The Sugar Daddy Podcast
Ready to normalize talking about money? Then welcome to The Sugar Daddy Podcast. Every episode will get you one step closer to your financial goals. Whether that is learning how to invest, budget, save, retire early or simply make better money choices, Jess & Brandon have got you covered in a way that's easy to understand, and easy to implement. Tune in as they demystify the realm of dollars, so it all makes cents, while giving you a glimpse into their relationship with money and each other.
Brandon is an award winning licensed financial planner, and owner of Oak City Financial, with over a decade of experience and millions of dollars managed for his clients all over the United States.
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The Sugar Daddy Podcast
91: APR, APY, WTF? The Jargon That’s Keeping You Broke
Financial jargon isn’t just annoying—it’s expensive. Banks bank on the fact that most people don’t really know what terms like APR, APY, and amortization actually mean. That confusion? It could be costing you thousands.
This episode breaks down the alphabet soup of money terms that keep smart, successful people stuck.
No jargon. No fluff. Just the knowledge banks hope you never Google.
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This episode is sponsored by Prenupscom. The truth is, every married couple has a prenup a set of rules that defines your legal and financial relationship with your spouse. You either choose your own rules or use what your state gives you. At Prenupscom they write prenups that actually help couples stay married. Their specialty is fair prenups that help couples plan for a healthy financial relationship. Don't let the state decide your marriage rules. Make your own. Visit prenupscom. Slash sugardaddy to learn more. That's prenupscom. Backslash sugardaddy and get the prenup that helps you stay married. Already married, no worries, they do postnuptial agreements too. That's what Brandon and I did after eight years of marriage.
Speaker 1:If financial jargon like APR, apy or amortization make you think WTF and make your eyes glaze over, then you are not alone. This episode is for you. We are here to end the confusion that is costing you money. In this episode, we are going to break down the fancy finance lingo that banks are using to keep you in the dark. We'll teach you what these terms really mean, how to spot red flags in credit card and loan offers, and how to finally understand your savings account and what it's actually doing. No fluff, no judgment, just real talk that will help you make smarter money moves.
Speaker 2:If this is of interest, stay tuned. Hey babe, what are we talking about today?
Speaker 1:We're talking about the world of finance and all of the crazy acronyms, the jargon, the lingo, that oh why HSA, ppo, hysa, apr, ayp I don't know, I mean just like WTF.
Speaker 2:So, more specifically for today's episode, though, we are going to focus on APR versus APY, apy all right, please, please, tell us. Where are we starting? So, first and foremost, like what do these acronyms actually stand for? Please tell me so apr is annual percentage rate and apy is annual percentage yieldR is what you see on your credit cards. Yes, so the main difference between the two is that an APR is what you are going to be charged to borrow.
Speaker 2:So you think about on your credit cards. On loans, this is what you're going to see the APR. This is the amount that you're being charged to borrow that money, as compared to with APY, annual percentage yield. This is what you're going to see on savings accounts, cds. So this is going to be what you earn the money I'm making.
Speaker 1:Yes, not the money they're taking, correct?
Speaker 2:that is the main difference between the two okay, so apy is the better one.
Speaker 1:Apr we want to stay away from and they.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, the sad part is is that unfortunately, too many people make financial decisions where you need to be taking this, these two, into account and they don't really understand what they are and they're kind of just you know, you know, oh, I'm going to go off. What is the easiest one to do, I'm going to go. Which one's going to provide me with rewards? You know what is a brand name that I'm familiar with? And they really don't read the fine print and there might be hidden fees, poor returns, higher rates than you necessarily need if you were to go with a alternative option and unfortunately you're missing out and you know, potentially costing you money when you're not understanding these different terms.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the little terms and the little acronyms that could be costing you big bucks in the end and, to be honest, as someone who works in the financial services industry, they don't make it easy for you. No, they don't make it easy because, in all honesty, the word yield throws a lot of people off like what does that really mean? Right right because, like you hear, interest rate and you know that's bad you know that interest rate could be good. Oh well, if you're earning it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, yeah true because they throw you off on purpose, because most people think about, for example, like with a savings account you know the interest rate on the savings on a high yield savings account, but they don't also associate that that.
