Vault: Former Apprentice contestant gives financial advice

Summary

The Bert Show — Vault: Former Apprentice Contestant Gives Financial Advice

Date: June 8, 2026
Guest: Wes Moss (former Apprentice contestant, financial expert, host of Money Matters)

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Episode Overview

In this engaging and practical episode, The Bert Show focuses on a common New Year’s resolution: getting out of debt and taking control of personal finances. The hosts welcome Wes Moss, a financial expert and former Apprentice contestant, to break down actionable steps for listeners who want to improve their financial health. Through candid advice, real-life anecdotes, and direct answers to listener questions, Wes delivers a roadmap for budgeting, tackling debt, building an emergency fund, and restoring credit.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power of Written Goals

• Wes Moss emphasizes: Most people have financial resolutions in their heads but rarely write them down.
  • "Very, very few people actually write it down... There is so much power in the pen to actually get it on paper." (03:37)
• Harvard Study Anecdote: Wes shares a study where only 3% of graduates had clearly written goals; those 3% had 10 times the income of the rest after 10 years.
  • "The 3% that actually had written goals had 10 times the income of the rest of the 97%." (04:30)

2. First Steps: Start with a Budget

• Budgeting Tools: While websites like Mint.com and Quicken are useful, Wes encourages using a simple Excel spreadsheet or paper to track spending.
  • "I have people that I meet with all the time that have lots of money... They literally can fit everything in their financial life on a piece of paper." (05:38)
• Recognize All Expenses: Listing out every expense yourself leads to better clarity and awareness.
  • "If you spend 30 minutes to write down your own budget... that is the key to all finances." (06:20)

3. Tackling Debt: Which Method Works Best?

• Smallest Balance First: Contrary to pure mathematical logic of paying off highest-interest debt, Wes recommends starting with the smallest balance for visible progress.
  • "Rather than even paying the highest interest rate first, just get rid of the smallest credit card balance and then the next largest... work that down." (06:42)
• Psychology Over Math: Seeing quick wins keeps people motivated.
  • "Math is not as important to you as seeing some sort of progress and chipping away at it." (07:58)

4. The Emergency Fund: Your "Sleep Well at Night Money"

• Importance: Build up 6-12 months of cash before investing or making large pay-downs, especially in times of job instability.
  • "You need some cushion. I call it this sleep well at night money that absolutely you can get to at any time." (14:43)
• Priority: Don’t use all cash to pay off loans before establishing this fund.

5. Changing Spending Habits & Focusing on Big Expenses

• Cultural Mindset: Many focus on cutting small expenses (e.g., Starbucks) while ignoring large, impactful costs (e.g., expensive cars).
  • "We are sometimes a penny wise, pound foolish culture... You have to really look at the big things..." (08:33)

6. Mortgages & Being Underwater on Your Home

• Advice for Underwater Mortgages: Unless significantly underwater, just keep making payments if you love your home.
  • "Houses are to live in, not to flip... If you still like your house, who cares if you're 10% underwater?" (09:22)
• Long-Term Perspective: Markets recover; if you can afford the home, stay the course.

7. Dealing with Bankruptcy & Credit Repair

• Stay Away from Quick-Fix Credit Repair Services: Most paid services are scams.
  • "Most of the time you get sucked in to paying high upfront fees and they really don't do a lot for you..." (10:54)
• Use Nonprofit Counseling: Only trust organizations like Consumer Credit Counseling for genuine help.
• Patience Required: Restoring credit is a slow process; focus on not repeating past mistakes.

8. Bankruptcy Myths & Modern Lending

• Bankruptcy Removes Debt, but Stays on Credit Report: Remains for 7-10 years—automatic reset is a myth.
• Current Lending Environment: Shift from previously loose lending standards to much tighter ones, making it harder for post-bankruptcy consumers to access credit quickly.

