yet it goes on and on and
on and on, and I don't know how we're going
(25:35):
to stop it. It's you know, tradition is durable.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
But once you destroyed it back Mike, it's an addiction.
They put these kids on an addiction early on.
Speaker 6 (25:44):
Oh, I think that's right. And also, like what Gordon
was saying about that damn betting, Well, how in the
world can that happen? You know, guys got thrown out
of baseball for betting forty bucks or one hundred bucks
on a game, and now you get advertisements on the
TV every night for it during sports events.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah, you remember when they brought in the sports in
the States. Well, we're going to build more schools. How
easy was that one?
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Right, We're just going to help the kids get educated.
But you'll be addicted to gambling, but we'll get those
schools built.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Don't worry about it.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
Yeah, no, no problem, you guys. Look, I'm not I
don't try to be conspiratorial. But just like you know,
big farm and needs people to be sick. Right, that's
why in different countries certain things aren't are aren't allowable
in our foods, right, But in our country it's big money.
So it is gambling, big money, marijuana, big money. You
(26:40):
just go down the list, and all of these things
that are implemented are for our citizenry to keep those
machines rolling. So back to the common sense, doctor Mike. Yeah,
at some point you have to have an awareness that
you have to take control of the things that don't
(27:01):
do you very well.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
Right, well, yeah, yeah. The only two things I had
in regard to forming common sense were the example of
my parents in the in faith because if you know,
if faith does teach you common sense and what makes
sense and what doesn't, and we've kind of abandoned both,
and now we have parents that aren't even competitive teaching
(27:25):
common sense anybody.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
I think there's a you know, that's an opportunity for
a movement, because I think many people know this in
their heart that these problems, these addictions, these things that
were forced into you always can take back control. But
it takes work, right.
Speaker 6 (27:44):
Yes, yes, it takes a lot of work. And the
older you get, the more debt you have, the harder
it is.
Speaker 8 (27:51):
I think, well, I you know, I it was hard
for me, but I got rid of one addiction I
was once I found out about those color dye colors.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
I stopped teating those M and ms that were blue
they were favorite.
Speaker 6 (28:08):
Is there any is there anywhere? Want to out there
trying to figure out a system for student loans that
are are you know, more more more economic, economical or
more sensical or is it just it just flies along
by itself and no one really questions it.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
So a couple of things there right, just quickly in
the process, just for the overall discussion. The real way
it happens, you find out the cost of the college,
you apply for aid what they call aid in most instances,
is the student can take out loans that are maxed
out at let's say incrementally freshman five year five thousand,
(28:55):
sophomore fifty five hundred, junior sixty five hundred, senior seven thousand.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
So what does that cover though? What does that cover
for that kind of money?
Speaker 5 (29:04):
Nothing? So question, it covers nothing. So then what happens
is the parents or the guardian has to fund the rest.
So the options are parent plus loans, which currently are
anywhere from nine to twelve percent, interests Jesus, and private lending. Right.
So the real problem, if you asked me from being
(29:27):
involved in it, it just costs too much to go
to school.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Now, yeah, sure is.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
It's their country clubs. Now you go to these universities,
and again it's all about the money. Guys. You've got
the government putting people in debt, funding these businesses, look
at these colleges with.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Them, and then they give them the credit costs to
go more debts. So it's a debt cycle claiming you
name it right.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
So this conversation about college is an interesting one because
I feel like, just I'm going to go on record here,
I I think this frightening AI revolution that's going on
is going to really change the landscape in so many
ways you can't expect. I had this postess I was
(30:13):
talking to and she had just came home from college
and recognizes it. It's good she recognizes it that her
family is in debt for about eighty grand and she
has three more years to go. So when we talk
about planning, right, you've got to take a look at
a family. This gets back to doctor Mike's common sense.
(30:36):
If I get two hundred and forty thousand dollars out
in loans, of which the parents are going to have
eighty percent of, if not more, are they going to
pay for them? Sometimes a parent thinks, well, the child
will start helping me pay for them, and maybe that
does happen. But at the end of the day, what
kind of salary is this graduate in the career path
(30:58):
they chose going to get to pay off two hundred
and forty thousand dollars in day for four years of education,
of which they'll be lucky if they use a third
of that education.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Correct.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
So that is another machine that unfortunately is in cahoots
with the government and it's destroying people. That's the bottom line.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
So you know what.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
You know, it was really comical when Trump ordered the
Department of Education shut down and everybody was scattering, right,
they were still running the student loans on commercials on
TV and radio you know where to get student loans,
And I'm like.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
They just shut the DLLE. What are we doing here? Man?
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Did you guys take about these commercials? Because people were scattered,
they didn't you saw in the news what was going on.
They didn't know how to pay, where to pay, how
to get it? What's the new one? Here comes school?
You know, nobody thought that out on how to do it.
