Original subtitles

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BRANDON PFELTZ: My name is Brandon Pfeltz.

I am 28 years old, and I live in Los Angeles, California.

I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland,

kind of humble upbringing.

Money was always really tight growing up.

I didn't have a lot of things.

And I moved to New York City when I was 18,

went to Pace University, got a BA in acting and directing.

And I was making great money right out of college.

That kind of really kick started it all off.

And now I own my own theater company,

and I'm working in social and digital film

and television marketing.

There is only one problem.

I'm broke.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DAN ROSENSWEIG: Here are the facts.

The numbers are massive.

44 million people have borrowed over $1.5 trillion

in student loan debt, and it doesn't end there.

My name is Dan Rosensweig, and I'm

the CEO of the multi-billion dollar company, Chegg.

This is my mission.

With the help of my financial expert, Danetha Doe,

we're going to help young people.

The walls are closing in.

Yeah.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: Who are drowning in extreme debt.

How many credit cards?

11, 12, 12.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: To build a life of financial independence.

I just want to get out of debt, and I want you to help.

When the world is pushing down on you, it's very hard.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: This is an economic crisis

of epic proportions.

I don't use that much.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: And we have to fix it.

No, come on.

Ah!

DAN ROSENSWEIG: They're going to hate it.

But when we're done, they're going to be on the road

to financial freedom.

You feel good about what we've done so far?

I do.

Thank you.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: This is Going from Broke.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It's another day, and another dollar that somebody owes.

DANETHA DOE: So we're off to see Brandon Pfeltz today.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: Tell me about him.

DANETHA DOE: Really smart kid, got an awesome job right

after school.

He's a social media coordinator for an entertainment company.

The problem is Brandon is in a ton of debt, over $130,000.

He's paying a portion of his student loan payment.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: That means he's accruing additional interest.

DANETHA DOE: Yes.

He also has debt from payday loans.

A payday loan?

That payday loan had 148% interest rate on it.

That's ridiculous. I mean--

DANETHA DOE: It's criminal. - What's the matter?

It is criminal.

I mean, we've got to get rid of that one first.

DANETHA DOE: And I would usually agree with you because that is

an incredibly high interest rate, except Brandon has also

borrowed from a loan shark.

No, wait a minute.

If he borrowed from a loan shark, that's scary stuff.

So Brandon is borrowing more money

at a higher rate than the money that he already owes from more

and more dangerous people.

He needs to get rid of this one right away because honestly,

he might actually be in danger.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BRANDON PFELTZ: Hello.

Hey, how are you?

Come on in.

DANETHA DOE: Thanks for having us.

BRANDON PFELTZ: I wish we could have

met under better circumstances, but that is life.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: There's a lot I want to understand.

You owe everybody money.

Yeah.

You're going into places that nobody

should go to go get that money.

Mmm-hmm, yeah.

I mean, it's possible that somebody can

knock the door down right now.

Yeah.

The loan shark, in the classic sense,

is somebody that is going to loan you money

for a very high interest rate.

And if you don't give that money back,

they will break your legs.

It's literally what dominates my mind, day and night.

If I don't get a hold of my life,

I will either wind up dead in a gutter or living on a gutter.

I don't know what the heck you're doing.

BRANDON PFELTZ: Well, essentially, I

have gotten to this point in my life

where there are a lot of things that are very out of control.

And it is a very vicious cycle that I have gotten

myself into at this point.

And it's entirely of my own doing.

I have a real problem with impulse buying.

If I want something, I will buy it.

I love to buy weird shit.

This ring was made in 100 AD in Rome.

I bought it from an antiques dealer.

I like tech.

I have an Oculus Go headset that I love because virtual reality

is the future.

I've spent a lot of money on business ventures.

I put about $300 into underwater sea exploration.

I'm the king of failed business ventures and stupid decisions.

DANETHA DOE: Walk us through your thought process

when it came to your car loans.