Speaker 1:That's what the apy is the annual annual percentage yield correct.
Speaker 2:Okay, ok, so like I said they unfortunately they overcomplicate it when I think it could be explained in much simpler terms. So if you're out there thinking like hey, like I just listening to the few first few minutes of this podcast, you're like, oh, I didn't understand that You're not alone.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like they're not making it easy for you.
Speaker 1:Well, and I mean the APRs on credit cards right now are sky high. I mean some of them are pushing 30%. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:And that's the biggest thing, when we say that you have to understand this and break it down and really make your decisions on which option you're going to select in certain scenarios, based off of these numbers.
Speaker 1:You have to run the numbers.
Speaker 2:You have to run the numbers, especially when it comes to the APR. This is what you're going to be charged to borrow. You have to understand what the interest rate is on that. In addition to, are there any type of additional fees? So let's just use credit cards as an example. You might, like I said, with interest rates the way they are now, you might have somewhere almost close to an APR interest rate of 30% on a credit card.
Speaker 1:I mean above 20% is pretty common. Oh, definitely above 20% yeah.
Speaker 2:But then also, once again, it depends on your credit score as well. But then you also take into account any additional fees. So is there an annual fee to even just have that credit card?
Speaker 1:Yep account any additional fees.
Speaker 2:So, is there an annual fee to even just have that credit card? Yep, because that's an additional fee that you have to factor in. And then also, if you're potentially late on any of your payments, is there an additional late fee? So, understanding one what the APR is in regards to how much you're being charged to borrow, what is an annual fee that's associated with that, if there is one, and then any other potentially hidden fees, such as late fees.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:All those need to be taken into account.
Speaker 1:Well, so two things, obviously. With the credit card. Let's say you're not paying your credit card balance in full and you have a, let's say, 22% interest rate and your balance was $120. You paid $80. Now you have a $40 balance. That $40 balance is still going to incur that same 22% interest rate, right?
Speaker 2:Well, not at that one time. So the APR is the interest rate over the course of the entire year. All right, real quick. I want to speak to the person listening who feels like they can't work with a financial planner yet because they're carrying a lot of debt. First of all, I see you and I need you to know you're not broken, you're not behind. You're just in a tough season.
Speaker 2:I created something just for you because I've had people reach out who are serious about changing their money story. But the full financial planning package just wasn't the right fit yet. So I built a new service through Oak City Financial that's focused completely on debt reduction. No fluff, no shame. You'll get a one-time planning session, a personalized payoff strategy, your own financial dashboard and monthly coaching. If you want extra support while you climb out, it's $300 to get started and $100 a month. If you want that ongoing guidance, that's it. This is about helping you get unstuck, not making you feel like you failed. If this sounds like what you've been needing, go ahead and schedule a call with me. The link is in the show notes. Let's take the first step together. Let's take the first step together.
Speaker 1:I think the one thing to note that's really important is that it doesn't matter what your APR is if you're paying your credit card off in full every month. Correct you only I mean, I know that's pretty basic, but like it only matters if you're not paying it off, if you're carrying a balance, that's when it matters If you are paying it off in full every month then it doesn't matter if you're paying a 60% APR?
Speaker 1:Hopefully not, but you know, because you're literally not paying it at that point. So the goal is especially with the credit cards, especially the credit cards that have fees attached. Like we've said this before, but we usually most years we pay close to $1,200 in credit card fees, the annual rate that we pay to hold the credit card because of various perks. That has nothing to do with the APR, but the APR only matters when you're carrying a balance, because then that's when you have that penalty of quote unquote borrowing the money.
