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Have you ever wished for guidance in effectively growing your business and managing your finances? "Women of Wealth," hosted by Allie Ramo and Hawley Woods serves as your roadmap to success in the world of finance for female entrepreneurs.
This podcast will take you on an empowering journey, revealing the keys to seize control of your financial destiny. Allie's journey, from Hawley's assistant to a thriving health coaching entrepreneur, symbolizes the mission: inspiring young women to invest in their financial futures.
Explore actionable strategies for leveraging your finances, growing your business, and securing your financial future. Subscribe now and embark on a path to entrepreneurial triumph with "Women of Wealth."
Have you ever wished for guidance and effectively growing your business and managing your finances? Or wonder what it takes to succeed as a female entrepreneur in finance? Then this is the podcast for you. Welcome to Women of Law, where generational wisdom meets ambition. I'm Ali Romo, your millennial host.
Hawley Woods Gray:And I'm Hollywood's Greg, your gen x host.
Allie Ramo:Using our combined backgrounds in insurance and financial services, we will share what we've learned to give you the tools you need to grow your business.
Hawley Woods Gray:Join us, and together, we will help you discover practical strategies for financial leverage, business growth, and securing your future. Hey, Wealth Warriors. Are you ready to redefine wealth and master your money mindset? Welcome to Women of Wealth. I'm your Gen x host, Hollywood's Gray.
Allie Ramo:And I'm your millennial host, Ali Ramos.
Hawley Woods Gray:Today, we will be talking to Izzy Cheptia about Release Strategies, a debt solution company.
Allie Ramo:So to start us off, Izzy, can you introduce yourself and share some insights on your journey in providing debt relief solutions to people for people?
Izzy Cheptea:Yes. So I'm Izzy. I am the director of sales for Relief Strategies. I've been, working in financial services for over 10 years and in that space for about 4 years, and I love helping people, get out of debt every day.
Hawley Woods Gray:So I know there's a lot of different misconceptions about debt settlement. Can you talk about some of those and how, Release Strategies is different?
Izzy Cheptea:Absolutely. I would say one of the biggest ones is, you know, everybody thinks it's a scam. Everybody you know, there's a lot of bad apples out there. A lot of people tell you they're gonna help you get out of debt, and then they don't actually do it. We are different, in a lot of different ways because we actually sit down with our clients.
Izzy Cheptea:We do a whole consultation. They get a proposal. Everything is in writing, and all of their funds are allocated in a secured account that's only in their name only. So another one is everybody thinks it's debt consolidation, which, you know, there's a difference between the 2.
Allie Ramo:Can you, describe the difference between debt consolidation and debt settlement?
Izzy Cheptea:Yeah. So debt consolidation is basically when you get a loan, for the whole amount of your debt, and you take that loan to try to consolidate all of that debt. That loan usually still has interest, and you still have to apply for it, which is mostly credit based. So you still need your credit to get this loan. I mean, a lot of people I talk to a lot of people who get a debt consolidation loan to pay off their debt, but then they just put themselves back into the same debt.
Izzy Cheptea:With debt settlement, we actually negotiate your debt. Our team of attorneys and negotiators negotiate the debt for a lower balance and for lower interest.
Hawley Woods Gray:Yeah. So, for example, like, say somebody had $30,000 worth of credit card debt, and they're paying 29.9% in interest. What is, what what do you see what are you seeing out there for people, like, in that example? What would be what would be the strategy for that one?
Izzy Cheptea:Yeah. So, any amount of debt that they would have, we are basically able to cut that in half, stop that interest, put them on an affordable monthly plan, and give them, you know, a time frame. For example, depending on how much debt they have, they could be in the program for anywhere around 24 months to 16 months. But the goal is to have a finish line and to cut out all of that interest. People find themselves paying interest and interest and interest for years and still not getting anywhere.
Izzy Cheptea:They still owe the same balance.
Hawley Woods Gray:I mean, I do think that, you know, all those calculators that are on, like, when I go to pay my mortgage or whatever, it's like, if you pay, you know, $300 extra a month, this will reduce your payment by so many years or whatever. So I do think that people get on there and they have this idea like, oh, I'm gonna do this, and then they really don't. So, you know, like you said between 24 60 months. Now with either debt consolidation or debt settlement, what does a person's credit what would it look like for a person's credit to go through the program? I know that it's an initial hit, but then eventually it starts improving.