9. Debt Consolidation Loans: Last Resort

• Consolidation Risks: These can often involve leveraging your home and don’t address the root issue.
  • "I'm a believer of keeping it really simple... put that extra $50 or $100 or $200 a month to paying [debts] down naturally." (12:23)

10. Listener Questions: Real-World Scenarios

• Paying Off Car vs. Credit Card: Don’t rush to pay off debt with lump sums if you lack an emergency fund, especially after a layoff.
  • "I would tell our caller to not pay anything off until you find a new job, then start paying off the debt, then start paying off the car." (15:32)
• Closing Credit Accounts: Avoid; maintaining zero-balance open accounts is better for your FICO score.
  • "It does affect your FICO score to close accounts. So pay the balance down to zero and keep the card open." (15:46)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Written Goals:
  "There is so much power in the pen to actually get it on paper." — Wes Moss (03:37)

• On Budgeting:
  "Everything you need to know about your finances you can fit on a piece of paper." — Wes Moss (05:38)

• On Tackling Debt:
  "You really wouldn’t have $10,000 in credit card debt at 15% anyway if you were really doing the math to begin with." — Wes Moss (07:39)

• On Emergency Funds:
  "You need some cushion. I call it this sleep well at night money." — Wes Moss (14:43)

• On Home Ownership:
  "Houses are to live in, not to flip." — Wes Moss (09:22)

• On Patience:
  "Restoring your FICO score is just a long slog and takes time." — Wes Moss (10:54)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:35 | Introduction to Wes Moss and his post-Apprentice career | | 03:37 | The importance of writing down goals and the Harvard study anecdote | | 05:00 | Budgeting basics: how to start and which tools to use | | 06:37 | How to prioritize paying off debt | | 08:22 | Changing spending habits and avoiding "penny wise, pound foolish" pitfalls | | 09:22 | Advice for homeowners who are underwater on their mortgage | | 10:30 | Caller questions: Bankruptcy and repairing credit | | 11:52 | Consolidation loans: when (if ever) to consider them | | 13:19 | Lending environment changes: from easy credit to tight approvals | | 14:01 | Deciding whether to pay off car loans or credit cards when facing job loss | | 15:41 | Should you close a credit account? Impact on your FICO score explained |

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Episode Tone and Style

Conversational, relatable, and pragmatic, the episode threads laughs and easy banter among hosts and guest, while offering direct and actionable financial tips. Wes Moss speaks in clear, motivational terms, with encouragement for taking control one step at a time.

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Final Notes

Wes Moss’s approachable mindset and actionable strategies provide listeners with a clear, step-by-step plan to gain control of debt, create a budget, and build a solid financial foundation. The episode’s insights are especially valuable for anyone feeling overwhelmed or unsure where to start with their financial resolutions.

Transcript

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[Radio Host]

show we have been spending a lot of time on resolutions this week. Yesterday was all about you folks that have been promising yourself that you're Gonna stop smoking. Like Jen hobbies had the fight.

[Co-host]

Oh, yeah. It's a constant battle. You win some, you lose some. And then, you know, you're trying to figure out what is it that's gonna work. You know, is it gonna be some of those prescriptions that you hear about and you see a lot of ads for right now? Is it gonna be cold turkey? Just willpower. But then yesterday we talked to Sean Wheeler, who's actually a hypnotist, and he of success with his clients. So we talked to him about the benefits of hypnotism and how it can help you stop smoking or lose weight or anything really.

[Radio Host]

And tomorrow we're going to talk more about losing weight. But a lot of you guys are fighting finances year after year after year. And you promised yourself this is the year that you're going to get out of debt or this is the year that you're going to organize your financing and you made that resolution 1990. And it didn't work. Then 91 and 92. And here we are. You still can't get it down. So we've brought West Moss in from Money Matters on News Talk. 750 WSB to help you guys out with that. How you doing, Wes?

[Wes Moss]

Good morning. Great. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Good to see you.

[Radio Host]

Things are going well for you since the reality TV show?

[Wes Moss]

Well, it's been a long time. Five years. From the Apprentice to now wsb, it's been kind of a long route, but a fun route.