Speaker 2:Correct, correct.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Ok, let's go to APY, because I think most people have at least seen APR, have some inkling of what it means. But annual percentage yield. So that's a good one, because we're getting money back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is like I said before. These are the ones you're going to see associated with a savings account, a CD, and this is going to be the interest that you earn on your money. So this is the positive one.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's the one where our money is making money. We'd love to see it. If you don't have a high yield savings account yet, what are you doing? We talk about it on every episode. Use the link in our show notes. We have one for Ally and we have a high yield account that we really like. With Wealthfront as well. Your money that is sitting in your emergency savings, put it in a high yield savings.
Speaker 2:And the funny thing is is that this is the one that is a reoccurring thing that I see for individuals when I start to work with them, or just even, you know, talking to people, is that they're still using these traditional brick and mortar banks where they're getting 0.02, 0.03% interest rate on their savings account and I'm like why?
Speaker 1:Like you could literally be making thousands of dollars a year just by parking your money into a high yield savings.
Speaker 2:And the funny thing is that sometimes these are the same people who are like oh you know, can you help me beat the market? I'm like I can't help you beat the market, but I can definitely give you two seconds of advice that is going to give you over a thousand cent return on your savings.
Speaker 1:They're like should I be investing in crypto? And you're like shut up and open an HYSA.
Speaker 2:The amount of, like I said, the amount of people that still have savings accounts, traditional savings accounts, where they're getting 0.02%, is astonishing to me, because you can easily go online and it takes not even five minutes to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just as a call out, if your money is parked at the Bank of America's, the Wells Fargo's, any of those traditional brick and mortars, or even at your local credit union, and it is not named as a high yield savings account, you are making no money. So don't assume that your money is sitting in a high yield savings account if you didn't actually put it in a high yield savings account.
Speaker 2:So here's a task for people listening. If you don't know what your current APY annual percentage yield is on your savings account that you have right now whether it's a high yield savings account or just a regular savings account go look it up.
Speaker 1:Go find out what it is.
Speaker 2:We know what ours is, but you need to go look it up. Go find out what it is. We know what ours is, but you need to go look it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean we're making 4.5% on the money sitting in our savings that we hope to not touch and it just kind of keeps growing and we're making money for it sitting there Most basic thing that you can do for yourself this month.
Speaker 2:And I also do want to point out. So, for example, with like a savings account, a high yield savings account or regular savings account, more specifically, your APY can change.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:All right. Now, with the CD you're locked into a certain APY for a certain period of time. So for example, say maybe a one year, 12 month CD, you're going to have that same APY for the entire 12 months, but then, once that 12 months ends, then your APY can change. So I do want to also, like I said, keep that in mind that you have to constantly not constantly but periodically keep up with this information and see if there's any changes to the APY on these different accounts.
Speaker 1:Be aware. Yeah Well, and two, even if, going back to APR, maybe you had a promotional offer for six months, eight months, nine months a year, whatever with a credit card, put that in your calendar Because as soon as that promotional rate is over, it's probably going to jump back up to that crazy high percentage. So you need to be aware of that, especially if you're signing up for promotional offers of some sort.
Speaker 2:Yes, everything is in the details. Yes, the fine teeny, fine, teeny, tiny, teeny, tiny print you will have different institutions that show like a low apr and a high apy and once you read the fine print it really reveals what the truth is behind it. So, like you know, like you said, like you might see a high apy, but then you read the fine print it's like, oh, that's just for like the first two or three months yeah and then it just drops down to the regular, which is fine.
Speaker 2:You get a little bit more, but you do want to make sure that, over the course of an extended period of time, that, when it comes to your I keep using the high yield savings account with APY that it's on par for the, you know, with the broader market. So, for example, like if a majority of high yield savings accounts are doing 4.5% but you look at your savings account and it's only getting 2%, you're not on par. You need to change.
Speaker 1:You are not on par, okay, so I think we've got APR, we've got APY. What about the other terms?
Speaker 2:There are a few more little financial terms that I think you will encounter on a regular basis and you should have a basic understanding of what they are. I'm going to start out with simple the word principle.