I mean, we need to eliminate the Department of Education
in any way we can. But also you got to
(32:01):
have a smooth landing of some kind. You know, people
have to know which way to go.
Speaker 5 (32:06):
Well, man, we could talk about all of this so
for so very long. Here's the other thing. There's no
real like I think the Trump administration is trying to
get these loans transferred into the SBA, right, and that's, uh,
that's a reach at this point that I've seen. I
haven't seen any real traction on it because there's so
(32:27):
many challenges involved in it. But even so, the Department
of Education is one piece of the problem. Right. The
other problem is if this is going on, and you
just brought this up as a as something that they're
working on killing this department, well, then how are these
colleges going to get paid this The loans are still
(32:50):
going to be given by the government. Who's going to
handle those loans? I don't know. I don't know what
that looks like. I don't know how they're going to
just shut that down. I just don't know how that
as possible when we've got one point seven trillion outstanding
that vendors.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money outstanding, man, really.
Speaker 5 (33:08):
And yet people are getting ready to go back to
school on the falls. So you know, it's it's a mess,
that's the bottom line. And next school is only what
a couple.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
Of weeks away now, I mean think about it, right,
We'll get a couple of weeks. People are going to
be going back to college.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
Junior, some freshman already going, yeah, so that they don't
go through pre orientation and stuff. M So I look,
next time I come on, I love to talk about
the student low landscape for people that have the debt
because it's you know, it's confusing. It's hard to get
someone on the phone at these vendors now because everybody
(33:42):
is panicking from headlines and whatnot. So I would love
to come on and go over well, all right, let's
do it.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yeah, I mean, you go call anybody today, it's all AI. Anyway,
when you get on the phone, it's like.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
And you know, it's a I you know, ye, I
want to speak to I'd like to speak to a person. Well, first,
let me ask you a question. Why would you like
to speak to a person? I had one of those yesterday.
Why would you like to speak Well, there's a reason
I just told you I want to speak to a person.
Can you tell me a little bit more.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
Yeah, yeah, let's go down the tree and get the
other bot online.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
That's right, Gordon, thanks for coming on again. It was great. Hey,
come back over time. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:28):
Let me just give the webpage you guys set up
for us.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Do everything you have to do, no problem, we put
them in the notes.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
Good.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
So God's to give you the information how to contact
the number and the website.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
Go ahead, yep eight eight eight seven sixty four seven
four sixt eight. Our company is Cambridge Credit Counseling, in
business since nineteen ninety six and the website is Cambridge
Credit dot org forward slash two mikes.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
Now, Also, no matter where you work, if you're in
a union, you're in some associate ciation, he can help
you out with your group, teachers, firemen, police, whatever.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (35:07):
Workshops we do with workshops for free. There's no cost
to the employer. There's a ton of things we can
do to help employers, employees, union members, association members, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
And they go to red and blue states.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
That you absolutely do.
Speaker 6 (35:22):
Just real, real quick, Gordon, is there anybody doing a
like a seminar for graduating seniors of high school or
in juniors and seniors explaining what the future brings in
terms of debt? Well, maybe the schools wouldn't let him in.
Speaker 5 (35:40):
I don't know, So here's another probably problem, and maybe
offline we can collaborate on putting something together. I'd be
happy to do that for all graduates, even in high
school and preparation. Right. Yes, So the reason I don't
think that they put a lot of mustard there is
(36:03):
because they have six months their loans are indeferment to
get into the real world, so they don't really come
do unless they proactively put them in repayment until six
months after graduation. However, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.
I could put a guideline together and maybe email it
to you guys just for discussion. We could do that
(36:24):
in the heartbeat. And really, what that means like right
now is three months into what may June July, right,
so they have three months essentially where their loans are
in grace period, so like September might not be a
bad idea to do one for any collegiate graduates. And
I'd be happy to put it together.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Well with sports. You could just thought from football, they'd
be happy to get you football of course for sure.
All right, go AHD And thank you God bless your tike.
Speaker 5 (36:58):
Care man, God bless you guys. Right here we're talking
to you guys again. Thank you so much. Great to
have you, Gordon, all right, doctor Mike, thank you
Speaker 1 (37:10):
M hm
Hey, welcome back to another episode of Doctor Mike and
Colonel Mike on the Two Mics podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We wish everybody a happy spring. We know you're all
into the weather coming.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
And we want to thank you for visiting our show
at Network Radio dot US, our website two mics dot
us and don't forget to visit our website, both of them,
and we got over five hundred shows huh, five million
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(00:32):
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Say hellover to the sponsors at two Mics dot ustw
Mikes dot S thank.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You by four three two one, Hey, welcome back around
(01:17):
with two much Doctor Michael Shoyer.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
And Colonel Mike. Hey, if it's not hot.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Enough out there for you, tell us where you want
to be. And for you guys who live in Florida,
God bless you. I don't know how you do it,
but this has been a heck of a hot summer
out here in the Swamp area. We're outside the swamp too.