[Radio Host]

Congratulations.

[Wes Moss]

Thank you.

[Caller or Guest]

Were you in that first Apprentice?

[Wes Moss]

It was the first year, but it was the second season.

[Co-host]

Second season.

[Radio Host]

Okay. All right. So where do we even start? I think probably people are always feeling like they're in over their heads when it comes to debt. So if the New year's resolution was, I'm getting myself out of debt this year, what is the first thing that I gotta do?

[Wes Moss]

I think so many people have resolutions in their head, but very, very few people actually write it down. And there is. This is something that I've just been doing for, just naturally, since I think I was in college, is actually writing things down. I'll get confused about what I want to accomplish because I have so many things in my. And the only way to get some clarity is to write it down. And there's so much power in the pen to actually get it on paper. There was this Harvard study that's a. It's a really kind of a neat. It's a fascinating money story where they took this graduating class from Harvard Business School. And they asked them if they had clearly written goals, defined written goals. And 84% of people didn't have them. These are Harvard business school graduates. 13% had goals but didn't write them. And only 3% actually wrote them down. And they came back 10 years later and talked to these people about their careers. The 13% that actually had goals had double the income of the 84% that didn't. And the 3% that actually had written goals had 10 times the income of the rest of the 97%.

[Caller or Guest]

So all we have to do is write our goals down and go to Harvard.

[Wes Moss]

If you can get into Harvard, it'd probably be a nice one, two combination.

[Radio Host]

All right, so you write it down, and you're really committed, but you're insecure because you don't know how to start. So where's the very first place you gotta go?

[Wes Moss]

Okay, so I meet with a lot of individuals that have figured out a way to get to retirement with enough money that they can actually stop working. And that's a really hard thing for Americans to do. And they have a couple things in common. They all. They all have a written budget. Okay. They all have never been a slave to debt or they figured out a way to get out of debt. And they all love their career. So first, let's start with the budget side of it. There are a lot of easy websites and tools to get the budget started. There's mint.com which is really popular and very useful.

[Caller or Guest]

She's talking about that.

[Wes Moss]

She loves it. Yep. So Mint's very good. You can go to Quicken and you can get free things from Quicken, and that can help keep you track. But what I see actually is better, and this is what I do, is to keep it really simple and just do it on your own Excel spreadsheet or your own piece of paper. I have people that I meet with all the time that have lots of money. They have a million dollars or more, and they don't have fancy programs. They literally can fit everything in their financial life on a piece of paper. And they'll Write down the 15 things they spend money on. And that forces you to actually come up with and recognize everything you're spending your money on, as opposed to a program that says, hey, aren't you spending money here? Aren't you spending money here? So I think if you spend 30 minutes to write down your own budget, better if you can just go in and do it on. Excel is such an unbelievably powerful tool to keep your spending in Check. And that is the key to all finances.

[Radio Host]

Well, what if it's too late for me? I didn't keep my spending in check, and now I'm in debt, so where am I going?

[Wes Moss]

Okay, so you have to then figure out a way to first get out of debt. People always think about, you have to invest, you have to be an investor, but you can't do that until you're one out of debt. Two, you've built your emergency fund. That emergency fund is six months to 12 months of cash. So we always hear about, oh, go ahead and start investing right away. Well, I don't think you really should be investing until you're one out of debt. Two, the emergency fund is built up, so in order to get out of debt, you need to list your credit cards. And I think that rather than even paying the highest interest rate first, just get rid of the smallest credit card balance and then the next largest, and then the next largest and work that down. And if it takes you two, three, five years, that's okay. But you have to get out from underwater before you can really start saving.

[Radio Host]

Okay, So I think that's good advice right there. So if you have a whole bunch of credit cards, you're saying, attack the lesser ones first, the least amount first, and then attack the bigger ones.