Hawley Woods Gray:Can you talk about that?
Izzy Cheptea:Yeah. So, you know, it's an initial hit because you're not paying your creditors directly anymore. And you're allowing us, the attorneys, the negotiators to negotiate on your behalf, and start paying on those debts. It's an agreed amount, you know, by the attorneys and the client. As you start paying off those debts, you know, you don't have 30, 40, $50,000 sitting on your credit anymore, so your credit does begin to recover.
Izzy Cheptea:And you're not going in circles. You know, I just had a client yesterday who said, you know, I was paying on this for 2, 3 years, and I still owe the same thing. It's not going anywhere. I feel like I'm not go getting anywhere with it.
Allie Ramo:Yeah. Yeah. And when especially when they're only paying the minimum, that that credit's literally not going to go anywhere. And they're they didn't realize that I had a specific client as well, didn't realize the interest had changed on her account. So where she was making payments to it, and then the interest suddenly changed, and then it got out of hand.
Allie Ramo:And, and so this can really help change someone's trajectory of their credit. What all goes into to debt settlement? So you've talked about, like, you the the attorneys and negotiating their their debt. But can you talk more about, like, who else is involved on the team?
Izzy Cheptea:Yeah. So it is an attorney backed program, like I said. Basically, it's it's a very simple process. You know, we do the debt consultation. We pull their credit.
Izzy Cheptea:We see exactly what type of debt they have on there. We make sure everything's correct. We make sure we're not missing anything, you know, especially because people have medical bills and medical bills don't report on credit anymore usually. So if they do have medical bills, we could always add those in as well. But it's basically just a matter of having a consultation, creating a proposal for them, you know, accounting for all of the debt that they have, what they wanna roll into the program.
Izzy Cheptea:And then you basically start making payments on a monthly basis into a dedicated account. You know, it's gonna take a while for funds to accumulate in there, but that gives the attorneys, time to basically negotiate with the creditors. As they negotiate with the creditors, and reach agreement, the client will have to agree to that agreement to that settlement, and then that debt will be get taken care of.
Allie Ramo:So then based on the so because when you have that consultation and you give the amount, you're you're giving them the timeline, the end goal. So no matter how the negotiation goes, the payments aren't gonna change for the client. Does that mean you guys have, like, a strategy going into the negotiations? Like, this is our goal to pay off this debt, in order for it to make sense for you guys?
Izzy Cheptea:Yeah. So depending on how much the debt is, would determine the, you know, the number of years they're in the program for. So obviously, somebody with $20,000, you know, they could finish in about 24 months, 36 months, depending on how much. They could also pay more as well. If they have, you know, more debt, you know, we could take up to 5 years.
Izzy Cheptea:We do give them up to 5 years, But that is the end goal. It does give them a finish line. So at the end of the 5 years, if they have paid into the program, and agreed to all of those settlements, they could potentially be debt free.
Hawley Woods Gray:Now when the person goes ahead and sits down with you, they have their credit card, you know, they have credit card debt, they have medical bill debt. Do you usually see, like, the attorneys are able to negotiate, like, 50%. You know how they always have those commercials about, like, IRS debt and then you can pay, like, 5% of your IRS tax bill? Do you guys have, like, a formula that you figure out or or what typically is it? Like, you know, say somebody has a lot of debt.
Hawley Woods Gray:Like, you're saying 20,000, they might be able to pay it off in 24 months. But let's say they have a 120,000, then what is what's the strategy going into that situation?
Izzy Cheptea:No matter how much debt they have, it will get reduced typically by 50%. Depending on how much that they have, that's how much they would be in the program for.
Allie Ramo:Sure.
Izzy Cheptea:But we have great relationships with these creditors. That's how they that's how we know that we are able to negotiate with them. My system literally won't allow any creditor in there unless we have a history of negotiating with them.
Hawley Woods Gray:Oh, that's good to know. Yeah. So, I mean, like, pretty much all the regular credit card companies that you hear and get in the mail every day. How do you stop people how do you stop the credit card companies from sending you all of that mail? Is there a way?