Mike and I are in the valley and it's not
any better than the swamp. So speaking of swamp, just
for a.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Real quick second, we're going to have our friend back.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
He hasn't been on. Look how long this guy has
been on. Our friend Gordon Oliver up there in New
England hasn't been on since the winter. And I think
the last time we spoke was really freezing and now
it's really hot. So let's move Gordon Oliver back. Because
it's always good to have money. You used to come
on a lot more. We really need to communicate a
(02:03):
lot better because we haven't been doing a lot of
shows Mike and I on the network, two mics. We've
been doing this Monday show, the National Security Hour, So
you know, we need to get some of you good
guys back on here. But you know, we have a
new president. The last time we spoke, I think he
just was in office. We have a new president, we
have tariffs, we have all these things around the globe
(02:26):
we're trying to solve, you know, before fixing everything back home.
So Gordon, tell us what's new in the world of
Cambridge Capital uh with Craig I'm sorry Cambridge Credit Counseling
in regards to with regards to where we are with
death in America and personal debt, not the thirty five trillion.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity beyond and I will do
my part in making sure that we get set up
because the next you know, here's here's the thing for
the consumer. And I really thank both of you, gentlemen
for having me on the news that never serves us
well because they care about headlines and clickbaiting and getting
(03:12):
people to react. We saw that with the student loans,
and now you've got people that are a fan of tariffs,
people that are not a fan of tariffs, And then
what does that do for the consumer as far as
what they need to do to take control of things.
So here's what I do know, and I proudly just
did a presentation yesterday for the Association of the United
States Army for the same reason that we know that people,
(03:35):
even though things look like they're getting better in the
economies rebounded a bit, recessions been tamped down. Accordingly, people
still are dealing with their own aftermaths, and we have
to look at the community of our people as a
whole for what the reality is. Right, So here's some
very simple things that need to be highlighted because this
(03:59):
is what we're dealing with and this is what's important
people though we exist. So number one, your employer employers
have what's called employee access plans, and they typically do
not have a debt counseling option. When an employee cannot
get a bank loan, the financial advisor can help them.
They don't want to be borrowing off their retirement because
(04:20):
they want it to grow over time. Because when it
comes time to use that retirement fund, you want it
to be as big as it can because you really
don't a lot of times at sixty five, sixty eight, seventy,
you don't really have the capacity to work two with
three jobs to make ends meet. So you need those
funds to survive. And god knows what secure so security
is going to look like. So it's important to understand
(04:41):
that access is available to get counseling if you have
debt problems. Now here's why it's important, guys. Number One,
sixty five percent of Americans age sixty five and over
carry debt. Again, most of the time retire, remember, guys,
because of what's gone on since COVID. With the economy,
everything costs more. So if you're sixty five sixty eight
(05:04):
on fixed income and everything costs more, what do you
think is going to happen? Right? Usually on secured lines
of credit get utilized, and I think I told you
guys this, but it doesn't It helps to repeat it.
During COVID, when I was doing presentations for companies, the
outstanding credit card debt was eight hundred and forty billion.
(05:24):
It's now at one point three trillion. And since that time,
the interest rates have gone up considerably because of the
timeframe of getting from the past administration to this administration.
And obviously again we're seeing great changes, but that doesn't
help people that already got themselves in the trouble. And
(05:45):
on credit cards, interest rates went up about four percent
overnight without people even knowing it. So once your interest
rate goes up on your credit card, what else goes
up your payment, which means that pulls money from your budget.
So this is why people are still dealing. The country
is dealing with a debt problem on both student loans
and credit cards, and that's why I want to make
sure I highlight some of these things. So people understand
(06:07):
that there is a problem out there, and people need
to know where to turn to trusted resource.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Hold on, I just want to break into ant So, Gordon,
you said eight hundred billion, and we're over a trillion.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Now eight hundred and forty billion, now one point three trillion.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Wow, that's a big difference. And this is in how
many years? Four or five years?
Speaker 5 (06:26):
What is it? Nineteen was COVID So we got out
of it. What in May of twenty twenty one, Yeah,
twenty one when the economy started opening up again. So
that's four years.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
Even worse, Mike, the statistic of people living paycheck to
paycheck is around sixty eight percent. So even though everything
is getting better seemingly, when people are stuck right, it's
going to take a little time for costs to come down.
It's going to take a little time for the effects
(07:02):
to make the cost of everything, including energy and groceries
to come down. So when people are stuck in their
budget and they're just making minimum payments, the amount of
time it takes to pay your debt off. And guys,
I tell you, one of the best things that happened
in our industry. I used to explain to people that
if you follow the credit card monthly minimum payments the
(07:23):
way they're billing you, you'll be paying it for thirty years.