[Wes Moss]

Absolutely, because you can see your progress if you do it that way. You always hear about saying, well, wait a minute, why don't I pay the 12% credit card debt before the 10% credit card debt? Right. Well, that makes financial sense, but you really wouldn't have $10,000 in credit card debt at 15% anyway if you were really doing the math to begin with.

[Co-host]

Right? Math is not as important to you as seeing some sort of progress and chipping away at it.

[Wes Moss]

And that's exactly what I did when I was in my early 20s, coming out of college, incurring a whole lot of expenses, not recognizing the difference between what you make and actually what you keep after taxes. And that really helped me. And I remember it took a couple years to get out of debt, but it's very, very powerful to do that.

[Co-host]

I think that it's about. I'm sorry, changing your spending too. Don't you think? Like, we kind of have this mentality of I want it and I want it now? So that's how people get into credit card debt. So not only do they have to pay them off, but they have to change the way they think about it.

[Wes Moss]

That's somewhat true. I think that we are a penny sometimes a penny Wise pound foolish culture because you hear a lot about cutting back on little things. You always hear about the Starbucks coffee. You hear about spending too much money on a whole bunch of little things. And then you hear people that have say that they are good budgeters and they brown bag it to work and they don't go to Starbucks, but then they have a $50,000 car and you see, I think you see a whole lot of that or a million and a half dol. But they scrimp on everything else. You have to really look at the big things, the pennywise versus pound foolish in order to get your budget in line to begin with.

[Caller or Guest]

What do you do when somebody walks into your office and is upside down in their house because of home equity that was so available a couple years ago?

[Wes Moss]

More than 25% of Americans are in that position. And what happens is that if you are underwater at a house, you either have to come to the table with money to close to get out of it, you have to make up the difference out of your pocket or you have to just continue to pay your mortgage and you become somewhat of a renter in your own home. However, it's okay. I think we need another cultural shift. I think that we've now recognized again is that houses are to live in, not to flip. And if you still like your house, who cares if you're 10% underwater? If your house is a $400,000 balance on the mortgage and it's worth $360,000, are you going to let it go back to the bank? No, you're going to keep. You should just keep paying it. If you love your home and raise your family there and eventually the housing market will come back and you won't be underwater. Unless you're just 50 or 60% underwater on a house, you really should continue to pay for it and live in the house like it was supposed to be lived in.

[Radio Host]

Here is Sarah. Good morning, Sarah. You are on with Wes Moss. He is the host of Money matters on Newstalk 750. What's going on?

[Caller]

I have a question. If you recently filed for bankruptcy and as you know on your credit report, it stays on there or I don't know if you know, but it's on your credit report for seven to 10 years.

[Podcast Host 2]

Sure.

[Caller]

There are all kinds of avenues out there that say that they can help you repair your credit in a shorter period of time. Are any of those legit?

[Wes Moss]

No, they're not. Most of the time you get sucked in to paying high upfront fees and they really don't do a lot for you to repair. Your FICO score is just a long slog and it takes time. The only avenues you really can get help for getting your credit better is to go to Consumer Credit Counseling of Greater Atlanta, the nonprofit organization that will help you do that. And it just takes time. Don't think that someone can promise you for more money to get further into debt that can actually get your FICO score.

[Caller]

We're completely out of debt now. We have no debt. That's the beauty about bankruptcy. We have no debt anymore.

[Caller or Guest]

You just want to get it off your credit report.

[Caller]

We need to start fixing our credit report. That's all I need to do.

[Wes Moss]

Yeah, well, it's just going to take, it's going to take some time and you just want to make sure you don't get back into that same situation and it'll get better and better year after year after year.

[Podcast Host 1]

Do you recommend people giving, getting consolidation loans?

[Wes Moss]

I would say if it, I would only use that as a last resort. I mean it used to be so easy to do consolidation loans using your house as the asset. You know, how many commercials did we used to hear a day about get out of debt? And what they were really pitching you on was pulling money out of your house and they would do the refinancing. Those are really mortgage companies. That's how they made their money. And then Americans found themselves upside down down in their houses. So I'm a believer of keeping it really simple, going back to just figuring out a way to list down all your credit card debts and saving enough so that you can put that extra 50 or 100 or $200 a month to paying them down naturally.

