Financial Fitness with The Money Doctor, June 21, 2026
Financial Fitness With The Money Doctor with Frances Rahaim, Ph.D. "The Money Doctor"
Financial Fitness - 4 Degrees of Money Stuck and How to Break Free - FinFit Classic -
In this episode of Financial Fitness with The Money Doctor, Frances Rahaim, Ph.D., breaks down the Four Levels of “Stuck” that people fall into when their money feels tight — from a simple “GPS recalculating” moment all the way to a full “couch stuck in the doorway” crisis. You’ll hear practical, judgment-free guidance for real people: who are doing fine but want to do things smarter, who are a little stuck and need small course corrections, who feel buried by minimum payments, and who are so overwhelmed they’re considering bankruptcy. You’ll also hear a real-life story of a business owner who made “too much” to qualify for bankruptcy — and still used the HUG Your Money™ system to get completely debt-free in about five years.
You're not alone. There is a way forward — and it starts at HugYourMoney.com.
Learn more at: HugYourMoney.com
Four Degrees of Money Stuck: How to Recalculate, Recover, and Regain Financial Control
Financial Literacy Meets Real-Life Stress
In this episode of Financial Fitness with the Money Doctor, host Frances Rahaim, joined by Jess Tyler, focuses on the feeling of being financially “stuck.” Frances explains that people often delay dealing with financial stress, especially around the holidays, when spending pressure rises and it becomes tempting to push money problems into January. The episode frames financial wellness not as shame or crisis management, but as a practical process of identifying how stuck someone is and choosing the right next step.
The Four Levels of Being Stuck
Frances organizes the episode around four degrees of financial stuckness. The first level is not really being stuck at all, but wanting a better route. The second is being a little stuck, like pushing a grocery cart with one bad wheel. The third is being moderately stuck, like a roller coaster stopped halfway up the incline. The fourth is being seriously stuck, like a couch wedged in a doorway, unable to move forward or backward without a different strategy. These simple images help listeners identify their own situation without feeling judged.
Level One: GPS Recalculating
The first level is for people who are not in crisis but want a better financial path. Frances compares this to a GPS that says “recalculating.” The person is not lost, but they want a faster, cleaner, more direct route toward their goals. This may include people who are paying bills on time, managing debt reasonably well, or simply wanting to get more from the money they already have. For these listeners, the goal is to make existing habits more effective so every dollar has greater impact.
Budgeting Without Blame
Frances emphasizes that level one is not only about debt. Many people want better budgeting tools because they feel money is slipping away through extra spending, recurring expenses, or household disagreements. She stresses that the process should happen without judgment, blame, or arguments about personal choices such as entertainment, sports packages, beauty expenses, or other discretionary spending. The point is to understand where money is going and make informed choices, not to shame people for how they live.
How Hug Your Money Reorganizes the Plan
Frances explains that Hug Your Money is designed to meet people where they are by using the exact numbers they enter and realigning them into a better strategy. She says the system is patented because it does not simply follow the common advice of sending all extra money to the highest-interest debt first. Instead, it analyzes payment order, timing, and impact to determine where money should go for the fastest and smartest result. The system aims to keep people in control, keep payments current, protect credit, and show users what their numbers could look like inside the program.
Level Two: The Wobbly Shopping Cart
The second level is being a little stuck. Frances compares this to a grocery cart with one wobbly wheel: the cart still moves, but it is annoying, inefficient, and harder than it needs to be. People in this stage are not necessarily in crisis, but they may sense that if they do not make small corrections soon, bigger trouble could be ahead. Frances says this is an ideal time to use the system because small course corrections can restore a sense of control before the entire financial cart crashes.
Why Employers Should Care About Financial Stress
Frances spends part of the episode explaining why employers, schools, and groups might offer Hug Your Money as a financial wellness benefit. She argues that reducing financial stress can improve productivity, retention, loyalty, and employee focus. Jess adds that employees who are not distracted by financial worries may be more present at work. Frances says group pricing can make the benefit highly affordable, while the potential savings and stress relief for employees can be substantial.
Level Three: The Roller Coaster Stuck on the Incline
The third level is more serious. Frances compares it to being on a roller coaster that has stopped on the way up. Payments feel heavy, debt is not going down, but bankruptcy does not seem appropriate or possible. Frances shares that this is where she personally was when she developed the early version of Hug Your Money. She describes paying $10,800 a month in debt payments, much of it related to mortgages and building assets, but still feeling trapped because no available program helped her without damaging credit, refinancing, or shifting debt around.