Speaker 1:Not like principle from Saved by the Bell.
Speaker 2:No, even though it's spelled the same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, weird, right, yeah yeah. And then there's well the principle of the matter, so that one's different, okay, so what is the principle that?
Speaker 2:So that one's different. Okay, so what is the principal? That is, the base amount that you either borrow or invest.
Speaker 1:So, for example, your original amount of money?
Speaker 2:Yes, so let's just use from a state, from a borrowing standpoint. If you took out a loan for $10,000, your principal is the $10,000 that you borrowed.
Speaker 1:That's pretty straightforward.
Speaker 2:Or if you're investing in the market and you invest $10,000, the initial amount that you put in is that $10,000 and that's the principal, okay. So from a borrowing standpoint, when you pay more back to the institution that you borrowed the money from. So you borrowed $10,000 and say, over the course of your loan, you pay back 13. You pay back the principal of your 10, but that additional $3,000 came from interest and that's your APR for borrowing the money.
Speaker 1:The penalty for borrowing.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't call it a penalty, because it's the price of borrowing.
Speaker 1:It's not a penalty.
Speaker 2:It's the price of borrowing. And then, on the opposite spectrum, if you have invested $10,000 and now you have $13,000, 10,000 was your principal and 3,000 is the growth that you've had on the account.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, we've kind of already touched on this, but what is the interest rate?
Speaker 2:This is the flat percentage that you're charged or earn, depending on whether you're borrowing or investing. That doesn't include any types of fees or any type of compounding of that.
Speaker 1:Okay, I mean, that's pretty basic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's the one that we're most, most people are familiar with, which is always, you know, like I said before, finance industry kind of tries to make it difficult by adding these additional terms on top of it, that kind of intertwine with just the word interest rate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I mean, I mean we have interest rates on credit cards, on our mortgages, on our car loans, on our student loans. Like, if you are borrowing money, there is an interest rate. I mean, even if it's zero percent for a certain amount of time, there is some sort of interest rate attached, because these institutions let's call it what it is they make money when you pay interest. The credit card companies do not exist because of the people who are paying their bills on time and in full every month. The credit card companies exist because of the people who are borrowing money, who are not paying their bill in full every month.
Speaker 2:That's the business model.
Speaker 1:That's the business. They are relying on people to not pay their bill in full and to be in debt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if everyone paid their credit card off on time, there wouldn't be any credit cards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so honestly, like, if you want to stick it to the man, then you need to pay your credit card off on time, so that way you're not paying them the interest and you're getting all the perks and the miles and whatever else bonuses that you originally signed up for. That's the ultimate goal. Yeah, yeah, okay, let's get into a tricky one. Okay, let's get into a tricky one. Amateurization.
Speaker 2:All right. So that is how loan payments are split between the principal and the interest that you have to pay over time.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right.
Speaker 2:So remember, we take a step back where we talked about with the word principal we talked about, that's the initial amount in a loan scenario that you borrowed, but then you also have interest on top of that that you have to pay back as well, and this is just how it's broken up over a split up over the time period that you had to pay off that loan.
Speaker 2:Okay, now, one thing that I think a lot of people don't realize when it comes to a lot of loans is that often in the beginning, a lot of you think that your payment is going towards principal and interest. Oh, where a lot of times in the beginning you're actually paying off a lot of interest first, which-.
Speaker 1:Look at your mortgage statement. If you have a mortgage, pull up that statement. Get your feelings hurt because that payment is not going towards the principal.
Speaker 2:And let me break this down for you so that you can maybe understand a little bit more from a mathematical standpoint. All right, if you are having more of your monthly payments going towards principal, that's going to reduce the overall interest that you pay on the loan, because the interest is assessed upon. What is the remaining balance?