And I used to get laughed at, Well, what now
the creditor has to put the amount of time it's
going to take you in the cost on your statement
if you filllew the minimum payments which matches up to that.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Oh, yes, yes, I've seen that. I've seen that.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Yes, yeah, And that's why when people get stuck with
their budgets, they don't have all these two double and
triple payments. They're stuck just paying interest, which is a
waste of money.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And you did say something before.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
When you get into like the late sixties and you
want to tap into that money that you saved, the
question is, how do you know you're even going to
be in great health over fifty, over sixty?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Nobody knows that, right.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
So again you hear about starting your retirement as soon
as you can, starting a four to one case, starting
a retirement plan, whatever that looks like, and at all costs.
You want to do everything you can to avoid not
contributing to it, especially when your employer is matching. So
if you think about it. If the employee in matches
three percent and you put three percent on your paycheck,
you're making one hundred percent right there, and then it
(08:23):
goes over time. So we don't give financial advice, but
we do work with financial advisors to help people that
might have a debt problem and say they can't start investing,
to look into solutions that maybe we can get their
interest rate down with a debt management plan and then
their payments down and they can start investing the three percent.
So this is about the theme is about and it's
(08:46):
not like you brought up the heat. The summer is
the worst because when people when Memorial Day hits, everybody
is thinking, what am I doing with my kids? You know,
they're not going to school, so I got to do
something about them. Is there more daycare? We're going on vacation?
Is that going on a credit card when you go
on va? Case? Now everything once more. So it's the
same thing. This is the time of year where people
will come out of Labor Day and be like, all right,
(09:07):
what do we do with the death that we accumulated
in the summer?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, exactly, Wow, that's a big number.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
I'm Mike, I would say.
Speaker 6 (09:16):
So it's a it's I you know, I don't envy
you at all, Gordon and having to deal with this
problem because it seems that that it only gets worse,
and it's always the people that that can least afford
it that take take it in the ear. And I'm
not sure I'm interested to hear what you say about
(09:38):
the tariffs.
Speaker 7 (09:39):
I'm I'm I'm kind of on on the on the
board about that. On the on the line, I I
can see good in it, I can see bad in it.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
But we're really in a state now that even even
my family we're we're uh thinking about I'm thinking about
retiring in October or November, and praise the Lord, we're
pretty much debt free. But it still scares the hell
out of me.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
Yeah. I you bring up a very good point, because
what that really means in plain language is it's uncertainty.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Still, Yes, it's not an easy decision. Well, just because
the background I came from, My parents were depression people
and saving was a must for them. And now to
walk away from a job just because I'm seventy three
is is a troubling thought.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Yeah. Here's the thing though, back then, when you put
your money in the bank. You got a great return
on your money, right.
Speaker 6 (10:42):
You know, that's a good question. I've always wondered why
that nobody makes much of an issue of that.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Well, we used to get radios and toasters too.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (10:52):
Yeah, that's a very good point because that's all my
parents had was what they could save in the bank
and the interest they got it there.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So listen, I knew families, Gordon, I knew families that
you know came. There were some.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Irish families had a lot of kids, nine ten kids, right,
and if you needed something new, like a radio or
a toast, the parents would say, go open a bank account.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So So here's here's a couple of
things I want you guys to just think about and
we can this. The good news about coming on every
couple of weeks is this conversation is never old. It's
ever changing. Like the next time I come on, we'll
probably talk about all the student loan landscape because all
the changes up that this administration's dealing with the Department
(11:39):
of Education. There are program changes, there are payment plan changes.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
So yeah, let me ask you a quick question on that,
just real quick. So we have the closed down of
the Department of Education. They're shuffling this, that and the
other thing. And there's student loans that were like would
you say, in limbo or in thin air, where you know,
what is what were people doing? Are they running around
like chicken without heads saying how do I pay this?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Or how do I borrow this? Well? How does this work?
Speaker 5 (12:05):
Yeah? Let me let me clarify a couple of things.
And it's this is very important, right. So what they
were in, Mike was and this is stunning, but it's
what it was. They were for a very long period
of time, probably three plus years. They were in what's
called an administrative forbearance, which means typically when you're in
(12:27):
an administrative forbearance, if you have loans that are unsubsidized,
which most of the loans are interest accruise, so that
means your debt's getting bigger. Right during the COVID time
when they did the forbearance, they offered that at a
zero percent interest to freeze the balances from growing. And
(12:48):
depending on your values, either you could take advantage of
that and pay that balance down at zero percent, or
you could wait and let the news headlines tell you
that everyone's loans are getting forgiven which didn't happen, and
then now you know, last year October people had to
start paying interest in paying their loans again. So since
this administration comes in, we have put out all the
(13:12):
changes and we keep track of the changes that are
going on because we do student on counseling for free
to help people navigate what their choices and their options are.