Minimum Payments and Natural Margin
Frances explains that people in level three can often make progress even if they do not have extra income to throw at debt. The system allows them to keep making minimum payments while it calculates the order and timing of repayment. When one debt is paid off, that payment becomes “margin,” which can then be redirected to the next most effective place. Frances says this creates momentum naturally, while budgeting tools may also reveal smaller savings that can be added to the plan.
Level Four: The Couch Wedged in the Doorway
The fourth level is the most severe form of stuck. Frances compares it to trying to move a couch through a doorway and getting it wedged so tightly that it cannot move forward or backward. In financial terms, this is when payments are no longer just heavy but impossible. People may be juggling due dates, borrowing from one card to pay another, considering bankruptcy, or thinking about simply not paying at all. Frances says this stage requires a completely different strategy rather than more pushing, twisting, or frustration.
A Business Case for Avoiding Bankruptcy
Frances shares the example of a business owner who came to Hug Your Money during COVID after income had fallen and debt was overwhelming. Because of personal guarantees on business loans, bankruptcy was not a simple solution, and reorganization would have damaged vendors, credit, and operations. Instead, he used the system to service a large amount of debt while continuing minimum payments. Frances says his debt was gone in five years, his business recovered, and he was eventually able to focus on retirement planning instead of debt survival.
Confidential Help and a First Step Forward
Throughout the episode, Frances reassures listeners that they can enter their numbers confidentially at HugYourMoney.com and receive a free analysis without being sold to, pressured, or placed into a sales funnel. She repeatedly stresses that the system is designed to meet people where they are, whether they are barely stuck, moderately stuck, or deeply wedged. The episode closes by encouraging individuals, business owners, employers, schools, and organizations to explore the program, request a demo, or call for more information.
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“Financial Fitness with The Money Doctor” is a weekly, hour-long National radio show devoted to helping individuals and small business owners better understand their finances and the psychology involved in why we make the decisions we do, how it affects our relationships, our sense of self-worth, and most importantly what we have the power to DO about it! Even prior to this current, highly timely expansion including with BBS Radio TV, which is syndicated to every major audio portal on the world wide web (150 locations reaching every corner of the world), including iHeart, Google, Apple, Amazon, Alexa, etc..., the show enjoyed long-term success in Western MA, Southern VT and NH on WHMP, WHAI, BEAR Country and other SAGA stations, with Dr. Rahaim as a sought-after guest and contributor on News and other talk programs.
Dr. Frances Rahaim’s loyal audience loves her no-nonsense, diplomatic, if sometimes controversial approach to helping sort out difficult issues surrounding effective debt management, successful budgeting, and truly holistic retirement planning and beyond. She has an uncanny ability to translate financial jargon and confusing topics into every-day easy language, engaging her listeners and disarming the stigma around talking openly about money. Rahaim, and her cohost Jess Tyler, Program Director/Morning Show Host WHMP Northampton, banter passionately about real-life, everyday money matters. Nothing is off limits! College, student loan crisis, 401k dos and don’ts, marriage, divorce, insurance, going solar, buying a car, starting a business, you name it. It’s all fair game -- political, economic, and social topics that affect us all, and ALWAYS, what you can DO to give yourself the edge.
In 2008 Rahaim started PowerDownDebt, Inc. right in the middle of the housing bubble. Four years later, she formed HUG Your Student Debt, Inc. to address the crisis not only for students but for parents struggling to retire under the weight of their children’s and often their own college loans still. At 43, with 20 years of experience as an Independent Broker / Registered Investment Advisor, Frances developed a way to address the elephant in the retirement room – becoming 100% debt-free including mortgage, student loans, credit cards, every type of debt, has broad reaching effects on RETIREMENT! Nest-eggs grow faster and last longer without the burden of debt. Today, Dr. Rahaim’s fully dynamic HUG Your MoneyTM software is patented, and she is continuously working on new developments and financial tools to help the public.