Izzy Cheptea:Yes. So like I mentioned, it is an attorney backed program. So as soon as the client signs the contract with us, the attorneys do send out letters of representation to those creditors, letting them know that the client is in a program and that they will be handling the debt moving forward. So they don't get harassed, you know, by collections agencies or the creditors or anybody like that because they are a 100% backed by the attorneys.
Hawley Woods Gray:I was thinking more about the all the mail that I get for starting new credit cards. Like, how do you stop them from sending I mean, I don't usually sign up for them unless it's, like, something that I'm gonna get a lot of points for, and it's gonna help me in my business. So either, like, airline or, you know, hotel or something like that. But, I mean, how do you stop those credit card companies from sending you so much mail? I mean, they have to spend a fortune on that.
Hawley Woods Gray:They obviously make a lot of money.
Izzy Cheptea:Yeah. I I think that they're always gonna send those things. I think that those creditors are always gonna send mail because they are always looking for clients. Yeah. But And
Hawley Woods Gray:then once somebody goes through your program sorry. Once somebody goes through the program, how long it I know this isn't probably a question that you wanna answer because you hope that they'll never get into debt again, but about how long before they would be able to, like, open up a new credit card? Because you obviously need to have a credit card even just to rent a car or, you know, do anything.
Izzy Cheptea:Absolutely. You know, we don't want them to open new credit cards to, you know, go shopping and go, you know, get themselves into debt again. However, they do have an option to open up a secured credit card, which will build credit as well, during the program. They will have a chance at, you know, receiving new offers again because, you know, their debt to income ratio. As we're paying off all of that debt, they don't have that debt sitting on their credit anymore.
Izzy Cheptea:So creditors will make them offers. But what I tell my clients is, you know, get a secured credit card. That will help you. Don't get yourself into interest again. Don't go in circles again.
Hawley Woods Gray:Yeah. I mean, believe this or not, I have a credit card that I've had. It started off as a secured credit card when I was, like, 22 or something. I was in college. A secured credit card, I still have it to this day.
Hawley Woods Gray:It's been a I've I've never I mean, now it has, like, a regular limit and everything. Like, at some point, they converted it from me having to put, like, $300 a month or whatever on it so I could, you know, rent a car or whatever. But back then when I I was traveling, I was I was running a volleyball club and I needed to be able to rent cars, and they needed I needed to have a credit card. So so I had to get one of those so I could, you know, run my volleyball club. Anyway, they have their purpose.
Hawley Woods Gray:Right? They have their purpose for, you know, getting credit started again as well.
Izzy Cheptea:Absolutely.
Allie Ramo:I've been very thankful of Relief Strategies, helping a lot of our, teacher clients or school district clients with student loans and credit cards. And, I mean, naturally, because I am a younger agent, I attract a lot of the younger staff. And so it's sad for me to see that a lot of them have these massive amounts of debt that are just looming over their heads, including student loans. I mean, teachers have to get their credentials, so they've got student loans, and then not knowing how to properly manage their money. And, I mean, they've seen those student loans just pile up and up.
Allie Ramo:So then it's like, what's what's a credit card? We'll just keep doing that. And then I meet with them and we'll talk about retirement. And they're like, I don't even wanna talk about retirement because I'm paying off my student loans and I'm gonna be paying off those forever. I've got these credit cards.
Allie Ramo:You know, they wanna be married. They wanna they wanna get a house, and retirement is 30, 40 years away. They don't even wanna waste their time with it, but it's been, Relief Strategies has been a very beneficial partner for me, helping them with their student loans and their credit card debts, being able to I mean, I recently had someone making, like, $2,000 a month payments towards her debt and now she's freed up $500 And that can go towards her securing a financial future in the long term rather than her dealing with past credits, and having negative interest go against her. So, can you talk more about, the student loan debt and what's available for people?
Izzy Cheptea:Yeah. Absolutely. We have great partnerships, for federal student loans, especially for teachers and public employees. I've seen them do some really amazing stuff. I've seen them, you know, a lot of teachers get loans forgiven, get loans reduced.
Izzy Cheptea:And again, it saves them so much on interest, and it gives them again a finish line. If you're a public employee, for example, you have a 10 year guarantee that you will be out of that student loan debt.