And I'll do our next segment I can. I'll focus
completely on that, just so people understand what the options
are and note that they can call if they need
to talk to Y at no costs.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
Yeah, and Mike, uh, doctor Blake, I just want to
address what you said too, because I want to. I
want to like, this is not about blame. This is
not about shame. This is about consumers having to take
hold of their situation. Right, So financial wellness. If you're
in debt and you're not doing anything about it and
(13:54):
you're just kind of going every day and knowing that
your your debt's not going anywhere, you've got to do
something about it, right, you have to take a stand.
And here's the We have more and more things that
continue to cause us problems, and here's one of them.
I want to Last September, we put out a newsletter
(14:16):
that basically said, since the legalization of sports betting in
many states, over one hundred billion has been wagered legally
on sports in the United States since twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Now, again, this is not an old situation. Casinos have
existed forever. So it comes back to the consumer. Right.
I'm not suggesting that that's good, better and different. It
is what it is. They passed legalized gambling and it's
probably going to be nationwide at some point. But knowing
that we have that opportunity who gets into things like
(14:48):
that that don't have any experience our youth, Right, our
kids are collegiate kids that are accumulating some debt. Does
that mean it's bad. It's a vice. It's something that's
out there, and it's all about having control of it. Right.
If we budget our money, we have a category for
expenses for hobbies and entertainment, and as long as you
budget for that, you don't extend yourself with credit card
(15:10):
debt over it. Unfortunately, that's not what's happening. So this
is the kind of work that we do to continue
to put education at important topics out there, not to
criticize a product or an angle, but to inform consumers
that there is an option always to get control of things.
Speaker 6 (15:26):
Gordon, when you talk to young people, it seems to
me and I'm like I said, I'm an old cajure.
But there's just a senior lack of common sense in
not realizing the road that they put themselves on as
freshmen by the time they get by the time they graduate,
and not quite sure they're going to have a job.
(15:47):
Where do they think that the relief is going to
come from?
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Oh man, doctor Mike, this is a This is a
generational issue, right. I remember the day, and I suggest
maybe you guys might too. My grandmother and you brought
this up about you know, our elders teaching us things.
I bring this up in my workshops a lot where
you know, when I had a car loan, she would
(16:12):
tell me, as soon as you've done paying the car loan,
keep making that payment into your savings account, and just
until you need a new car, you'll have a fund
for repairs and everything else. So I think a lot
of it comes down to Look, this is my opinion.
These cell phones, these iPhones have just changed culture in general.
(16:35):
I want to in discussion. Right, Remember when you guys
were young lads, right, we were out playing in the playground,
riding our bikes. The amount of data that would go
through our eyeballs was minuscule in comparison to what our
kids see through their eyeballs every day through these phones.
And now you've got parents addicted to it. I go
to restaurants, the kids are sitting there with an iPad,
(16:57):
and they're sitting there with electronic devices, and then they
go home and play electronic games. It all comes down
to the family. Kitchen table needs to come back, like
people need to sit at the table and talk about
the family and talk about this, you know, the forecast
of the week, and talk about finances. In the workshop
I did yesterday in budgeting, I talked about the family
(17:18):
needs to include the kids when they're dealing with budgetary issues.
If the kids don't know that they're managing their money
and they're saving some money, and when the child wants something,
we have to develop a plan the same for that item,
not throw it on a credit card. That's the kind
of discussions that need to happen. But I fear that
those conversations the more we get electronic are not happening
(17:40):
as much as they used to.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
You know what, I live in a pretty rural area.
The Colonel does too. And my wife and I went
out to breakfast last Sunday morning after Mass, and there
there were two tables just across from us. One of
them was all the parents open, one young baby in
a high chair, and the table next to them were
(18:03):
five apparently five boys who were theirs, ye, and every
one of them they weren't talking to each other. They
were looking down at that damn phone, waiting for breakfast
to come.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
Yep.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
It's just remarkable. And it's just not like we went
to a place that's not very expensive for breakfast, but
when you go out for your anniversary, you go into
places that are quite expensive and there's adults like that,
a man and a woman at a table, not talking
to each other, just watching those phones.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
It's crazy.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
It is, indeed, sir, it is indeed. I don't know.
Parenting has become a.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
Well, Mike, I think you know what it's like. You know,
we grew up, Gordon grew up at different time, and
you and I did too. It's just taking control, you know.
I see it all the time. I see these kids
that first of all, they're too young to have a
big screen in front of their face, you know what
I mean, their room and there you know, they're too
young for this man a little bit. Yeah, you want
(19:03):
to play the game twenty minutes. But you see this everywhere,
you know, sixteen years ago, seventeen years ago, Gordon and Mike.