What led a top Investment professional to shift her focus toward debt? $10,800 monthly going out in mortgages and business loans, throwing extra money at it and still no real light at the end of the tunnel. In solving her own problem, she found the missing link to retirement planning – the one thing no advisor wants to talk about. The key element that changes everything you THOUGHT you knew about retirement -- liabilities. Now, financial advisors train with her to utilize this path to retirement dollars and help clients, even ones who thought the ship had sailed, get a second chance to reach their goals.
Frances doesn’t just talk the talk, she LIVED this stuff and her listeners get that. They FEEL it! Their comfort level with her non-judgemental approach and down-to-earth demeanor invites questions you never thought you’d hear anyone admit to or ask on the air!
Whether her listeners are interacting or listening in on their neighbors’ stories, this lively show holds their interest and fosters a loyalty rarely found in radio. Part financial, part domestic, part political, part entertainment, always ear-opening, informative and pragmatic.
Financial literacy and the human condition.
Welcome to Financial Fitness with the money doctor, Dr. Francis Raim.
What are the other two?
Let's start with the roller coaster ride.
I cannot believe the goofy things I do.
She talks to people about money, right?
Hi, it's Francis.
I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for watching this video.
If you're catching us on YouTube, please help us help others by clicking like, subscribe,
and all notifications so you don't miss any videos.
And check back for the next video.
I think you're going to love it.
Thanks again.
For more information, you can visit us at hugyourmoney.com.
Welcome to Financial Fitness.
I'm Jess Tyler, along with the money doctor, Dr. Francis Raim.
Hi.
Well, hello, Jess.
We want to talk to people that are having financial troubles any time in life.
And that really is about feeling stuck.
What level of stuck might you feel when you start to think about maybe it's time to get
a little help somewhere, right?
Yeah.
And I think maybe the holidays just jogs people's memory and it kind of brings it up more too.
So it's all year long, but yeah, you start thinking about it a lot during the holidays
when you got to spend money.
I think it does two things, Jess.
I think it does bring it to mind, but it also tempts us to sweep it under the carpet
more.
I'll deal with it.
I'll deal with this in January.
Yeah.
That's right.
That's fine.
I mean, in the meantime, you know, probably nothing catastrophic will happen to you unless
you're really in what I call the fourth phase of stuck, right?
We'll talk about the four kinds of stuck.
But that's exactly the point is people come to hug your money, which we affectionately
call hug people come here for help when they are feeling like, geez, they're really doing
everything they can on their own.
But they're tired of going it alone.
It's not like they're in crisis mode.
Sometimes they are, but they just might be saying, you know what, this is kind of like
when I've been working out and working out and I still can't get my quads to look the
way I want.
Yeah, I do want to see progress.
Yeah.
It's time for me to get a coach because I've done everything I know and I need some help.
And so I'm going to go get some kind of a system that helps me.
And that's what hug your money is really about is taking what you already know how
to do and making it better, maybe fixing a few things, maybe recalculating a little bit.
So I've boiled this down to four phases of stuck.
Level, what level of stuck are you?
It's like a fun little game show.
What level of stuck are you?
Okay.
What is the first level?
Well, the first level really is you're not stuck at all.
Okay.
We want something better, right?
A lot of our clients are in this phase.
They are, what do I want to say?
They're like a GPS system.
You know when your GPS says recalculating, recalculating?
Yeah.
You're not really lost here.
You just want a more direct path.
You just want a group around all the traffic.
You want to get to your, yes, you want to get to your destination earlier.
With minimal tolls of this guy.
Exactly.
I tend to use these analogies because we all understand them.
We've all been there, right?
Yeah.
So the not stuck thing, the GPS rerouting thing, that's exactly the point.
That's phase one.
Okay.
Phase two would be you're a little stuck.
Okay.
This is like being, you know that grocery cart you get at the store with a wobbly wheel?
The one bad wheel.
Yep.
Blonk, blonk, blonk, blonk.
I take it every time.
I know.
Every time.
You can still operate it, right?
You can still go.
Oh, yeah.
Or you're dragging it through the store.
Yes.
Yeah.
Leading to the right all the time, you know, but it's really annoying and you like to
get a better cart.
Okay.
Try doing that with a kid in the front seat.
Yeah, that's always fun.
Exactly.
That's category number two.
That's the little stock.
Okay.
What if you're moderately stuck?
Now, this is like you go to the, you go to the fairgrounds and there's a roller coaster
and you're thinking boy, that reminds me a lot of my life, you know, but I'm going
to get on it anyway.