Hawley Woods Gray:That's great because a lot
Izzy Cheptea:of teachers won't do that. Yeah. So we could help with federal student loans. We could help with private student loans. We could help with credit card bills, personal loans, payday loans, medical bills, any of that stuff.
Hawley Woods Gray:Great. Okay. Well, I have I have one more question about this, and then we'll talk a little bit about how people can get involved or, you know, in contact with you. But, one of the questions is, is all debt the same, as far in your eyes, or, like, is there a certain debt that, you know, you wanna educate people on how to get out of that debt and never get back into it? What would you say there?
Izzy Cheptea:Yeah. So, you know, if you ask any of my clients, they'll tell you, you know, all debt is the same to them because it's just debt. However, the credit card debt and the personal loans is what kills people the most because all of the interest that comes along with that. We could definitely help with that. That's what the program is for.
Izzy Cheptea:It literally gets rid of all of the interest. It cuts it all off. It cuts the balances in half, and it gives them a finish line. Stuff like, you know, mortgages or auto loans, obviously, we can't help with that because those are secured by the asset. Unless it was like unless they had a vehicle that maybe was repossessed or they surrendered it for any reason, and then it was sold, you know, or whatever it was and they still had a balance, we could still help with that.
Izzy Cheptea:But the biggest debt that I would say we could help with is credit card debt just because it reduces all of that interest.
Hawley Woods Gray:Great. Alright. Well, let's talk about how someone would before we go into our lightning round, let's talk about how somebody would get in touch with you. And then also any, tips that you can give on, just like it's getting ready to be the holiday season. So we have this show where we talked about experiences instead of, like, you know, buying things.
Hawley Woods Gray:So maybe some tips you can give. I have one good tip that I wanna give after this, but first, tell everybody how they can get a whole in touch with you and and what you can do for them in a, you know, evaluation or a, you know, 30 minute meeting or whatever.
Izzy Cheptea:Yeah. Absolutely. They could get a hold of me by emailing me, Izzy at relief strategies.com. I also have a booking link where they could book a free consultation with me, and I could help them from there. You know, it's a free consultation.
Izzy Cheptea:We could come up with a plan together and get them to, to financial freedom.
Hawley Woods Gray:Okay. So my tip for holiday, and you tell me because, you know, you don't want people going and and spending all this money on credit cards, but what I noticed is recently, I have quite a bit of reward points from, let's say, Pottery Barn or Nordstrom or, like, on Southwest, like, they have a lot of partners, you know, Southwest Airlines have a lot of partners. So I was thinking about getting points and giving, like, these certificates to my family members or actually going to those places and just using the bucks that I have already saved up. I mean, I think I might be able to get all my Christmas shopping done on my credit card rewards this year.
Izzy Cheptea:What do you
Hawley Woods Gray:think about that, Ali?
Allie Ramo:I'll take a Nordstrom's day with Holly.
Izzy Cheptea:Rewards are definitely great. You know, a lot of these credit cards do have the rewards. So, you know, especially if you plan on enrolling them into the program, you might as well use the rewards. Right?
Hawley Woods Gray:Exactly. Yes. Exactly. Any other tips you have for people during the holidays as far as not how not to get in further further in debt during the holidays?
Izzy Cheptea:You know, try not to spend what you know, not more than what you make. You know, spend out of your checking account. Don't put stuff on credit cards because after the holidays, you're gonna be left with all of those bills and all of that interest that, you know, like we said, we could pay on it for 2, 3, 4, 5 years and still owe the same balance. I had a client just yesterday with a $800 credit card, just $800, But she said she's been paying on it for the past 2 years. And guess what the balance still is?
Izzy Cheptea:$800. $800 because of all of the interest.
Hawley Woods Gray:Yeah. And I mean and the other thing too is, like, Ali was talking about being younger and working with a lot of millennials and whatnot. Like, my my oldest son, he's in the navy, and they attempted to give him a a auto loan that was gonna be 29.9%. And because he was in the military, I had to, like, call the this this company, this car lot company out there. I mean, they are so lucky I did not get my attorney get on a plane and fly out there because what they were doing through these I mean, he's in the navy.
Hawley Woods Gray:He's represents our country. He's serving our country, and they're gonna charge him 29% for auto loan. That's ridiculous.