Speaker 1:All right, so you want that first initial principal balance to go down as quickly as possible?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Because then that allows you to pay less in interest over time. However, the way that they often set it up is that they've already predetermined a certain amount of interest that you're going to have, and most of your payment is going towards the interest as compared to going towards paying down the principal.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So less money going towards the principal, so it's not going down as much. So therefore you're having to pay more interest.
Speaker 1:Yep. So therefore you're having to pay more interest Yep and we've talked about this on a previous episode, but might be and you're trying to put extra money towards the principal. Call that institution first and find out hey, I want to apply $200 extra to next month's bill to the principal. How do I do that? And some of them they make it complicated. They're like oh, you need to mail a check to this address and you can't do it online because then it'll automatically. You need to find out Again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do not simply hop online and add an additional $200 to your monthly payment.
Speaker 1:It might not, because that might not go towards principal.
Speaker 1:Right. So that's a really important call out. You need to call those institutions and say I want this amount of money applied to the principal. How do I do that? And some of them might say, oh, you can do it online and it'll actually have like a principal payment button. But others will make it extra complicated and you need to follow those exact steps in order to get the principal balance down and for it not to go towards the interest Correct. Yeah, Okay, what about fixed versus variable rates? You see that kind of on credit card offers, loan offers as well.
Speaker 2:So the main difference between them is that fixed stays the same If you are in a fixed rate. There's no variation in it. It stays the same over the term of whatever that loan or CD or whatever it may be. The rate stays the same as compared to a variable. That rate can increase. Technically it can increase or decrease, but most of the time when it comes into talking about borrowing money, that rate can increase.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do they ever just decrease it because they're trying to be nice? Yeah, they normally have like a minimum that it has to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and normally the minimum is set at what they currently are, kind of at.
Speaker 1:Right, right, that makes sense. So even if rates drop, yours doesn't drop. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:And the make money doesn't drop. Yeah, okay, and the biggest thing with that is that I think fix is very straightforward. Yeah, the biggest thing is the variable, and I would say this often can come, sometimes come into play when people are, you know, doing personal loans or stuff of that nature, where they're like, oh you know, I have a variable rate for this period of time, and often the enticing aspect of that is that the variable rate tends to be initially lower than a fixed rate and that's kind of how they entice you into doing that.
Speaker 1:They lure you in, yeah.
Speaker 2:Now that can be extremely advantageous if you have a very good plan in place to pay it off in the timeframe of that lower variable rate.
Speaker 2:So, for example, they might give you, like might say, let's just say, a five-year loan and the first year or two could be variable at a lower rate, but then after that second year it jumps up yeah so if you have a good plan in place where you could pay that debt off at that lower interest rate and you are disciplined in doing that, then yeah, it could be a good idea to take the variable rates, because you know you're going to pay it off at that lower interest rate. But if you are not disciplined and you don't have a specific payment plan in place to pay off that loan before that variable rate changes, then that's probably not the best option for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're doing that a lot too with mortgages right now. Right when the developer, right if it's a new build, the developer will buy you a point reduction, or whatever that might be, for the first year or for 18 months, things like that and then you have to really I mean one or two percentage points in your interest rate.
Speaker 2:It's huge.
Speaker 1:That's huge. So you have to run the numbers and you have to understand okay, after this 12 months my mortgage is going to go up to X, y, z. I mean, again, you have to run the numbers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's a lot of good debt calculators out there that can allow you to run these different scenarios and see how much you would end up paying over the course of a certain period of time with the different options that are available.
Speaker 2:So, I definitely encourage people to look at those and I definitely use those with my clients. As far as even just putting together a strategy to pay off debt sooner and showing them how much they can save and how much quicker they could pay off a debt by just simply adding an additional $50 a month can make a huge difference.
Speaker 1:One quick call out, because I've had personal loans in the past for debt consolidation and various purposes. One thing that you want to ask, especially in the personal loan space, is is there a penalty for early payoff?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Because if you are the person that's like hey, I get bonuses, I get commissions, maybe my paychecks are varied. I plan on picking up a side hustle. My side business is doing well, I'm going to get this paid off faster, that's great and I'm glad you have a plan in place, but you need to make sure that the loan you have allows for early payoff without penalty Meaning. Going back to that earlier conversation of hey, I want this extra $2,000 to go towards the principal so that I can be done with this loan. Are you actually going to be allowed to do that on the loan that you took out?
