Uncover Money's Truths: The Unspoken Rules of Wealth from Jade Warshaw

0:00To the me I used to be, before texting 988. When another argument with mom felt like the end of the world, and school got too stressful, I felt alone. But when I texted 988, a real person texted back. Someone listened without judgment. I'm still here, and I'm stronger than I thought.

0:18Mick:We hear you. Call, text, or chat 988. It's free, confidential, and here for you 24-7. Brought to you by the New York State Office of Mental Health. All right, everybody. So this is a truly impactful episode with my good friend, Jay Warshaw. We go into credit cards, why you shouldn't have them, why you should have them. We start off with Jay's amazing because if you're someone who has had debt period, if you have debt now, I don't care, personal life, business, whatever. This episode, we break down the things you can control, the things you should focus on and strategies that really help you clearly understand that you're in charge.

1:00Mick:This episode, I promise, is going to change how you view debt and more importantly, what financial freedom should mean to you. I am extremely honored to be sitting here with the dynamic, the amazing, the powerful Ms. Jade Worshaw. You're listening to Mick Unplugged, hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation. Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable. I'm Rudy Rush, and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged.

1:44Mick:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And today we have a brilliant mind with us here. We're talking about an individual who was not just reshaping the conversation around finances, but empowering a revolution in personal wealth management. She's a brilliant mind behind the new game-changing book, What Nobody Tells You About Money, and a true visionary dedicated to demystifying the pain and the path to financial freedom. Please join me in welcoming the insightful, visionary, the unstoppable, the magnetic, Ms. Jade Warshaw. Jade, how are you doing today, dear?

2:21Well, thanks, Mick. I think that's probably the best introduction I've ever had. That was pretty awesome.

2:25Mick:I'm honored to have you on. I mean, I think your new book is not just a book that everybody should read, but it tells a story. And that's what I love most about the book. And we're going to get into it in just one second. But I always love asking my guests this first question, and that is, what is your because? That thing that's deeper than your why, I like to call it your true purpose, your true meaning. So if I were to ask Jade Warshall, it's 2026. Today, what's your because? Why do you keep doing the brilliant things that you do? Oh, man, I love that you differentiated it today versus back when you were paying off debt.

2:59Because today, my because is I have learned that your story is never just for you. Like what you go through is so you think it's for you at the time. But I know more than ever, everything I've gone through, there's somebody out there that needs it. And it's my job to get it to them. I love it. I love it.

3:18Mick:And that truly defines who you are. I've been a huge fan of you forever. I think since the scream videos, when you were screaming. Man, yeah. Yeah, flashback, right? But just what you mean to so many people, the advice, the realness that you provide, I think is unparalleled. And so, like, I always wanted to ask you this question. Now I kind of get to like, not only did you get to your path of financial freedom, what gave you the vision to say, all right, I'm not going to just do it for me. I'm going to help others. You know, that started, it actually started very small as everything does. And it was so small that I didn't recognize what was happening at the time.

4:01And I think it's like that for a lot of people. Obviously, my husband and I had come to the end of our debt free journey. We'd paid off the debt. But in the meantime, you know, one of the ways that you stay motivated, no matter what it is that you're doing in life, is you have to surround yourself by people who are trying to do the same thing. Either people who are trying to do it, people who have done it and can help guide you. But either way, you need to be submerged in that environment because that's what helps you stay motivated and helps you stay on track. And so when my husband, Sam, and I were paying off the debt, we said, OK, it makes sense that we should host classes to help other people do the same thing.

4:35And so we had a program called Financial Peace University, and we would invite folks into our home that we could teach them the material. But by way of that, we were also learning and staying motivated with that material as well. And so that's how it started is just as a way of, hey, this is something that can help us help them. It's a community thing. Great. And we slowly started to see the more of those classes that we did, the more people asked us to do the classes. So it was like, hey, we heard that, hey, we would go to church and people would say, hey, we heard that you helped so-and-so with their finances.