I used to visit younger people my neighbors in another
neighborhood I lived in years ago, and you would go.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
To their house and they'd.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Have dinner and everybody sat in a different place, in
a kitchen, in a dining room or a living room
with a TV on, and all they did was play
with their phones with the plate.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
On their lap. I'm like, you guys got to be
kidding me. Yeah, the communication it was silent night, silent night.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
So so take it a step further, guys, and this
is not a fearmonger thing. Just think about it as
far as common sense is concerned. Someone, let's say they
get their phone when they're I think there's a stat
that just came out that if you give a child
electronic devices or phones or whatnot before the age of thirteen,
like the suicidal tendencies are like, oh right, Yeah, Now,
(20:00):
the real danger is when we talk about our generations ahead.
The twelve or thirteen year old that gets a phone,
now when they're twenty two, twenty four, what constitution are
they going to then be teaching their children if they're
not being introduced to a structured way of breaking away
from electronic devices and doing family work right, which is
(20:24):
sitting at the dinner table, no electronics, we go out
for dinner, no electronics in the restaurant, We're going to
sit and talk about the week, talk about homework, talk
about the plan, teach them to cook, you know, all
of these things. I think eventually, because it's just the
nature of thing, there'll be enough concentration on this to
(20:45):
try to make an opportunity for some leaders to really
start doing some targeted implementation of things that families can do.
Because again, all the studies are out there about the
addiction to the devices. So now we have to just
figure out how to make it so that there's like
a workout plan or like a diet, there's a regime
(21:05):
that you're going to go through where there's time spent
without electronics to do family type discussions and things.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, most most kids they're just zombies. You know. A
lot of kids are just like yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
And for some parents it's a good thing because like
I don't want to be bothered, you know, I don't
go in the room play with the thing. But you're right,
it's not just suicidal. A lot of these kids they're
like empty. You look at them right, good and they're empty.
They have it's like no soul. They don't want to
say hello, then won not at all. Have you been
(21:39):
have you been in stores?
Speaker 2 (21:40):
I have?
Speaker 4 (21:41):
You know where you know you go in and somebody
is looking at their phone and they work there, right,
and you have to wait a few minutes till they
finish whatever they're doing on the phone.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
They go, can I help you?
Speaker 4 (21:52):
And I don't like to be sarcastic all the time,
but I say, oh, I'm glad you.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
I'm glad you found time to say a load of me,
you know, like you're getting paid.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
They got cameras everywhere you could go in a store.
How do you permit this? You know, I could see
like on your break you got to use your phone
or emergency They called the store right Hey, you know, Gordon,
we're looking for you at home. We can't find the lawnmower,
you know, But why do you have to have a
phone in your pocket and look at it every five
minutes when somebody's paying you so much an hour?
Speaker 5 (22:21):
Yeah, I mean, I'll take it one further, Mike. I've
been in a department store where the employee walked into
the closing rack because they were looking down at their
phone and they didn't realize it was right in front
of them. Right, But bring it back like so, think
about the credit card conundrum. Right when credit cards were introduced.
I remember my parents they had to go to what
(22:42):
was the name of that household finance?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yes, yes, I remember that right, yes, So if.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
They wanted to borrow money, they had to go in
and sit with the bank, right, borrow money for an
appliance or whatever it was. Once you took the credit
card and it became the dominant thing, it's like casino chips.
There's a reason other than safety that catches and use
the casinos because one hundred dollars, bill Field, it's a
lot different than a black chip that's one hundred and
a shift that's five dollars. You don't know the tangibility
(23:09):
of it. Once it's not cash it's the same thing
with credit cards. So bringing it all back to these
things that you have to go back to basics, Right,
even though there's electronic opportunity to budget and things like that,
you've got to kind of have your mind in it.
You've got to be paying attention to it. And the
reason credit card debt gets rampant and people get stuck
with it, it's not typically for overspending or irresponsibility. It's
(23:34):
typically because there's no real game plan, and when a
shift in life happens, like our economy did three years ago,
and people weren't making more money, something has to shoulder
those expenses, especially if people aren't budgeting or paying attention
to what they're spending. So it becomes just now it's
a thing that happens. You put gas on your credit card,
you put groceries on your credit card, and then the
(23:57):
bill comes in and all this onff. I can only
pay the minimum. Oh, well, I'll do with the next month.
And then next month happens and the car needed repair,
and now you had to put five hundred dollars on
the credit card, and now you can't afford to pay
that down. That's the kind of thing that happens in
an economy like this, which is why that credit card
jump has happened so high, inclusive of the interest rates
going up and the payment's going up, which is putting
(24:18):
people in strains. So all of these things. Mike, you
doctor Mike, you brought up common sense, right.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
That's his nickname, by the way, Gordon comes up. I
love it because it's not a show we do. I'm
serious and I'm not knocking Mike. I love it, but
there's not a show we do that the heat doesn't
wind up getting a couple of times common sense of
the conversation.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Because it really is the truth. People don't have common sense,
and why don't we have common sense? You know what
I mean? Yeah, it's just amazing.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
Well, I think one of the reason for I'm sorry,
I'm go ahead, doctor, Michael ahead.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
No, I was just going to say, I think one
one problem we have is since the end of the
Second War, the universities have been the enemies of tradition,
and maybe they have you know, maybe it's gone too far.