BRANDON PFELTZ: When I moved here from New York City,

my car broke down.

So I needed to get another car from that point.

And where is that car now?

That car is currently sitting in a garage

in my old apartment.

I still owe money.

The car is non-working.

Then why don't you give it back?

I-- well, that's the thing.

I don't know how.

You know what I mean because it's--

DANETHA DOE: Have you called them?

BRANDON PFELTZ: Well, it's been sold to a different company.

They've sold off the debt.

Did you call that company?

No.

Stop, just stop.

You're spiraling out of control.

Mm-hmm.

You have a car.

It doesn't work that you could have given back.

Instead, you hid it, right?

BRANDON PFELTZ: Well, it's not it's not hiding, though.

That-- because hiding implies that I--

Did they try to take your car back?

BRANDON PFELTZ: I don't know.

That's the thing is I have so many people.

I don't want to answer phone calls

from numbers that I don't know.

But why didn't you give the car back?

I-- I don't know.

There's very simple things in my life

that would, for a normal person, would be very simple to do.

And for me, they're not.

That has been one of my biggest issues.

You owe car people money.

You owe the IRS money.

Can I just take a minute?

BRANDON PFELTZ: Yeah, sure.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Well, I'm nervous for you.

Let me explain something to you.

I needed to take a moment because I'm a parent.

And I hear your pain.

I feel it.

Calling us is a sign that you're looking for help.

But it doesn't mean you hit rock bottom.

What is your ambition?

If we have something to go to, maybe we can

get out of the hole we're in.

I had gone to school for theater.

I love theater.

It's ultimately what I want to do.

It is something that I take very very seriously.

And so that's fantastic.

Then everything that we need to be doing is focusing on that

and creating other revenue opportunities

with your free time so that you can

build confidence in yourself, reclaim your own path.

What do you think is driving the situation you're in?

I was very, very unhappy.

You know, I had gotten to this point where I-- my life

just in many ways, felt like it was breaking down.

There's a lot of issues in my family life.

My brother, homeless on the streets of Baltimore,

actually in prison now.

So I was at this very low point where I struggled

with very serious depression.

So I think that's probably one of the main factors behind it.

I was going through a lot of of very

deep serious depression issues.

But then you get to this point where you kind of wake up.

You go, what have I been doing for the past four years

because now my head's coming out of a cloud.

And now I'm looking at all the shambles of a life around me.

I can empathize with all of those.

So we have to find ways to reduce the stress, which will

reduce the negative inputs.

If you don't make the necessary changes,

how does this play out one year from now?

I don't know.

You do know.

You want to write theater.

How does your character end if you don't change your behavior?

Is it a Greek tragedy?

There's no way about it but tragedy.

If this thing isn't fixed now, then this is the beginning

of the ultimate end.

That is not already preordained.

You're still able to write your own story.

All hope is not lost.

No.

Are you willing to do whatever it takes

so that this isn't the end?

Yes.

Let's go through some of the numbers for a minute

and see a path out of this.

And maybe with a little bit of discipline,

that'll be enough for you to stick to it.

Right.

Oftentimes, people will say they're

going to make a lot of changes.

And when you add up the value of all those changes,

they don't change anything.

I'm-- I'm not paying anything besides what

the government is garnishing.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: Only once you have the full set of facts can

you make a better decision.

Danetha, take it away.

DANETHA DOE: All right, Brandon's

spending $3,700 every month, but bringing in $2,200 per month

every month.

That means he's going over his budget

$1,500 each and every month, leading

him to take out risky payday loans in order

to cover his expenses.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: Write down some homework assignments.

First, you need to make a journal.

Yeah.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: You're going to document every dime you spend.

We're going to look for at least $1,500 of reduced expenses.

That means car payments.

That means rent.

That means your streaming service.

The next one is to find out who now owns the car

and giving them a call.

Get them to lay out what it is they're asking for it and why.

