Debt Free in 30

There are many reasons people find themselves in debt. For our guest today, the underlying cause of his financial difficulties was drug addiction. James inspires us with his story - both how he battled his addition and why bankruptcy was a part of his recovery. James actually contacted us with a moving letter about his recovery which is what inspired us to ask him to be on our podcast. On today’s show James tells the story of how he started using drugs at age 14, and was an addict until age 27. He got into debt, but he turned his life around, as he explains on today’s show.

At the end of 2015, updates and clarifications were made to existing Ontario bankruptcy laws that directly affect indebted consumers. On November 13, 2015 the Supreme Court of Canada put forth a ruling about the 407 ETR (a toll route in the Toronto area) concerning the treatment of 407 debts in a bankruptcy or consumer proposal. Another big change came on December 1, 2015, as the Execution Act in Ontario was updated. On today’s show Doug Hoyes and Ted Michalos, co-founders of Hoyes, Michalos & Associates, Licensed Insolvency Trustees, discuss how the changes, as well as the Supreme Court's ruling, will affect Ontarians looking to deal with their debts. Disclaimer: Our discussion about updates to the Execution Act are the interpretation of ourselves and the lawyers we've spoken with about the new rules. This is new legislation that has not yet been tested in court, and as such, a judge could rule differently than we've interpreted the information on today's show.

Is it enough to calculate the amount of debt you have and focus exclusively on making that number smaller? I'm an accountant and a licensed insolvency trustee, so to me, the numbers matters. That being said, getting into debt and struggling to get out of debt again has a lot to do with behaviour and mindset. My guest today first appeared on episode 14 of Debt Free in 30 to talk about his newly released book, Wealthing Like Rabbits and followed up that interview with one about good debt vs. bad debt. Robert Brown is back to shed some light on the importance of changing our perspective about debt.

Getting sick or injured is common and it can often mean missing work for a few weeks or for a prolonged period of time. To cover any missing income, people tend to turn to credit to survive, leading to more debt than they can handle. On today’s how our guest is Promod Sharma, an actuary at Taxevity in Etobicoke, Ontario. Promod is here to talk about life and health insurance, why everyone needs to have it and how to decide which coverage is best for you and your family.

Fifty years ago if you wanted to steal money from someone you had to steal cash. Today money is electronic, so if your identity is stolen you can lose a lot of money very quickly, and that can lead to a mountain of debt. How big a problem is identity theft and fraud? That's the question we asked today's guest, Kelley Keehn, the author of Protecting You and Your Money: A Guide to Identity Theft and Fraud. She told us that: A third of Canadians have been victims of some type of fraud. What was more curious is that two thirds of Canadians surveyed said that they knew of someone that was a victim of fraud, so even if it hasn't happened to us yet, a lot of us know someone who was a victim of fraud. Credit card fraud is a problem, but in most cases your credit card issuer will cover you, so if you fill out a form or prove that you didn't authorize the charges the problem can be solved quickly. Identity theft is another matter altogether, and it can take many weeks and a lot of effort to restore your name. So what can you do to protect yourself? On today’s show Kelley gives a lot of practical advice on preventing identity theft and fraud.

Do we fully understand the cost of debt? We see the ads for loans where you "only pay $20 on a hundred". $20 sounds like a good deal, but is it? On today's show, Meg Penstone, the Manager of Financial Health and Literacy for Family Counselling and Support Services in Guelph Wellington, shares some sobering numbers and gives listeners advice for dealing with their debt.

When you think of debt, numbers and interest rates probably come to mind. But debt isn't always about the numbers. Our guest today is Melanie Lockert, a blogger at Dear Debt and someone who recently paid off $81,000 in student loan debt. Melanie explains that the reason we go into debt and have a hard time getting out of it, is emotional. She points out that: “If it really was just about spend less, earn more, all of us would be rich and never face debt. And we'd all be successful, but a lot of us aren't and that's because we're dealing with these money issues, these emotional issues that come out through debt and finances and a scarcity mindset and there's so much to deal with.” During our conversation, she uses words like panicked, anxious, ;stressed, overwhelmed and depressed to describe how she felt about her debt. As trustees, we hear these kind of emotional descriptions from clients daily, so Melanie offers listeners a few strategies for facing debt head-on.

Budgeting. It's a word that people either love or hate (mostly hate). We may get mixed reviews about the advice that I share on today's episode, but for many, budgeting is a waste of time. Budgeting takes discipline, it takes time and it takes some skill to use a budgeting spreadsheet or app. Because it's difficult, for some people it can actually have a negative impact on their finances. They lose motivation or interest, and eventually discouraged, stop paying attention to their finances all together. We are not advocating that people shouldn't manage their money, but we are suggesting that you need to find a solution that will work for you and your finances. It's very important to know where you're spending your money because if you don't know where it goes, you can't make adjustments to pay down debt and build your savings. Doug Hoyes is joined once again by money expert, Gail Vaz-Oxlade who is an advocate for having a system in place that will help you to pay off debt, save money and spend wisely. Gail is well known for her magic jar concept; the idea that you should allocate a specific amount of money to a number of goals (i.e. bill payments, savings, entertainment, groceries etc.) to keep yourself on track each month. Today we discuss her approach to budgeting, and the alternatives to budgeting.

The weekly trip to the grocery store is a big expense for a family, so saving money on food can go a long way. But how do you save money? Is the only way to save by clipping coupons and buying no-name brands? There are other strategies, and on today's show, Nicole Olsen, the Financial Literacy Program Director for Financial Fitness in Windsor and Sarnia, Ontario, joins us back on the show to share her smart shopping tips.

Today we present our top ten tips for dealing with collection agents. We are joined by two industry insiders, Blair Demarco-Wettlaufer who on a previous show told us how to stop collection calls, and Mark Silverthorn who previously revealed several "dirty tricks" that some collection agencies use to collect on a debt. We've taken their comments and compiled our top ten tips for dealing with collection agents.