Yeah.
Let me get on the roller coaster and you're expecting to go up and over the first drop
and you get partway up the incline and it stops.
That's not a fun place to be.
No, but that's your third kind of stock.
You're not really in any danger yet.
Right?
You're okay.
You're just sitting there, but you're not going anywhere either.
And it's not fun.
No, it's frustrating.
It's not even any fun yet, you know.
That's what you got on this ride for was to have some fun.
Okay.
And then the last kind of stock.
Okay.
We have all done this.
Well, maybe not all of us, but most of us, I think you're moving a couch with a friend
and one of you decides.
Yes.
Exactly.
One of you decides how it's going through the doorway and somehow the two of you get
this couch wedged in the doorway.
Yeah.
You can't go forward.
You can't go backwards.
You need a new plan.
And this is stuck level number four, where you're probably thinking about bankruptcy
or some other drastic measure.
Okay.
All right.
Let's drill down on the first two for the first half.
Let's start with the first one.
Yes, we're going to unwind these one at a time.
All right.
So it's not really stuck, the recalculating route, right?
GPS recalculating.
That's all you want to do.
You want to take your existing habits that are already working well and let us show you
how to line them up so that every dollar has real impact, right?
So sometimes we're just taking what's already working for you and we're building on it to
speed up your progress.
So if this is the kind of category you're in, you need to know that this isn't only
about debt.
A lot of times people feel like their debt is just fine, but they just, they think there's
all this ancillary spending going on.
They'd like to get a handle on and they don't want to argue with their partner about it all
the time.
Right.
So they want a little budgeting.
They want some budget tools to go to that actually work, that actually are granular and
help people figure out where that money is going without judgment, without somebody
barking at them, without having an argument about why you can't get your nails done or
why you can't have that sports package or whatever it happens to be.
And then sometimes people are just wanting more in this category and this is off in the
case.
In fact, most often I think it's that people want more for their future.
They are doing okay.
They're making money.
They're paying their bills.
And they're really on time.
They might even be sending a little extra, but they want a better future.
And so they're looking for a way forward.
Now, it's important to know a couple of things about hug your money before we talk about
these other kinds of stuff.
The first is what makes the impossible seem possible with us.
Okay.
I could talk to you all day long about how this, all this stuff is possible.
And you might still be sitting there saying, yeah, but what if I can't afford more money?
What if I can't send extra?
What if I can't?
What if I can't?
What if I can't?
And the fact of the matter is what we do is the patented system meets you where you
are, takes exactly the numbers you put in and realigns them.
It's not that we don't pay anybody.
You're actually making your payments.
You're in control of your money.
We want you to have good credit.
So everybody gets paid and everybody gets paid on time.
But the patented system is what's doing the heavy lifting for you.
Okay.
So to start with, you just have to trust it.
You just have to say, okay, today is the day I finally make the dental appointment.
Okay.
Today's the day that you finally say, I'm going to go to hugyourmoney.com and I'm just
going to plug my numbers in and click the submit button.
I promise you, we do not sell your information.
You will not be put in some weird portal where you get emails from salespeople all the
time.
You don't even have to talk to a person if you don't want to.
So it's completely confidential and it's really going to give you an instant free analysis.
Did I say that?
Free analysis.
Okay.
So you can truly plug your numbers in, click the button and see what your numbers would
look like inside hug.
So that you get the knowledge you need to move forward.
You know, so it's not so much with the program.
Tell me if I'm wrong on this, but it's not so much where you like you could be paying
the same amount of stuff you're paying now for your debt, but you with the patented program
showed how to apply it in a different way to get that stuff paid off quicker, even for
the same amount of dollars.
I mean, obviously you can throw more money at it to get it done quicker, but it's just
kind of a reorganization of how you're paying.
Is that kind of the gist?
It is sort of the gist for the debt part for sure.
And I should say, if you have extra money, you might be throwing it to the wrong place.
You probably think it should be going to that high interest rate credit card.
Right.
That's what general knowledge tells you.
Yeah.
We got a patent for a reason.
And it would be because we're telling you to send it to the highest interest rate first.
Okay.
So if you are sending extra money, put that into the system.
I'm sending my $50 payment as the minimum payment and $20 extra every month to this debt.
