Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #298: Debt Freedom: Breaking Free from Financial Shackles with David Smith of Solid Ground Financial
Drowning in debt isn't just a financial problem—it's a mindset destroyer that can prevent you from building wealth and living your best life. In this revealing conversation, Jeremy Wolf sits down with David Smith, founder and CEO of Solid Ground Financial, who has spent 18 years helping consumers break free from the crushing burden of debt.
Smith pulls back the curtain on why financial literacy isn't taught in our schools, boldly stating "the economy thrives off debt." This systemic knowledge gap keeps many Americans trapped in cycles of minimum payments that never reduce their principal balances. Through his debt settlement programs, Smith negotiates with creditors to settle debts for as little as 50 cents on the dollar—potentially saving clients tens of thousands of dollars.
What makes Smith's approach unique is his comprehensive solution that goes beyond just debt resolution. After working as a debt collector himself and experiencing personal bankruptcy during the 2008 financial crisis, he understands both sides of the equation. This perspective fuels his three-pronged approach: resolving existing debt, providing financial education, and repairing damaged credit scores.
The results can be life-changing. Smith shares the story of an elderly client who was contemplating suicide over her $100,000 debt burden. His program reduced her monthly payments from $2,000 to $500, stopped the collection calls, and ultimately settled her debt for just $10,000. Today, she's completely debt-free and recently purchased a home for her grandson.
Ready to transform your relationship with debt? Visit solidgroundfinancial.org to learn more about David's services or grab his book "Everything They Don't Want You To Know About Financial Literacy." Your journey to financial freedom might be closer than you think.
Call: (305) 394-1310
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Well, hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. You know there's so many folks out there nowadays that are struggling up to their eyeballs with debt. Forget about saving and building wealth. If you are struggling with debt, you're going to have a hard time with your mindset and you're going to have a hard time getting things done. So our guest today helps folks with that very issue. I'm here with David Smith, and David joins us from Solid Ground Financial. David, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, Jeremy. It is our pleasure Excited to get into this, because I think this is going to be useful for our listeners. Why don't you start off by talking a little bit about what you do at Solid Ground Financial, and then we shall proceed from there?
Speaker 3:Okay, sounds great. I am a CEO and founder of Solid Ground Financial. We just are celebrating 18 years in business on helping consumers resolve their debts through resolving debt settlement, providing debt settlement programs allowing consumers to free themselves of the burden of carrying unwanted debt, predatory lending, payday loans, in addition to educating them on how to avoid falling back into the financial struggle. And then you know, we like to send our customers off with excellent credit, so we provide them with credit repair solutions to that when you're, when you completed our program, you've become debt free, you've been educated and now you've got the credit that you need in order to qualify for homes or if you need to invest in your business and things of that sort.
Speaker 2:Great. So you basically sit, you work with folks that are struggling to give them the tools that they need to pull themselves out of debt and then, ultimately, it sounds like there's some degree of like a coaching element with what you do in terms of like helping them with their mindset moving forward to not only fix the issue they're having but create system. Help them create systems in their life to avoid having that issue and, again, so they could actually start saving and building wealth, moving forward, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So through my research, I've noticed that, you know, obviously we've all went to school here in America and you know, while they provide us with pretty good morals and you know tools to learn, they do not give us the tools we need to survive. And one of those tools is financial literacy. But we're very big on, you know, ensuring that our clients are literate. We provide a. I'm an author of a financial literacy book. It's called Everything they Don't Want you To Know About Financial Literacy and it's kind of like the ABCs and one, two, threes you know on how to save your money, how to read bank statements. You know what you should look for when you're applying for a loan. You know making sure you're looking at the five in print, understanding how to read your credit report and things of that sort.
Speaker 2:Why don't they want us to know right? I've heard the argument that, oh well, that's up to the parents in the home to teach kids, which is all fair and all well and good, but something as unbelievably important as that subject and I find myself talking about this all the time, not just with finances but other life skills like mindfulness and things like that that they really don't have a huge block in school, for Really they're focused on the academics, even physical education. They have gym class, but it's really like a, an offshoot. Why do you think it is that there's such a lack of financial?