Speaker 1:So, just a call out from personal experience. I do not open any personal loans that do not have an option for early payoff without penalty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, once again, it's just it's going to take that extra step, but you do, in these scenarios, have to read the fine print and if there's anything that you don't understand, then you need to seek out professional advice to help you out with that. Because I'm just going to put this out there as someone who started their career in a call center at Fidelity. Not everyone there should be working there, so you might call into these call centers to get information and details about policies and stuff and they could potentially be giving you the wrong information.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So if you have any doubt from an understanding standpoint, and you don't necessarily trust the information that's being provided to you, I would definitely-.
Speaker 1:Hang up and call back. Get somebody else.
Speaker 2:I always say sometimes, if you have the time, maybe call two or three times and get the same information, the same information.
Speaker 1:Brandon loves that trick. We've even done that. I remember when we were calling about my 401k through Fidelity and we were trying to figure out a few things, and I remember we were on the phone together and he's like I don't trust this person, let's say goodbye and let's call again. And then we called like two more times and the second two times we got different but the same information. So two out of the three times it was okay.
Speaker 2:now we can trust it because we've heard it twice from two different people and I mean because I've had scenarios where I call into which you shouldn't have to do, but but, like I said, I'm saying this from experience, one like calling in with clients to do things that I know for a fact that can be done and the person's like, no, you can't do that. I'm like I'm not going to argue with you, Just put me back in the queue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like I'm not. I hear you say that often. You're like I'll start back over, Thanks.
Speaker 2:Like I know we can do this, I like I'm not arguing with you about it, let's just go back.
Speaker 1:And then also, like I said from before, from experience, as far as this is where I started my you know finance career yeah sitting next to people in the call center that I'm listening to give wrong information oh gosh, and I love how they're like this call is going to be recorded for quality and assurance purposes and you, you're like, your quality sucks.
Speaker 2:I also tell people, like when you're calling in about this information, I would also make note of day time and the person's name that you're talking to, because a lot of times in these financial situations, if you call in and they give you incorrect information and it causes you some type of financial loss, there is repercussion for that. Yeah, so you can recoup money in these scenarios because like I said that's why these calls are recorded document, document, document.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and even I don't, did you just say this, but I always write down the time yeah too, like what time somebody actually picked up the phone. Um, absolutely okay, so we walked through APR, APY amortization fixed versus variable. What do we want to leave our listeners with today, babe?
Speaker 2:Honestly, the first thing I want to leave you with is any account that you have that has an APR, APY associated with it. If you don't know what those numbers are, go ahead and go into those accounts, pull them up and make sure you understand what they are and all the details associated with it. That's the first thing. And in certain scenarios, if the information doesn't quite align with how you would like it to be, so let's just say you are one of those people that is in a regular old fashioned savings account, which I wouldn't understand if you listen to our podcast while you'd be there, but we're not here to judge.
Speaker 2:So if you pull up your savings account and you realize that you're only getting 0.02% um APR, I mean, sorry, APY, I'm not messing about now APY, that's why I don't like to use these terms. But if you pull up your savings account and you are getting a 0.02% APY, you can see the information now and know that you need to make a change. And also, on the opposite end, if you are looking at some of the APRs on a loan you may have, if it seems high and you might be able to possibly refinance that loan and get a lower APR, you might want to look at doing that as well, because then that saves you money.
Speaker 1:You can do that on your credit cards too.