Izzy Cheptea:That is ridiculous. And that's
Hawley Woods Gray:how you could get out of that one.
Izzy Cheptea:That's how they get you. They'll send you a letter in the mail. You'll swipe the card, and then you don't know that you just agreed to a higher interest rate. Exactly. Nobody agrees with my friend.
Hawley Woods Gray:Alright. Well, we have a lightning round. It's gonna be a little more fun and exciting than me going down this, I mean, I just don't like it when companies take advantage of young people, it just really irritates me, especially since I have young people that I have raised, you know, and friends and family that are young people. I don't like it when they get put into credit cards that, you know, and and other types of products that have high interest. So anyway, to the lightning round, fun and exciting.
Hawley Woods Gray:Ali, take it away.
Allie Ramo:I do wanna make a note because Izzy's been so helpful with me and my clients that you're when you first talk to them and you have your consultation, they're gonna go through and just collect all of the information about the debt that you've got. And on that call, they're going to give you your quote for how much you're going to pay and the time period that, that will that will take to pay off your debt. And you'll immediately see the benefit of it. And, like, Izzy shared I had a client and she was like, well, if you stay on the same trajectory, you know, your student loans are gonna it was some type of loan. I don't remember if it was a student loan or a credit card, but it was like, you'll pay it off in 40 years and you will have paid like double the amount or you can cut your monthly payments in half right now and it'll be paid off in 5 years.
Allie Ramo:And it's like, okay, duh. So it's so helpful for them. And they, you can visually see it when you're writing down these numbers as they're talking to you. Like, it's a no brainer. So I definitely recommend you guys reach out to her if debt is a concern.
Allie Ramo:And with that note, we are gonna go to the lightning round. So, Izzy, these are gonna be very short questions just as described. It's a lightning round. So here we go. First question, cash or credit?
Izzy Cheptea:Credit just because I like plastic, and I will lose the cash in my pocket.
Allie Ramo:You surprised me on that one.
Izzy Cheptea:I know. Right? Because I tell people not to, you know, overspend on credit cards, but, I don't like to carry cash around.
Allie Ramo:Fair. Alright. Real estate or stocks? Stocks for sure. If you won a $1,000,000 today, what would be the first thing you do with the money?
Izzy Cheptea:I would probably buy a house and then go travel the world.
Allie Ramo:Nice. What is a fun impulse buy you've had recently?
Izzy Cheptea:I've been trying not to do a lot of those.
Allie Ramo:Izzy's so good at not going into debt. She has no impulse buys. She's got all the discipline in the world.
Hawley Woods Gray:I'm taking you shopping with me.
Izzy Cheptea:I love to shop. You know? I love shopping. I love to go buy clothes, but I'm running out of space.
Allie Ramo:Alright. What's a money saving tip you swear by?
Izzy Cheptea:Don't spend more than what you made. If you don't have it in your bank account, don't spend it.
Allie Ramo:Yep. For sure. What's your biggest financial fear?
Izzy Cheptea:You know, after doing this, I don't think that I have one anymore because I know how to manage my money. And now I just wanna pass on that knowledge to everybody. That's awesome.
Allie Ramo:Great. I love that. What's your biggest financial goal for the next year?
Izzy Cheptea:I would love to buy a house and go travel the world.
Hawley Woods Gray:So you're playing the lottery every week.
Izzy Cheptea:I gotta win a $1,000,000 first, though. Right?
Allie Ramo:So whether you're winning the $1,000,000 or you're just working away, you're going to get that house and that trouble.
Izzy Cheptea:That's right.
Hawley Woods Gray:For sure.
Allie Ramo:I like it. Well, thank you so much for, sharing your knowledge with us, Izzy. And we'll put all of her contact information in the show notes so you guys can easily access it, and have a great day. Thank you.
Hawley Woods Gray:Thank you for joining us on this week's episode. We'd love
Allie Ramo:to hear from you, so make sure
Hawley Woods Gray:to follow and tag us on Facebook and Instagram at Women of Wealth podcast.
Allie Ramo:Your support means the world to us. Until next time. Remember, your financial future is in your hands.
Hawley Woods Gray:Stay informed, stay inspired, and embrace your wealth. See you on the next episode.