And I'm sending $30 to this debt.
Our system will grab that money, harness it, and tell you where the smartest place is to
send it.
Oh, my God.
What's going to get you out of debt the fastest way possible?
You can always tweak these things manually, but it's designed to do the fastest, wisest
way thing possible.
So that's if you're just, you know, you're not really stuck, you just want something
better.
What if you're a little stuck?
Okay.
Okay.
You get that.
Which is probably where most people are, right?
Are they?
Yeah, the wobbly shopping cart.
Yep.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So this is where, you know, nothing's on fire.
Okay.
But it's entirely annoying.
And it is like that grocery cart.
So you can still push it, but it's not going anywhere well.
People reach out to us thinking that they're, they're, I would say they reach out to us
not thinking they're heading toward a crisis, but they have that in the back of their mind.
Like if I don't do something, you know, I could be heading towards a crisis.
And the system shows them that they're, they're just a couple of little steps away from, you
know, like course corrections, right?
They just need to correct these couple of things before they're back in feeling and
control again.
Okay.
So that's the idea is that you put as much information in as you possibly can.
Most of these things are optional when you go to the forums, but just put as much in
as you can.
Estimates, estimates are fine.
Estimating is fine.
But you want to tell it as much as you can so that you get the most accurate, you know,
output, right?
You want to see that analysis that really looks real for you.
So you know, if you're just feeling that little bit of stuck, it's the perfect time
to do this.
Don't let it get worse, right?
Fix the wobbly wheel before the whole cart crashes.
Okay.
Gross.
Ries are everywhere.
It's a mess.
Nobody's happy.
Right.
So yeah, I can tell you that this is one of the main reasons that people come to us.
And certainly one of the main reasons, excuse me, and certainly one of the main reasons
that employers and groups and schools are picking this up as a group benefit because
addressing the stress that people feel financially really, especially if you can do it early,
but at any time it prevents this bigger issue down the road and stress reduction boosts
production.
Okay.
I know that sounds tricky a little bit.
I've come up with this great phrase, but stress reduction boosts production.
Yeah, because you're not distracted thinking about paying for a certain, yeah, and I love
that employers are now smart enough to be offering this to employees as a benefit.
They are.
And in fact, groups benefit from this greatly.
Not only do the people come on board and get financial wellness, but the company benefits
from all the things we're talking about, including better retention, better loyalty, things of
that nature, even attracting better talent.
Imagine you're some great talent and you're looking for a job and you've got two companies
to choose between.
And one of them has got this program in place that's going to save you.
Our average client saves more than $200,000 in interest.
Average client.
Wow.
Wow.
And it actually kind of shows you which employer cares about you, which is nice.
It's like a little added benefit.
I think it does.
And I think it makes for a good environment.
And then people working, you know, start to talk to each other about it and you get this
sort of camaraderie about how great your remember when people started talking about how great
their 401K plan was.
Imagine your employer gave you a couple hundred thousand dollars into your 401K plan when you
signed on.
Pretty impressed, right?
So for employers, because this is so affordable now as a group, as low as $39 a month and
for really large groups, you know, maybe even less, right?
Because it's so affordable for groups, the ROI, the return on investment is enormous.
It's probably the highest ROI benefit that you can pick up as a company or as a school
or an organization or group.
Now, if you're a business owner and you're listening right now, how do people find out
more about this?
How would they get in contact with you to kind of get this started for their employees?
Sure.
Whether it's a group or an individual, just go to hugyourmoney.com.
And if you're a group, you'll see right up there in the navigation groups, right?
Click on it.
Click on the landing page with an ROI calculator.
Your HR people can put in how many people you have, what your payroll is.
You will get your exact ROI based on our plan prices.
And then just contact us for a demo.
All right.
And what's the phone number?
413-773-3333.
All right.
We've gotten through two kinds of stuff, but we've got two more, the worst kinds.
And that's coming up in the second half.
You can visit hugyourmoney.com.
We'll be back with part two of Financial Fitness with the Money Doctor.
Dr. Francis Ram on FranklinCountyNow.com.
Financial Fitness with the Money Doctor is underwritten by Hug Your Money.
Mission granted change.
Change.
Dream.
Hug Your Money, where Financial Wellness gets personal.
Welcome back to Financial Fitness.