[Radio Host]

Here's Kelly. Hey Kelly. Today we're spending some. No, we're not. We're spending some time on just talking about. If your resolution this year is just to get your finances in order and get out of debt, how do you do that?

[Co-host]

Well, back to what that last caller said. Bankruptcy doesn't just eliminate your debt that follows you for a really long time. Right? Well, she acted like, well, we went bankrupt. Now we don't have any debt anymore.

[Caller]

Woo hoo.

[Co-host]

That's not the case.

[Caller or Guest]

Well, for 10 years, I mean it does eliminate your debt, but for 10 years you have that on your credit report. There was a time I think where people like after you got did the bankruptcy, a year later you could get money again because there was so much money available. I bet that's not the case anymore.

[Wes Moss]

That was economically a culture of easy credit Credit so that as all the banks were trying to compete against each other, they each got more lackadaisical as years went on. So what happened is that the companies or corporations made money more and more readily available so that even if you file bankruptcy, one company would say you need to wait five years. And then somebody went to four, and then three, and then all of a sudden you could go bankrupt and still get a loan within 30 days. That's changed, though, okay? Completely changed. In fact, I'm still seeing lending standards probably too tight or too heavy. And I think that's going to start relaxing.

[Radio Host]

Here's George. Good morning, George. You're on the Birchill Q100.

[Caller]

Morning, guys. How are you doing today?

[Radio Host]

Great, thank you.

[Caller]

Great. I have a question. I'm going to get laid off soon and company's giving me a bonus, a nice bonus upon leaving. My question is, is it smarter to pay off my car, my car loan payment than what it is to pay off my credit card?

[Wes Moss]

What are. Well, depends on the balance. What's the balance of the two? What are the interest rates?

[Caller]

The balance on my, on my car is about, I want to say, 18,000 interest rates at 4.99.

[Wes Moss]

Okay.

[Caller]

The credit cards, if you put them both together, it's about the same thing. One's about 8,000, the other about 10,000. And each one has a low interest rate of 1.99 and 3.99. No. Yeah, 3.99.

[Wes Moss]

How much do you have? Six months of cash in the bank already so that if you do not. Okay, so you do not. So then I wouldn't pay it off right now at all because you need liquidity. You need some cushion. I call it this sleep well at night money that absolutely you can get to at any time.

[Caller or Guest]

I used to work with a radio guy who called it the FU fund.

[Radio Host]

Oh, yeah. So if you wanted to leave, you could say FU and take off.

[Caller or Guest]

Yeah. It's a good thing to have.

[Wes Moss]

It absolutely is more than a financial tool. It's a peace of mind. And it not only will get you through a rough patch and a tough time, but it will also down the line when you become an investor and you really start to invest in the markets over time, it makes you more patient because you know, you have six months or a year of emergency money that you can get to at any time. So I would tell you, I would tell our caller to not pay anything off until you find a new job, then start paying off the debt, then start paying off the car.

[Radio Host]

Joy wanted to know does it affect your FICA score to close accounts?

[Wes Moss]

It does affect your FICO score to close accounts. So pay the balance down to zero and keep the card open.

[Radio Host]

Okay. We could do this for hours, but we can't. But Wes can and he does actually on 750. His show is called Money Matters on News Talk 750 and it's on when

[Wes Moss]

Sundays from 11 to from 9 to 11 every Sunday morning.

[Radio Host]

There you go.

[Co-host]

And if you ever need any relationship advice or something like that, then you can have the Birch show. Have you guys show on Sunday mornings.

[Radio Host]

I'm not getting up Sunday morning to do his show. I'm sorry. Thanks Wes. It's good to see you again.

[Wes Moss]

Thanks guys.

[Radio Host]

Take care.

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