Speaker 1:Yes, at least once a year you should be calling, even if you're not using that card. You should be calling to ask for a credit increase. If you are responsible and because that is going to help your credit utilization score, and then also, especially if you are a longstanding customer, you're in good standing, you have a good credit score, etc. You should be calling and asking if they can lower your APR. Sometimes it'll be yeah, we can lower it to this for six months. Sometimes it's okay, you know, we can lower it to this and then that's kind of your new APR. The worst thing they can say is we don't have any offers right now or no, we can't do that. At least you asked. Most of the time when I call and I say, hey, can you lower my APR? They are like, yes, ms Norwood, that's not a problem, we'll lower it to whatever it might be.
Speaker 2:Get over the fear of asking. Ask One other big thing. Like she said, get over the fear of asking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nothing bad is going to happen.
Speaker 2:These final institutions do not know you on a personal level. They don't know you before you call no-transcript, have a fear of asking for things, for fear of being told no. It's like who cares?
Speaker 1:I'm going to roll that into if you can't call your credit card company where you're literally speaking to a stranger and ask them to lower your APR, then are you also not asking for the raise? Are you not asking for the promotion? Are you not asking for the bonus? Are you not asking for the severance? Are you not, as like I could keep going? Learn to ask questions. No is an answer. It's usually not the one we want, but it's an answer. And what's the worst that can happen?
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then also like one other thing I would definitely think I would definitely encourage you to start incorporating, is these online calculators. Especially when it comes to the APR and paying off debt, these calculators can be so helpful and I've seen it.
Speaker 1:You have to visualize it.
Speaker 2:Yes, I've seen it time after time working with people where you know worse. It may take them, like right now. It could take them two years to pay off a current debt based upon paying the minimum payment each month. And then I show them like, hey, if you can come up with an extra $50, that two years gets cut down, and sometimes in half.
Speaker 1:That's significant and that's seeing something like that in black and white is very motivating.
Speaker 2:There's a difference between me saying, hey, add an additional $50 to your monthly payment, and it will just simply reduce how you pay off the debt. It will reduce it as compared to you're going to take you two years. Adding $50 is now going to reduce it to one year.
Speaker 1:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:That is a very different conversation and presentation to someone to get them motivated to do the additional $50 and pay off the debt quicker.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely yeah, use the debt calculators. We'll link one that we use personally and that Brian it's like who is Brian? I don't know. He's my other husband. Could you imagine having two spouses or a secret family? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Unless he's rich and giving me money too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I mean, if I ever wanted a second husband, he would have to be rich and have a lake house and a beach house and a boat. Let's be serious.
Speaker 2:And be okay for me coming.
Speaker 1:Right that.
Speaker 2:Brandon uses with his clients. We digress.
Speaker 1:Just a little sleep deprived over here and then yeah. So look at your high yield savings account. If you don't have one, it's time to open one. Look at the APR on your credit cards. You need to know them. You really just need to know all of these numbers when it comes to where your money is, how much you're paying, how much you're earning, and I mean honestly, is your money working harder than you are? Because that's the ultimate goal.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I mean at the end of the day. That's how you become work optional.
Speaker 1:Yes, by making your money work for you. So hopefully we have helped you understand some of these common and confusing acronyms that the finance industry uses to try to keep us broke. But we do not want to stay broke, so hopefully this was helpful. Share it with a friend. As always, please subscribe, rate and review, and we will talk to you soon, don't forget. Benjamin Franklin said an investment in knowledge pays the best interest. You just got paid Until next time. Thanks for listening to today's episode. We are so glad to have you as part of our Sugar Daddy community. If you learned something today, please remember to subscribe, rate, review and share this episode with your friends, family and extended network. Don't forget to connect with us on social media at the sugar daddy podcast. You can also email us your questions you want us to answer for our past the sugar segments at the sugar daddy podcast at gmailcom, or leave us a voicemail through our Instagram.
Speaker 2:Our content is intended to be used, and must be used, for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment, based upon your own personal circumstances. You should take independent financial advice from a licensed professional in connection with, or independently research and verify any information you find in our podcast and which you rely upon, whether for the purpose of making an investment decision or otherwise.