Speaker 3:literacy in our schooling system? Good question, jeremy. Um, the reason I believe I believe in my theory is that, you know, the economy thrives off of debt, right? So how do the banks stay in business? You know, people taking out loans, but people being in debt and then being able to charge the fees that the banks charge in order for them to have personal gain, right, capital gain.
Speaker 3:So people being uneducated in the sense of not understanding that if I borrow to take out this loan, I have to pay them back 26% on top of the money I owe. And so I'm making these minimum payments every month, thinking that I'm climbing out of this hole and in all reality, I'm just going deeper into the hole. So the less educated we are as a unit, the more money the government makes, the more money the banks make, which keeps the little guy kind of like at the bottom of the government makes the more money the banks make, which keeps the little guy kind of like at the bottom of the totem pole right. So in order for you to climb up that pole, you need to be educated, you need to become financially literate.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent and the government's not exactly leading by example. What we're? 32 trillion in debt right now. I think the interest payment on the debt each year is more than defense spending. It's like a trillion dollars a year in just interest. So not doing a good job, uncle Sam, modeling for our citizens. Hopefully it's not going to make some changes for us, right? At least the conversation is being had now about attempting to balance the budget, because it's wild out there. So I'm curious. You mentioned 18 years you've been doing this business Now out there. So I'm curious. You mentioned 18 years you've been doing this business Now. Is this a business that you got into because you yourself had? So many of us at some point in our life have struggled with debt, have been in a tough position. Did you have a difficult situation that you pulled yourself out of? That was really the inspiration for you to do what you do today.
Speaker 3:Well, in light of that? Yes, however, when I initiated into this career, I started on the other side, so I was working in collections. You were a collector.
Speaker 2:Yes, Don't call me a collector.
Speaker 3:I worked so hard in collections and I was able to generate some good income for that bank. But, you know, going home at night I didn't feel good because I would call people you know people that are obviously starving and struggling and I'm telling them to sell their TV, or hey, you know why don't you take back that nice washing machine you just got and make a payment on this debt? You know, and you know, while I was successful, it didn't feel good. So I did my research on alternatives and solutions, on how can these people receive help, on alternatives and solutions on how can these people receive help. And once I learned that there are options for consumers, you know it was more of my cup of tea, so that kind of gravitated toward that. And, you know, once I saw the results and how it could really assist and help people, you know I decided to dive in. And that was about 20 years ago, so Very cool.
Speaker 2:What would you say? You've obviously been doing this a while now, so you've dealt with lots of clients. What's probably the biggest misconception that the general public has around, specifically what you do and how it works in terms of assistance with this, because I think a lot of people have thoughts floating around their head that are sometimes unfounded.
Speaker 3:When you think consolidation. Consolidation is combining all of your debts into one, making one payment. But the confusion lies where you can also take out a loan and consolidate your debt, or you can refinance your home and consolidate your debt. So, in essence, is taking your debt and putting it all in one place right your debt? So, in essence, is taking your debt and putting it all in one place right? The difference between that and what we do? We provide that settlement options for our consumers. So instead of us just combining the debt into one and lowering your interest rates and then making the payments the minimum payments to the lenders, which is also a solution as well Our solution is a lot more aggressive and it will save our customers a lot more money.
Speaker 3:Why? Because we are negotiating for pennies on the dollar. So say, for example, you owe $5,000 on a credit card. We'll go in and we'll negotiate with the lenders to see if we can settle for 50 cents on the dollar, which means, instead of you paying back $5,000, and if you were late, you're probably paying fees and penalties and things of that sort. So you know, unless, as you take the debt times three, if you're behind, you're going to pay back $15,000 on that $5,000 loan. Here we come we'll have your debts resolved with 50 cents on the dollar to where you may pay $2,500 on that $15,000 debt. So it's a savings mechanisms, but it's very aggressive in a sense where you're not paying interest, you're not paying fees, you're not paying any additional penalties that the lenders may charge you.