5:07Can you help us? Or we heard that you walked along so-and-so with their budget. Could you look at my budget? And so it just kind of added fuel to that fire. And before we knew it, you know, we were doing this one or two times a year. And it was just a special thing to have seven or eight folks in our house, you know, make them some dinner and really talk about this in real life. And I think that's what people are craving. and we were able to see the fruit of that. For somebody to walk up to you, even one person to walk up to you and say, hey, because of that class you taught, I paid off my car.

5:38I never thought I'd be able to pay my car off. That for me was like, wait, what? I could influence somebody to do something as major as some of the things that I'm trying to do. And so that was kind of the first spark of there's more to it than just what we're facing and what we're encountering. This has the ability to help other people around us.

5:59Mick:And Jade, what I love about what you're saying, and again, being a huge follower of yours forever, I have family members and friends that have been following you as well, too. You give, I'm going to say practical advice, but advice that people understand. Like, you're not talking about mathematical formulas. And, you know, if you do this and invest in this and, you know, wait 36 months and then this hits, like, you're like, nah, just focus on this one thing, right? And let that main thing be the main thing. And you also are very clear in telling people like, hey, I'm not here to make you wealthy or rich.

6:32Mick:I'm helping you understand debt finances and financial freedom in that sense. And I've always wanted to applaud you just for that practical sense. Well, thank you. You know, the practicality of it. I just remember being that person who the truth is, you know, of all the classes in school, I always did the poorest at math. I was an A student until we got to the numbers and then I was making C's and sometimes D's. That's the truth. So it's ironic that I work with numbers and math for a living today. But if you notice, I always try to go past the math and I try to get to the heart of the person because that's really what will help us be successful.

7:10And I found that when it comes to money, a lot of times, Mick, society, they teach it as a two kind of a two dimensional thing. You got the knowledge, which is the numbers and, you know, the formulas and everything like that. And then you've got the behavior, which is now you take the numbers and the formulas and now you got to go do the budget and now you spend like this. And these are the percentages. Money is actually three dimensional. And the third dimensional is the human component, which is our emotions and who we are and what our experience is. that is the main filter in which we filter all that information.

7:42And that really is the main variable that we're going to decide if we actually do the knowledge and the behavior. And it's crazy to me that that's the part that gets left out. So that's hopefully what I hope draws people in is, yeah, we talk about the numbers and we talk about the percentages, but first let's talk about you. How did you grow up? Why did it make you mad when I said that? Why are you so hung up on your ex and what he's making? Like, right. I want to get to the person before we start talking about dollars and cents.

8:11Mick:I'm going to take you back in time. Not too far. Thanksgiving 2024. Okay. We're at the Hunt family Thanksgiving and Jay Warshaw comes up in conversation. Here's why. So, you know, Thanksgiving and then the next holiday is Christmas. And we were having conversations about like, what are we doing Christmas and all that? Just, you know, family where we might've been playing spades while we're having this conversation. For sure. little dominoes. Exactly. But the conversation around credit cards happened. And because I own businesses, I look at credit cards differently because I look at it from a business mindset first and then the personal mindset.

8:48Okay.

8:48Mick:And I was a person that's like, hey, I don't use credit cards in my personal life. And everybody's like, well, why not? I'm like, it just doesn't make sense to me. Right? Like, I don't like giving money or interest to anybody when I don't have to in my personal life. Now, business is vastly different because I might need that interest from a tax perspective. Like you just never know. So I would love Jade Warshaw to talk to my family right now about... You're pulling me into the Thanksgiving table conversation. Absolutely. And just so you know, I'm sitting joker, joker, do. So if you know, you know.

9:19Mick:But I'm just saying I'm at the space table sitting tight. Yeah. I just love for you to just break down personal perspective, not business side, and we can go to business later, but the personal perspective that Jade has on should you use credit cards? Should you not? When do you use credit cards? And if so, why and how? Well, I like this question. It's pretty simple for me. And it's not really just relegated to credit cards. Although since you framed it that way, we'll go that way. For me, debt in general, really, unless it's a mortgage in the personal space, there's no good side to it. I go back to kind of biblical principles, the borrower is slave to the lender, truly.

