Paying Off Credit Card Debt with Rita Bautista | Ep.7

• Rita explains she was never taught financial literacy and began racking up cards in her mid-20s after graduating college on a $32k salary. Small purchases snowballed because she wasn't tracking spending versus income.

What looked like something that I could keep under control, which was like $5,000, turned into 10, turned into 15.

• Rita reframes debt as a solvable problem rather than a moral failing. She stresses that people can recover and that sharing knowledge helps others avoid the same pitfalls.

Our struggles is somebody else's lesson.

• Rita pulled her three credit reports, disputed inaccuracies, stopped new applications, and used a detailed spreadsheet to track balances, limits, and utilization. Paying down revolving debt was the biggest factor in the 210-point jump.

• Pull free annual reports from Experian, TransUnion, Equifax
• Dispute errors only—never dispute legitimate debts
• Avoid hard inquiries for at least two years

• Rita lined debts smallest to largest, paid minimums on bigger balances, and attacked the smallest with every extra dollar. Once paid off, she rolled that payment into the next debt. Aggressive expense cuts (Netflix, cable, phone) funded a $600+/month snowball.

Don't worry about the interest rate at this point. Your number one concern is to pay the money down, not the interest rate.

• Rita closes by urging listeners to pass on financial lessons so others can avoid the same mistakes. She views empowerment as sharing tools, not preaching.

Just make sure you're empowering the next person.