I'm Jess Tyler, along with the Money Doctor.
Dr. Francis Ram, hi.
Hi.
And we're talking about four kinds of stuff that people get into with their finances.
We've done two of them already.
What are the other two?
Let's start with the roller coaster ride.
I cannot believe the goofy things I do.
She talks to people about money, right?
Because it's hard to talk to people about money when they're so frightened or when they're
so stressed that they can't reach out.
So let me just reassure anybody listening.
I have been probably worse off than you are.
I know how to get you out.
The system is designed to get you out.
The system is designed to meet you where you are, whether you're not very stuck, you're
a little stuck, or you're this kind of stuck, which is you're on the roller coaster and
you're stopped on an incline.
And this is where payments feel heavy.
And getting off the roller coaster, not really an option, right?
That's right.
You really know.
It's tricky, right?
You really know you're going to need some help.
Payments feel heavy.
You're not flirting with bankruptcy yet.
You know, in fact, if somebody brings up the word, you don't even consider it.
You're like, no, no, no.
I want my credit, right?
Yeah.
And you may not even qualify for bankruptcy, which is our fourth kind of stock.
But you know, you're making your minimums, but it seems like nothing is ever going down.
Now, this is where I was personally when I developed the first version of what is now
hug your money.
I was paying out.
I can't believe I say this on the air, but it's true.
$10,800 a month in debt payments.
Wow.
Yeah.
And none of it was awful credit card debt.
It was mortgages building, you know, houses at the beach and things like that.
It was building the empire.
But because of that, there wasn't a program that I found that could help me because they
all deal with credit cards and they all see a harm your credit or they refinance your
loans or they just shift stuff around.
And that's how hug your money came to be because I needed a solution for me because I
was in the third kind of stock.
Okay.
On the rollercoaster.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're not crashing.
You're not moving forward either.
Making your minimums, but you feel it, right?
It's you're dragging it around.
So again, you're not in danger, but you're not going anywhere without a major push.
So you keep making your minimum payments with our system.
Okay.
So the system is designed to keep your credit clean and to fix your problems.
So if we're talking about the debt part, budget and retirement planning, future planning,
that all comes with it, right?
They're separate modules.
But for this part, let's just talk about the debt for a minute.
The system is doing the heavy lifting for you.
So what you have to do is keep making your minimum payments.
And that's really what you have to do, right?
You probably want to take advantage of the budgeting in there and probably start to plan
for the future because it's available to you.
But you can take exactly where you are right now.
And this is where employers listen up.
All your people that you think aren't in trouble because they're not complaining to
you.
They've probably all got mortgages, card payments, student loans, credit cards.
That's why they're coming to you and saying, I need a raise.
What else can I do?
I think I might go to another employer because there's a better opportunity.
If you start to lessen their debt and give them a sense of control, things will ease.
So all you have to do is make your minimum payments.
The system will do the heavy lifting.
It will recalculate the order, the timing, and the impact so your entire plan moves forward.
And it will keep your credit clean.
Everybody will still get their minimum payments.
No, you don't get this.
How is it possible if you don't send extra money?
Yeah, it seems like you would need extra income in order to make your debt go down quicker.
It does seem that way.
It does seem that way.
And it's true in just about every other thing I know about.
But here, what happens to be honest with you because it's not, I hate it when people say
that phrase to be honest with you.
What people are just going to lie to you instead?
Okay.
But to tell you how this really works, if you have extra money, great.
We are going to harness that and use it like we talked about in the first half.
If not, we just have to wait for that to emerge naturally, but it will inside the system through
one of two paths.
Either you'll just make your minimum payments according to the schedule that's in the, in
hug your money.
And when one debt is paid off, that money becomes what we call margin.
That is, in fact, your extra money that we are going to send to the proper place.
Let us know, balling effect something much more sophisticated than that.
Okay.
But we are going to choose which debt to send it to.
That's one way you can start the ball rolling further.
Right?
Yeah.
The second way is you do, look at, they're calling, that's a creditor calling you right
now.
Exactly.
Spam.
It is spam, I'm sure.
You're very good with your buddy.
Yeah.
So that's one way you can find that extra money.
The second way you can find it is do the budgeting stuff, track your expenses.
You don't have to build the budget.
Just put the stuff in the system because something will emerge.