It's you know, it's okay to be you don't like
the tradition of a black person not liking a white
(25:12):
or whatever. The tradition was those things got to be fixed.
But it seems like they attack every tradition. There's there's
got to be hundreds of very smart people out there
who know that this electronic business is killing our children.
And yet, and yet it goes on and on and
on and on, and I don't know how we're going
(25:35):
to stop it. It's you know, tradition is durable.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
But once you destroyed it back Mike, it's an addiction.
They put these kids on an addiction early on.
Speaker 6 (25:44):
Oh, I think that's right. And also, like what Gordon
was saying about that damn betting, Well, how in the
world can that happen? You know, guys got thrown out
of baseball for betting forty bucks or one hundred bucks
on a game, and now you get advertisements on the
TV every night for it during sports events.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah, you remember when they brought in the sports in
the States. Well, we're going to build more schools. How
easy was that one?
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Right, We're just going to help the kids get educated.
But you'll be addicted to gambling, but we'll get those
schools built.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Don't worry about it.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
Yeah, no, no problem, you guys. Look, I'm not I
don't try to be conspiratorial. But just like you know,
big farm and needs people to be sick. Right, that's
why in different countries certain things aren't are aren't allowable
in our foods, right, But in our country it's big money.
So it is gambling, big money, marijuana, big money. You
(26:40):
just go down the list, and all of these things
that are implemented are for our citizenry to keep those
machines rolling. So back to the common sense, doctor Mike. Yeah,
at some point you have to have an awareness that
you have to take control of the things that don't
(27:01):
do you very well.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
Right, well, yeah, yeah. The only two things I had
in regard to forming common sense were the example of
my parents in the in faith because if you know,
if faith does teach you common sense and what makes
sense and what doesn't, and we've kind of abandoned both,
and now we have parents that aren't even competitive teaching
(27:25):
common sense anybody.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
I think there's a you know, that's an opportunity for
a movement, because I think many people know this in
their heart that these problems, these addictions, these things that
were forced into you always can take back control. But
it takes work, right.
Speaker 6 (27:44):
Yes, yes, it takes a lot of work. And the
older you get, the more debt you have, the harder
it is.
Speaker 8 (27:51):
I think, well, I you know, I it was hard
for me, but I got rid of one addiction I
was once I found out about those color dye colors.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
I stopped teating those M and ms that were blue
they were favorite.
Speaker 6 (28:08):
Is there any is there anywhere? Want to out there
trying to figure out a system for student loans that
are are you know, more more more economic, economical or
more sensical or is it just it just flies along
by itself and no one really questions it.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
So a couple of things there right, just quickly in
the process, just for the overall discussion. The real way
it happens, you find out the cost of the college,
you apply for aid what they call aid in most instances,
is the student can take out loans that are maxed
out at let's say incrementally freshman five year five thousand,
(28:55):
sophomore fifty five hundred, junior sixty five hundred, senior seven thousand.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
So what does that cover though? What does that cover
for that kind of money?
Speaker 5 (29:04):
Nothing? So question, it covers nothing. So then what happens
is the parents or the guardian has to fund the rest.
So the options are parent plus loans, which currently are
anywhere from nine to twelve percent, interests Jesus, and private lending. Right.
So the real problem, if you asked me from being
(29:27):
involved in it, it just costs too much to go
to school.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Now, yeah, sure is.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
It's their country clubs. Now you go to these universities,
and again it's all about the money. Guys. You've got
the government putting people in debt, funding these businesses, look
at these colleges with.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Them, and then they give them the credit costs to
go more debts. So it's a debt cycle claiming you
name it right.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
So this conversation about college is an interesting one because
I feel like, just I'm going to go on record here,
I I think this frightening AI revolution that's going on
is going to really change the landscape in so many
ways you can't expect. I had this postess I was
(30:13):
talking to and she had just came home from college
and recognizes it. It's good she recognizes it that her
family is in debt for about eighty grand and she
has three more years to go. So when we talk
about planning, right, you've got to take a look at
a family. This gets back to doctor Mike's common sense.