Speaker 2:So that process I'm trying to run through this in my head. That doesn't work. Let's say somebody has a credit card bill and it's not in collections right there you can't negotiate anything with that. Like it has to be already defaulted and sent to collections before you can start doing these negotiations, or or is that different depending on the type of account? Or yes?
Speaker 3:it needs to be. It needs to be in default. You need to be um. However, if you're current as of now but you're struggling with those payments, you can still come into the program with us and then we allow your accounts to fall behind. We provide a legal protection for our consumers. So, in the sense where you are falling behind and you may have an aggressive lender, we have the legal protection that's going to protect you In case you need to go to court, we represent you Right and we exercise your legal rights. So that way you know you're not adding problems on top of a problem. Right, it's a solution yeah, from your experience.
Speaker 2:I'm curious about this because I've had the. The whole credit scoring is so confusing and it's hard to. I've heard many different things about how it takes very long to repair it. So if you have somebody, like you just said, that is not defaulting and you come up with a strategy, I would imagine it would be kind of a last resort to actually default on the debt on purpose. Let's say you do that for a client and I know this is going to be different depending on many different factors but generally speaking, if they default so you can make a deal, how long after that would it then take them to repair their, their credit? Are they looking at? Is this something that is going to take years? Are there ways to do it where you could default for a short period of time, get everything back in order and then, in a matter of months, by? Like, how does that typically work? Should people be scared of doing that?
Speaker 3:interesting to get your thoughts on that so it all, really it all, boils down to how much you owe for the timeframe that it'll take for us to resolve your debt. So you know if it's a small amount of debt it could take, you know, a few months. If it's a large amount of debt, you're 20, 20 K plus obviously you know you want to keep the payments low. So it may take a few, three, four years to resolve the debt entirely. To resolve the debt entirely, however, the credit repair solution that we provide it will allow us to remove any blemishes and negative remarks that are on your credit. How long does it take?
Speaker 3:There's a strategy that we have to use in a systematic process that we have to approach how we approach resolving the debt. So it really depends on the creditors that we're working with to remove off your credit. It depends on how much we're removing off the credit. So, in essence, it can take anywhere from two to six, six, seven months, depending on how many accounts you have that we're removing, because you can only remove X amount of accounts from your credit report at a time. You can only dispute X amount of accounts from the credit report at a time. When I say at a time within a month's timeframe, okay.
Speaker 2:Do you have any? You've been doing this a while so I'm sure you do. Maybe you could think of one that comes to mind, a client success story, somebody that was really, really down in the dumps struggling mightily, and you stepped in and they went through your program and they came out on the other side in a positive light. Something come to mind there.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. Number one feel free to go and take a look at our reviews Solid Ground Financials. Our Google reviews speak for itself. We do work with Trustpilot as well, and also the Better Business Bureau. So there are lots of reviews and a lot of testimonials there for you to take a look at. But I can give you an example. I personally, when I first started in the business, started my business.
Speaker 3:I had a young lady who she was elderly and she was contemplating suicide. She had over 100,000 in debt. She didn't know what to do. The bill collectors were banging on her door. She was afraid to answer her phone. She was hysterically crying in tears. She came into our program. She was paying over $2,000 a month and she was paying $2,000 into just a burning hole. It was going nowhere.
Speaker 3:A lot of people don't understand that if I'm just making the minimum payment on my debt, the balance isn't moving. So it can become confusing. I'm spending $2,000 a month but the balance is the same. In some cases the balance is going up, it's getting higher. So when she came into our program, I I was able to cut her payments from $2,000 to $500 a month, so that was a big savings. I put $1,500 back into her pocket per month. In addition, I was able to stop the phone calls, which was a huge plus for her because she was almost, like I said, afraid to answer the phone, kind of like a PTSD type of situation. Right, it's stressful, man. I mean it's like it's one of those things where we all need situation, right it's stressful man.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's like it's one of those things where we all need money, right, you have to have it, you have to eat, you have to do that but we assign so much beyond what it actually is in terms of happiness in our lives, and so many of us have our happiness directly pegged to how much income we have, which is just horrible because it creates undue stress and it messes with your mind, right, you're always in a scarcity mindset, trying to chase instead of having the mindset like money is easy to. The one thing we can't get more of is time, right, money is all over the place.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:That's right. Yeah, so we were able to, you know, lower her debts by. We were able to lower her debt by 50%. So, instead of her paying back the 20K plus, remember, you're going to pay back three times the amount you owe if you're past two, so she would have paid 60. She ended up paying back 10,000, with a minimum payment of 500 per month, and she also was able to become educated on the do's and don'ts of credit, right? So you know? God bless her and her family. She's completely debt-free now. She actually just purchased her grandson a dream home.