I promise you, you'll look at it one day and say, oh, 50 bucks, we could say $50 there.
Let me put it in as margin and see what it does to my debt plan.
Yeah.
A lot of clients probably tell you how I opening it is because you don't realize that you're
spending stuff till you actually start putting it in.
Yeah.
We get two comments.
One is that it's very eye opening.
Once they do it, they're very grateful for it.
They're saying, wow, I never saw anything that got this granular.
I could customize.
It's really looking at what I've got.
It's giving me this model month as an example.
The other side says, I don't want to do it because I know it's ugly and I can't face
it.
Yeah.
I don't want to tell you.
I use coffee every morning.
Yeah.
Yes.
And so I'm going to tell you that is the time when you need to face it and nobody's looking
at that unless you want them to.
It's completely confidential.
It's between you and your hug concierge in our system, Dr. Finwell.
Okay.
Can we talk about last week?
That's right.
Nobody's going to call you on the phone and say, hey, I think you're overspending here.
You should cut back.
This is about you doing you better.
Okay.
But we're giving you the tools you need to make that happen.
Okay.
Let's talk about, well, I guess I should say so if you're in that mode of stock, yeah,
just go over it.
Just go to hugyourmoney.com, set up your account for yourself and put your own information
in completely confidential, free analysis, instantly nobody's going to bug you.
You're not going to get sales calls from us or anybody else.
All right.
This is about you getting what you need to move forward.
All right.
And remember that that progress actually appears naturally in almost every case.
So if you don't have extra money, don't worry about it.
Just do this one thing.
Give this little gift to yourself.
Do one thing.
Over the website, fill out the form, click the button.
Then see what you've got.
Okay.
Don't freak out about it.
Don't say it's going to be ugly.
Just try it.
Okay.
Try it.
It's like food you never had.
Just try it.
Okay.
If you are somebody already sending extra, we talked about that.
Great.
That's going to get redirected with precision.
Don't wear to send it.
The system knows what to do and it's actually going to drive your whole plan forward.
Okay.
Wow.
The fourth kind of stock.
Okay.
When you're creating on the roller coaster, where you're really stuck worse.
This is the couch in the doorway wedge that we talked about.
Yes.
Yes.
So this is a stage where payments aren't just heavy anymore.
Now they're impossible.
All right.
You're juggling due dates.
People who are out there who have this are going to go, oh, she knows.
She's in our checkbook.
You're juggling the due dates.
You're borrowing from one card to pay another.
You're considering bankruptcy or some other drastic measure, right?
Like I'm just not going to pay my debt and they can come and get me for it.
Right.
Right.
And I think a lot of people do get to that point just because you're so overwhelmed.
When I was in version number three stuck, believe me, I was really thinking about what
are my options here because I've done everything I know how to do.
And I should say this was long before I started Hug Your Money.
That's why I am doing what I'm doing today.
Yeah.
That moment that we've all had at least once where we get that couch stuck in the doorway,
you're not able to push forward.
You're not able to push back.
You and your partner, if there is one, are probably pushing like a push me pull you, right?
You're not getting anywhere.
There's a lot of cursing going on.
Yeah.
And you've lifted, you've twisted, you've turned.
Now it's jammed in there.
You're not getting anything done without a totally different strategy.
Yeah.
Okay.
So the good news is all four of these kinds of stuck can be addressed at Hug Your Money,
right?
Mm-hmm.
Pretty amazing, really, actually.
So what I want to say is anybody who's in that position that I just talked about knows
it already.
And if you're an individual, go to Hug Your Money, just go there, click the button, do
the form, that's it, right?
But if you're a business, I want to talk to you for a minute about this.
Because I learned this from a client about our own system.
Okay.
I had a very astute business person.
Through COVID, the business was in trouble.
The income they were making was not coming in anymore.
Right.
They were still in a float, but just, you know, they were making enough money.
But all they were able to do now, instead of grow the business, was pay the minimums.
Mm-hmm.
They had all this debt on their shoulders.
And guess what?
They didn't qualify for bankruptcy.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So, for a simple seven bankruptcy, right?
Chapter seven.
They made too much money.
Now they could have chosen a reorganization, a chapter 11 or chapter 13, to reorganize
some of this debt.
But the problem this guy had, and which most business people that we see, especially in
small to mid-sized business people, is they had a personal guarantee on the business loans.