OK.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: And then the last is what else are you going

to do earning additional money?

You think you can do these things

by the next time we come?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: My hope is that you're

going to take these actions.

We believe if you do, that your life will get better every day.

Yeah, thank you both so much.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you, thank you.

Thanks again.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

OK, so it has been two days since my meeting with Dan.

I'm feeling very determined at this point.

I want to show people that this is something that, you know,

I can do.

And I know it's something that I should have done in the past.

So I've gone through, I've canceled a ton of streaming

services, Playstation, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon

Prime, Starz, Showtime, Audible, Sling, Game Play, Apple Music.

I have been searching out all of my creditors,

understanding all of the financials behind everything

that I owe everywhere.

If I wasn't paying those god awful payday loans,

I would be well on track, and this would all

feel achievable and possible.

So I'm going to call these people,

try to negotiate a very, very low monthly payment,

see what they can do for me.

So that is where I am on everything.

I'm making I think pretty good progress,

and I'm very determined to keep making progress, so thanks.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

If your loans are in default or severely overdue,

I recommend working directly with the creditors

to figure out or negotiate some sort of payment plan.

Creditors would rather receive some money

than no money at all.

If you can offer a lump sum payment,

you're in a much stronger negotiation position.

When negotiating these options with creditors,

ensure that you get everything in writing.

For some more ideas and more options

on how to manage your debt, be sure to check out Grow By Acorns.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BRANDON PFELTZ: So Dan and Danetha

told me that I needed to get this car situation figured out.

Basically, I had this broken down car in my garage,

been there for over a year that I

have not made payments on because it

is a death trap of a vehicle.

And I started the process of finally getting rid of it.

It was really, really difficult. I

called the company that owned the car,

and they wouldn't take it back.

It was a really frustrating process.

So I went around, I called to about six different places,

but finally, I was able to find this company on Craigslist.

I feel like we need to do like a slow clap cause it's, you know,

going away.

They gave me 50 bucks for the car and towed it away.

Still owe about 3,500 on it, but that's a little dent.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

This for me right now is not even just about the finances

anymore.

It's about becoming more mentally stable

because ultimately, you show yourself at the end of the day

like if you really, really assert yourself,

you can do these things.

You can rise above to actually accomplish

and achieve something.

And plus I just wanted to have results for when

Dan and Danetha came back because I do have

an extreme amount of motivation, but that motivation

often gets covered by mental illness unfortunately.

I just kind of have to rise against these feelings

that I go through constantly.

We are now about a week into the start of the process,

and I have made some progress.

I still need to make additional income.

I have a list of opportunities that I'm

currently considering pursuing.

Right now, I feel OK.

I'm not feeling totally depressed,

even though I have gone through a lot of that very,

very severely over the past week because I

think the reality of the situation

kind of hit me really hard.

You know, hopefully, I keep some amount of motivation

because it's very, very important

to me that by the next time we meet up,

everything is on track.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hey, hey, how's it going?

Good. How are you?

Welcome to Game Room.

Is there anything I can help you with today?

Yes, I read that you guys buy games and equipment.

So I wanted to see if you were interested in buying any--

Definitely. What do we have here?

It's a VR headset.

Oh, nice.

BRANDON PFELTZ: It's worth about $200 brand new,

so I'm hoping I can get around $120, $130, $140.

I just wanted to see how much I can get for it

if they're willing to take it.

It's kind of a struggle to sell it because I really love it,

but I think ultimately, Dan and Danetha

gave me this homework to kind of create new revenue streams.

And I'm hoping this is one way to do it.

I kind of figured at the end of the day

that instead of living in virtual reality,

I should be facing reality, so--

[LAUGHS]

OK, it looks like everything is in good condition.

I know this cooks for about $200.

Unfortunately, I do have to sell this for at a used price.

And something like this, I end up paying $50 for.

OK, $50 is a lot less than what I was hoping for for it.