(30:36):
If I get two hundred and forty thousand dollars out
in loans, of which the parents are going to have
eighty percent of, if not more, are they going to
pay for them? Sometimes a parent thinks, well, the child
will start helping me pay for them, and maybe that
does happen. But at the end of the day, what
kind of salary is this graduate in the career path
(30:58):
they chose going to get to pay off two hundred
and forty thousand dollars in day for four years of education,
of which they'll be lucky if they use a third
of that education.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Correct.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
So that is another machine that unfortunately is in cahoots
with the government and it's destroying people. That's the bottom line.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
So you know what.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
You know, it was really comical when Trump ordered the
Department of Education shut down and everybody was scattering, right,
they were still running the student loans on commercials on
TV and radio you know where to get student loans,
And I'm like.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
They just shut the DLLE. What are we doing here? Man?
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Did you guys take about these commercials? Because people were scattered,
they didn't you saw in the news what was going on.
They didn't know how to pay, where to pay, how
to get it? What's the new one? Here comes school?
You know, nobody thought that out on how to do it.
I mean, we need to eliminate the Department of Education
in any way we can. But also you got to
(32:01):
have a smooth landing of some kind. You know, people
have to know which way to go.
Speaker 5 (32:06):
Well, man, we could talk about all of this so
for so very long. Here's the other thing. There's no
real like I think the Trump administration is trying to
get these loans transferred into the SBA, right, and that's, uh,
that's a reach at this point that I've seen. I
haven't seen any real traction on it because there's so
(32:27):
many challenges involved in it. But even so, the Department
of Education is one piece of the problem. Right. The
other problem is if this is going on, and you
just brought this up as a as something that they're
working on killing this department, well, then how are these
colleges going to get paid this The loans are still
(32:50):
going to be given by the government. Who's going to
handle those loans? I don't know. I don't know what
that looks like. I don't know how they're going to
just shut that down. I just don't know how that
as possible when we've got one point seven trillion outstanding
that vendors.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money outstanding, man, really.
Speaker 5 (33:08):
And yet people are getting ready to go back to
school on the falls. So you know, it's it's a mess,
that's the bottom line. And next school is only what
a couple.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
Of weeks away now, I mean think about it, right,
We'll get a couple of weeks. People are going to
be going back to college.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
Junior, some freshman already going, yeah, so that they don't
go through pre orientation and stuff. M So I look,
next time I come on, I love to talk about
the student low landscape for people that have the debt
because it's you know, it's confusing. It's hard to get
someone on the phone at these vendors now because everybody
(33:42):
is panicking from headlines and whatnot. So I would love
to come on and go over well, all right, let's
do it.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Yeah, I mean, you go call anybody today, it's all AI. Anyway,
when you get on the phone, it's like.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
And you know, it's a I you know, ye, I
want to speak to I'd like to speak to a person. Well, first,
let me ask you a question. Why would you like
to speak to a person? I had one of those yesterday.
Why would you like to speak Well, there's a reason
I just told you I want to speak to a person.
Can you tell me a little bit more.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
Yeah, yeah, let's go down the tree and get the
other bot online.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
That's right, Gordon, thanks for coming on again. It was great. Hey,
come back over time. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:28):
Let me just give the webpage you guys set up
for us.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Do everything you have to do, no problem, we put
them in the notes.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
Good.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
So God's to give you the information how to contact
the number and the website.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
Go ahead, yep eight eight eight seven sixty four seven
four sixt eight. Our company is Cambridge Credit Counseling, in
business since nineteen ninety six and the website is Cambridge
Credit dot org forward slash two mikes.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
Now, Also, no matter where you work, if you're in
a union, you're in some associate ciation, he can help
you out with your group, teachers, firemen, police, whatever.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (35:07):
Workshops we do with workshops for free. There's no cost
to the employer. There's a ton of things we can
do to help employers, employees, union members, association members, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
And they go to red and blue states.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
That you absolutely do.
Speaker 6 (35:22):
Just real, real quick, Gordon, is there anybody doing a
like a seminar for graduating seniors of high school or
in juniors and seniors explaining what the future brings in
terms of debt? Well, maybe the schools wouldn't let him in.
Speaker 5 (35:40):
I don't know, So here's another probably problem, and maybe
offline we can collaborate on putting something together. I'd be
happy to do that for all graduates, even in high
school and preparation. Right. Yes, So the reason I don't
think that they put a lot of mustard there is
(36:03):
because they have six months their loans are indeferment to
get into the real world, so they don't really come
do unless they proactively put them in repayment until six
months after graduation. However, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.
I could put a guideline together and maybe email it
to you guys just for discussion. We could do that
(36:24):
in the heartbeat. And really, what that means like right
now is three months into what may June July, right,
so they have three months essentially where their loans are
in grace period, so like September might not be a
bad idea to do one for any collegiate graduates. And
I'd be happy to put it together.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Well with sports. You could just thought from football, they'd
be happy to get you football of course for sure.
All right, go AHD And thank you God bless your tike.
Speaker 5 (36:58):
Care man, God bless you guys. Right here we're talking
to you guys again. Thank you so much. Great to
have you, Gordon, all right, doctor Mike, thank you
Speaker 1 (37:10):
M hm
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