10:00And I experienced that in my life, even when it's just a little bit. And you don't have to owe like exorbitant amounts of money. There's just that feeling, even if you owe your buddy 10 bucks that you feel it, you're like, oh, every time you see him, you're like, I forgot the$10, right? We've all experienced that. So it's not even about the amount of money. It's just, it's something that hangs over us. And it is, you feel pull of that from the lender. Whoever the lender is, it could be your buddy. It could be Chase Bank, right?

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12:39Mick:Join the 3.4 million companies already automating with Zapier and transform how you work with Zapier and AI. Get started for free by visiting zapier.com slash mick. That's Z-A-P-I-E-R.com slash mick. So for that reason, debt in general for me is not the best practice of handling money. And that's the way I would qualify it. If you're looking at it from a biblical perspective, it's not a sin. It's just a best practice. hey, borrower is slave to the lender, you should know that, right? It's just a thing to know. So when it comes to credit cards specifically, obviously some of the highest interest rates known, especially right now, I call it APR, I call it added pain and regret because that's what it is.

13:26You spend the money, then you're on for 22 % added pain, regret, right? So we have all felt that. Then there's the idea of just what we know psychologically. Obviously, if there's any plastic associated, there's less friction when we spend, right? You don't have to pull out paper dollars that you can sense and see the actual numerical denomination on the bill. So you know, oh, that's a 20, that's a hundred, right? You don't feel that it's just a piece of plastic with your name on it, less friction. And of course, if you're using something like Apple Pay, even less friction. So it causes you to spend more.

14:01And we have seen, depending on what studies you look at and depending on what you're actually purchasing. People in many cases will spend 50 % more, even up to 100 % more depending on what it is. Things like fast food are some of the worst offenders. Concert tickets, entertainment, those are the biggest offenders and those tend to be the things that we plop the credit card down on for the most often, right? And so for those reasons alone, it really is kind of a dangerous thing to get involved in, especially if you're a person who is prone to impulse spending. So it's like we can really just go down the line of all the different reasons.

14:39You could even go to it on a moral perspective. Personally, I'll say for me personally, as a person who had lots of credit card debt, what I don't like about credit cards is a vast part of their income model is based on me failing. Which means, hey, I actually need you to be your worst self in order for me to make money. Meaning I need for you to default. I need for you to be late. I need for you to keep a revolving balance. And I just, Mick, I'm the type of person, give me a product that is serving me. Give me something that I can be my best person whilst using your product. You can also make money.

15:16I don't have to be slumming it to make you money. Do you see what I'm saying? And credit cards are the opposite. I just personally, that gives me an ick factor. I don't like it.

15:25Mick:No, I love it. You know, I have, I tell people all the time, like credit cards get you with all the frills, the cash back and the earning points and all like, well, you don't need that. And then on the statement, it's very clear what the minimum payment you can make is, because to your point, they want to keep you right there. They have no desire for you to pay$100 minimum when only like$2 go to the actual balance. Yeah, exactly. And there's something to be said. I really feel that debt in America is a drug. And I think that credit cards are that gateway drug. It's that first thing because we all grew up in that environment.

16:03I mean, the first thing was like, hey, you get into the world when you're 18, you need a credit score. And so the first thing is, hey, well, let's get a credit card. Right. And so that's kind of our first taste into that world. And what I've really found, because, you know, I'm coaching folks on a daily basis with this stuff. And when I say to somebody who's ready to get out of debt, I say, OK, let's just start by cutting up these credit cards because this is a you know, this is a vicious cycle for you. Let's cut them up. And I mean, it strikes fear in their heart. And, you know, I'm all about the emotions.

16:30So I'm like, where's that fear coming from? So my first thing is let me dig deeper. And what I have really pinpointed it back to is it's like a crutch. Anybody who's played sports knows you can only support a muscle for so long. Like if you get an injury, I remember I used to play college volleyball and I was going up for the block for all the ligaments in my thumb. And I had to wear a guard, a brace for my thumb for a period of time. I remember the first time the trainer was like, hey, it's time to take the brace off. I was terrified because the pain that I felt and they were like, hey, we probably, you know, you're going to have to get used to it.