Could you do $100?

$100 is the absolute lowest that I could go.

$100?

I do want it in the store, so I'm

going to go ahead and do $100.

BRANDON PFELTZ: $100? - $100.

Awesome.

Sweet.

MAN: OK, I just need your ID, so I can add you into the system.

And then we can go ahead and process it.

BRANDON PFELTZ: Great.

I'm happy that I was able to get $100.

It's a nice relief to have that extra money in my pocket

right now and to be able to walk out here and know, oh, hey,

I can afford to actually start paying something off

because I'm getting rid of these things

that I don't need in my life.

Well, sweet, thank you so much.

Ah, no, thank you for coming in, Brandon.

Yeah, no worries, man.

Thanks again.

I'll be back.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DAN ROSENSWEIG: All right, we want

to go through and see what progress

you have and haven't made.

Sure.

I never feel like I have made enough progress.

So I'm really, really worried to see what they're going to say.

So let's start with the loan from the loan shark.

Where are we at with that?

BRANDON PFELTZ: I can pay off the loan early.

And therefore, you can eliminate

all that extra interest.

So that's the first one.

Let's talk about the payday loan next.

BRANDON PFELTZ: So I've paid $1026.55 from the total finance

charge of $5,987.64.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: And that's a victory.

Now you've learned.

We should rid ourselves of these immediately.

BRANDON PFELTZ: Right.

OK, so let's keep going.

DANETHA DOE: The next task was looking at your car situation.

BRANDON PFELTZ: Sure.

So I sold the car, very difficult to do.

So it was a towing company for a junkyard that offered to--

Right, demolotion.

Awful money, gave me 50 bucks for it.

But I needed to get it out.

But at least now we know it's not getting worse.

BRANDON PFELTZ: Right.

So we've stopped that bleeding.

Right.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: Now we were looking for you

to reduce $1,500 in expenses.

Right.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: How did we do?

BRANDON PFELTZ: I went through, canceled

every streaming service.

So the total of all of that is $175.

I spent $684.27 eating out.

So I can reduce this to $250 a month.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: So we're cutting out $400 in food.

Plus there's more.

I actually went through to all my bills and had them

all shifted so that I can align them totally

to my paychecks, which was a big problem because I was borrowing

money to pay for bills.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: So now there was working capital.

That is really smart.

Understanding what your working capital needs are

are very important.

It's the amount of capital you need

to make sure that you can keep your business or your life

running.

This allowed him to no longer have to borrow money

from payday loan providers and loan

sharks, which saved him a fortune,

as well as saved him a lot of stress.

Is it reasonable to say saves you about $350 a month?

I would say that's probably reasonable.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: So let's put down $350.

Yeah.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: And the second thing is the side hustle.

So how are we going to make more money?

I do a lot of copywriting at work.

So I would love to do freelance copywriting.

OK, where do we go to get freelance work?

Well, I signed up for a website called Upwork.

DANETHA DOE: Fantastic.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: Yeah, fantastic.

The fact that you now know you can at least pay

a certain number of your bills without having to borrow

more money is a very big thing.

I mean, you know the truth is is

that I never feel like I've made enough progress.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: Mental health is clearly a contributor

to your situation.

So one of the things that we proposed

was finding out if your company has

an employee assistance program.

The EAP program is very valuable.

It stands for employee assistance program.

It allows you to confidentially work through your HR department

to find somebody to help you with very specific and personal

problems that you may have.

And by doing so, you're able to create

the stability necessary to deal with the challenges

in your life.

And in Brandon's case, to deal with his anxiety and his stress

and put ourselves on a path with Brandon to deal

with the financial issues.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Avoid payday loans like the plague.

They're really expensive.

You show up at the payday office, you take out a loan,

and then when your loan is due, they actually

will take money out of your paycheck at a very,

very high interest rate, 148%.

You're constantly paying back this loan.

