Our guest today is a serial social entrepreneur who has been disrupting for over a decade. He is a mentor and an active angle investor.     Unmanageable debt is directly tied to mental health issues in America. Enter disruptor Jason Saltzman CEO & Co-Founder at Relief App, who is building a digital solution to overwhelming credit card debts. 

As someone who has experienced the effects of toxic debt firsthand, Jason is on a mission to make financial relief accessible to everyone. 

  

 Key Takeaways: 

• The main ingredient for disruption is caring about the people for whom you’re creating value. Money is a receipt of value.  

• Solutions relating to debts are simple, however, the problem is extremely complex.  

• Any debt has a stigma around it and it has systemic ramifications. Today, 1 in 3 Americans have an account that has fallen behind. 

• It affects marginalized communities of color because not only there has been a lack of financial education but also, some of the largest creditors in the world with the highest interest rate go after these communities.  

• The problem expanded because of the coronavirus, as the government started printing capital and giving it to people in need but as per the data as people had access to more capital, their savings shot up and that triggered the creditors to issue more credit.  

• The problem compounds when you leverage credit in a society which needs it, people start spending on things they don’t need via credit cards. 

• Last quarter, the national credit card debt recorded the highest number of credit card balances in the history of debt recording. 

• Jason predicts that we will be seeing a major increase in defaulters as the compounded debt completely outweighs monthly income.  

• The average credit card rate in America today is 29.73% 

• The name of game is to get very expensive credit in the hands of people that don’t understand how to use it. 

• Some of the highest individual balances are with people with advanced education e.g. Doctors, Lawyers etc. because even after the extra years of school not of the classes involve how to manage credit or books of accounts  

• Credit card companies will issue more credit once professionals start making $200,00 - $300,000+ a year  

• Because Jason worked in the credit card and debt space in earlier years, he started to get calls from friends and family to help with a walk through their credit-related problems. Jason says that” the solutions are there, they are so simple. They are just not being put in front of your face and many people hiding from this problem just don’t know”.    

• A study by Mckenzie revealed that only 2% of people will call their banks or credit lenders and manage a payment plan. The other 98% hide from these calls. 

• One of the biggest reasons for Jason in starting the Relief App is to normalize the credit debt problem and get individuals their dignity back 
• Depending on your current situation, Relief App will make all options available for every person using the app to speak to your creditor and work out a solution. 

 

Quote of the show: 

14:22 to 14:50 

“The system is gamified, every time you turn on the television, our whole country is set up to sell you something and you want a life that many people can’t afford and extending credit gives you that opportunity to get something that you cannot afford. Even look at those Visa and Master Card commercials of the lifestyle that they are selling people. It’s like oh s**t I want that! But I don’t have the money to pay for it! Now you do! With credit we are your best friend, but that comes with big shackles” 

  Links: 

• LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonsaltzman/ 
• Company Website: http://relief.app 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaltzmanJason 

 

 Ways to Tune In: 

• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption 
• Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755
• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.