That means, you can just file a business bankruptcy and get rid of them.
So here's what this guy taught me.
He came to me one day and he said, because I was talking about bankruptcy.
And we got to the point where he said, I went to the lawyers you told me to go to, you suggested,
and I can't file bankruptcy.
Or if I file a reorganization, it's going to be this many years, it's not going to wipe
out my personal debt.
My vendors are going to stop delivering.
My business is going to be just suffering.
My credit's going down the tube.
I can make things worse.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, his solution to me, again, I credit this guy with it all the time because it had never
occurred to me that this would be a way to use hug your money, but boy did it work.
Okay.
The solution to me was, look, I realized I can still make the minimum payments.
So I'll just use your system as he put it to service a lot of debt.
Okay.
I'll just use it to service the debt.
I'll just keep these debts in place.
I'll keep my credit.
I'll make the minimums, but by using our system, all his debt was gone in five years.
He would have just been recovering from a bankruptcy around that time probably, right?
Okay.
So, for him-
Because in 10-pointed, were to send any extra money, is that kind of how that worked?
It just did what we do.
It took no extra money.
It let him pay off the first debt using a couple of tricks of trade.
I mean, even if your first debt is a credit card, we have a couple of nuances that are
baked into the system that will speed it up.
So if you enter this in and your first debt says it's a credit card and you're not sending
any extra money.
But it says it's normally paid off in five years, let's say, that's being optimistic.
And with our system, it's paid off in four.
It isn't wrong.
It's using other things we know to speed that up.
And it's all in the system.
It's all just baked right in there for you.
All you have to do is log in and follow the system.
It's super easy to follow.
Okay?
We are doing that heavy lifting.
So all he had to do was do that until the very first debt was paid off.
Then his margin emerged naturally.
It went to the next place, the next place, the next place.
So all he had to do was do that.
In the meantime, this guy actually grew his business because he could.
The weight was off of his shoulders.
His shoulders were delivering.
His credit was clean.
Oh, wow.
He came out of COVID.
Yeah.
And now was like, Hey, I'm back in business.
So now at the end of this situation, because he was able to grow his business and pay his
debt down, he had this incredible cash boost, which allowed us to make up for the last debt
that the last time he had when he couldn't say for retirement because he was paying the
debt.
Oh, that's incredible.
It's incredible.
And so I hope he's doing a testimonial for sure.
He's like a walking testimonial.
I have to say he sent me a number of business clients who were not flirting with bankruptcy,
but just like, Hey, if I can do this and get out of bankruptcy, imagine what you can do
in good standing to make things better.
But I did want to say that even if he hadn't grown the business, he would have felt this
gap just by paying down the debt.
I mean, this guy was paying more than I was in debt when I started the system, right?
He was almost $15,000 a month in debt.
So paying that off, all he had to do was use our system in five years from now.
He's got $15,000 a month, not going to creditors.
That's a new life and must have been such a relief for him.
I'm sure that it was a relief for him.
He is still not only are his family members of hug your money, but friends of his business
people and he still stays in touch with us all the time.
And we are now working his retirement picture instead of his debt picture.
But it's a good point.
You can just use the system to manage your debt properly if you need to.
Great options, not only for you as an individual, but if you are a business owner and you're
going through this, it's great for that as well.
Or if you want to show your employer's employees that you really care and boost productivity,
like you said, it's a great thing to offer them as a benefit.
Thank you.
We really do believe that that's why we've gone to the trouble of offering it as a financial
wellness benefit to groups.
But in closing, I just want to remind people whether you're GPS recalculating, not really
stuck, or you've got the wobbly shopping cart, or you're on the roller coaster part way
up and you're not going anywhere, or you're really stuck with the couch wedge between
the door, whether you're an individual or you want to bring it to your employer or your
employer is listening.
Schools, organizations, groups, anybody can do this.
But the first step is you have to go to hugyourmoney.com and click a button or ask for a demo.
All right, I love it.
What is your phone number two?
I want to get that for everyone.
Of course, because you know what?
Here at Hug Your Money, we still answer a phone and talk to people.
Can you believe a real person?
Yes.
A real person.
413-773-3333.
All right.
And again, go to hugyourmoney.com.
Dr. Francis Ram, I'm going to hug your money.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Jess.
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