Instead, you can call up your lenders and your billers

and ask them to adjust your billing due dates to fall

after you receive a paycheck.

And that gives you more breathing room.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: Do you realize because of student debt,

the level of depression, anxiety, suicide

has all gone up in this country?

There is no embarrassment in asking for help.

We also acknowledge that what we offer

isn't the complete set of needs that you have.

But there are people that do.

And this one's available to you, guess what, at no charge.

I'll do it today.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: I'm going to call you tomorrow.

OK.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: But do you realize in one month,

we have the opportunity to say that's the first month

since you've been an adult that you

didn't go further into debt?

First, I had not thought of that perspective whatsoever.

And that's a great thing to think about.

This is doable now.

There's only one way out of this That's if we get

up the next day, and we do it.

We're going all the way to the top.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: We are, my friend.

All right.

BRANDON PFELTZ: All the way to the top.

After my final meeting with Dan and Danetha,

I was finally ready to start talking to someone

and start learning some tools that could to help me overcome

some of my personal obstacles so that I didn't fall back

into old habits and kind of just erase all this progress

that I've made so far.

Hi. BRANDON PFELTZ: Hello.

- Welcome. - Thank you.

Yeah, my name is Dr. Diep, and I'm the psychologist that's

been assigned to your case.

DANETHA DOE: Brandon has shared with us that over the years,

he has suffered from mental health issues.

And when you combine that with financial struggles,

it can really compound the situation.

And sometimes those feed into each other.

BRANDON PFELTZ: For years, I've--

I've struggled with very heavy depression,

and a lot of anxiety as well.

And that has kind of contributed a lot to me and my problems

financially.

Struggling with mental health issues,

it can affect the way you manage your finances

and the way you manage your finances further

exacerbates your mental health issues.

So it's a vicious cycle.

I think with everyone, in some way,

our personal finances are very entwined

with our mental health.

And for me personally, I feel like I

finally have an outlet to keep my anxiety and my depression

at bay.

Well, thank you so much.

This has been very helpful.

I feel better than when I came in.

It's been wonderful.

DR. DIEP: Sure, I'm glad to hear that.

BRANDON PFELTZ: Appreciate it.

Thanks.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: Brandon, how are you?

I just wanted to catch up and see

if you actually had a chance to meet with somebody,

how you're feeling and--

BRANDON PFELTZ: Right now, I'm feeling

pretty great I-- you know, as of two days ago,

just got a nice big promotion.

I'm now officially a producer at my company,

and things are going well.

And I've been seeing a doctor out in North Hills,

which has been great, you know.

For me, actually I've fallen in this like relatively good place

right now.

DAN ROSENSWEIG: First, let me congratulate you

on reinvesting in yourself and beginning to build

confidence in yourself again.

And the fact that you went and you saw somebody

and that you feel that that's benefiting you

makes me so proud and so happy for you.

Well, thank you so much.

I-- you know, I love hearing that.

I want to welcome you to your financial future, one

of independence, one of confidence,

one where you're in control.

This is a great day.

Brandon has made real progress.

He has the skills to get out of this mess.

We have a real chance for this kid

to go on and do great things.

This is the very first rehearsal.

So I thank you guys for coming.

Performing with my theater company now

feels fantastic because before, it's like I

couldn't even be present.

I was just sitting there thinking about other things,

thinking about awful things, whereas now,

it's not like that.

It's what it should be.

It's fun.

There were some major hurdles that I was facing in my life,

but at least now, those hurdles feel a lot more manageable.

That doesn't mean it was an easy process,

but that just makes it all the more rewarding.

When you can go through something

that's very, very hard and come out feeling triumphant,

and I feel for once in my life, that I actually

have some sort of foundation to build upon

rather than just kind of flailing

myself against the wind.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We know that having debt can pose challenges

in all areas of your life.

For more resources and information

on how to manage your debt, visit goingfrombroke.info.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

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