17:04You're going to have to use your fingers the way you once did. That's the only way you're fully going to heal. And credit cards are the same way. A lot of us turn to credit cards because we end up in a painful financial situation. We've lost a job. Our significant other moves out. All these things were like, man, I'm really feeling the pain and stress of money. Let me go over here to these credit cards. Credit card provides a crutch for a little while, a brace, if you will, for a little while. But then we start to see, hey, I'm not actually doing well managing my money the old way. I have lost confidence in my original dollars and cents that I had.

17:39And now I'm very, very dependent on this brace, this crutch of credit cards around my finances. And so what credit cards really do is they systematically steal our confidence and our pride and what I'm just going to call just having a sense of good feeling about the work that we do and the money that we make. There's a dignity in saying, I went to work, I got my paycheck, and that's enough for me. And so what happens is over time, it's like, you're telling me I just have to live on my paycheck? Yeah. What about that? But how insidious that credit cards steal that that's enough and that's okay and we can actually just do that.

18:16Mick:So before we get to the book, I'm also going to hit on something you said you talked about. It could just be borrowing money from someone else. So I'm also tell you a little bit about me, Jade. I'm the person that it's really hard to borrow money from me. But if I do, I have one rule. What is it? You got to shut off your social media. Because if I see you go buy a new pair of Jordans or go to a nice dinner and I haven't got my money back yet, I'm gonna feel a certain way so my rule my rule if i give you money i just need your social media off because i don't need to see it i'm probably gonna be upset if i don't get paid back is it working because then it's like well not only can i see i can't see you in person either because don't let me spot right thing new right right i promise you it was probably like 10 years ago i lent someone money and to your point they came up with like what they didn't tell me they wanted the money for.

19:06Mick:But then they come in like new rims on the car. I'm like, really? No. Like, like that's, that's what we're doing. That's what we're doing. Okay. Got it. Got it. Yeah. We've, we've all been there. I, I have been there. Yep. Yep. So Jade, what we are really here for is this book, What Nobody Tells You About Money. So one, your team was gracious to, to send me a copy. So thank you for that. And I have, I have since purchased a few copies for family members and friends. Because what I love doing is having us read something together at whatever pace you read, but then we talk about it. And your book for the last three, three and a half weeks has been the most talked about conversation and in my little family friend mastermind group that I have.

19:53Mick:But everybody wanted to give you kudos for the title of the book, because that instantly makes you go grab it. What nobody tells you about money is like, yeah, I want to know what that is. I want to know what that is. So I love to hear from you the perspective of why this book and why now? This book, because I am in an environment right now that I go on YouTube, one of the largest YouTube shows, one of the second largest radio show out there. And I'm giving people advice who are calling in, in the most desperate situations. And what I find time after time is what I also found with myself when I was in the most desperate financial situation.

20:33That again, you get numbers, you get tactics, you get behaviors, and all that hits up a wall, hits up against a wall of what your experience has been, how you grew up with money, what your spouse knows about money, how you feel about money, how you feel about yourself, all of those things. And so what I ended up finding in a seven and a half year journey with my husband paying off debt is what I ended up finding in these calls that I get day after day on the Ramsey show, which is I got to get to the bottom of the person. And why? Because usually what happens is they call in. They already know what I'm going to tell them.

21:10They already know it. Logically, it makes sense. Oh, yeah. OK, it would make sense. And I need to probably pay off the debt. Yeah, it makes sense. I need to get some savings. Yes, it makes sense. I probably need to. Right. But what they really want is to tell me something personal about them that's going to unlock it. I need to go, oh, you know what? Your husband probably is not on board with the plan. Tell me how he grew up again. And then we're talking about how the husband grew up. Then the next thing we know, right? Well, this is the second marriage. So tell me about the first marriage, right?

21:35We're ending up talking about all these things, but the money. And so what I figured out really early on is that money touches every area of our life. It touches our spiritual life. It touches our career. It touches our relationship with our kids, relationship with our spouse, relationship with our parents. It then touches all of our experiences, how we were first encountered, how we first encountered money, what we saw growing up. All of these things are encompassed in how we view money. And so if we forget about that and we just say, oh, I'm going to find I'm going to just go on Instagram and find an expert to tell me how to manage my money.