Speaker 2:Very cool, that warm, feel-good story. I love that. What about you, david, from my experience in life I'm 45. Generally speaking, I often draw the biggest inspiration off the most challenging experiences that I've had throughout my life, like the types of things where, when you're going through them, like you just talked about your client almost suicidal, had to go through that experience, but it probably got her to the point where she was able to buy her grandkid a house. Looking back through your journey, is there something that comes to mind that you've been through whether financial, whatever it is, emotional, financial some life hardship or struggle where at the time you were going through it, it felt like the walls were caving. It felt like you'd never come back from it. But sitting here today you're like you know what. I'm damn grateful for having gone through that man. I wouldn't be where I am today without having had that experience.
Speaker 3:Well, absolutely. I mean, that's happened several times in my life. But to give you one example in 2008, the market crashed. Right, I was at the time. I was, I was a mortgage broker, so that was my core business, right? And so, when the market crashed, my business was the first to be affected. Oh, and you were killing it before, before the market crash I had a friend who was a mortgage broker.
Speaker 2:He was just rolling it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were killing it for sure. So the market crash, you know, I had to file bank for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy, I filed chapter 13 and I lost three, three properties that I had for investment purposes. I had two vehicles. One of them had to become repoed, my first BMW 760, I had to send it back to the bank and at that moment I noticed that I needed to do something, I needed a resolution, you know. So, with much prayer and faith, I was able to start and become the founder of this company, Solid Ground Financial. So that situation that I spiraled into actually allowed me to come out, utilizing the pain and the struggles that I experienced, to now provide people with a solution to become debt-free, to become educated and to stand strong with financial literacy as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it helps so much to have experienced that pain of going through that process, to be able to kind of see things through the lens of the folks that you're now helping, absolutely. So how can our listeners learn more? Let's say, for anybody out there that's struggling right, they are in a tough situation and they need help, how can they learn more? Maybe share your website, your contact information, let our listeners know how they can reach out.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. If you're looking for assistance with resolving your debt, or if you're just looking for credit education, we're here to help. Solid Ground Financial. It's written here on the screen solidgroundfinancialorg. You can go to our website. It's very informative, very educational and if you are experiencing any problems with debt, you can actually submit an application form on the website and make an appointment for one of our consultants to contact you and provide you with the assistance you need.
Speaker 2:Perfect. We will, of course, drop a link in the description to all of your contact information so people, in case they miss that, they can link up directly with you. David, it was a pleasure having you on learning about what you do. I hope this was useful for our listeners. If it was, please leave a comment below. If you've been through a difficult situation and you've pulled through to the other side, you know, share it, share your story with us. We'd love to hear from you and, um, hopefully, if you are struggling, maybe david could help you out absolutely don't forget.
Speaker 3:You can find me on amazon. Everything they don't want you to know about financial literacy the financial literacy book that will change your financial future.
Speaker 2:Love it, man. Everything they don't want you to know, don't let them hold you down. Expand your mind and become financially literate today. Yes, thanks so much everybody for tuning in. We will catch everyone next time on the next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, david. Again, great to meet you, brother. Have a wonderful day Likewise, jeremy. Be blessed. All right.
Speaker 1:You too, man, day like likewise jeremy, be blessed. All right, you too, man. Bye, all right, bye-bye. Thanks for listening to the good neighbor podcast, cooper city. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to gnpcoopercitycom. That's gnpcoopercitycom, or call 954-231-3170.