Episode 32: How to Let Debt Go with DebtGo

Acquania Escarne 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to the purpose of money podcast. I'm super excited today we have Dana Bartulovich. She is the co founder of DebtGo. She educated herself on financial literacy over the last few years, and has changed her life with the financial skills she's learned. She's taking control of her life. And now she wants to help others do the same. She's committed to helping other women master their financial future. Dana, thank you so much for being on the show. How you doing?

Dana Bartulovich 0:27

I'm well, thank you for having me.

Acquania Escarne 0:30

I'm really excited. Today we're going to talk about a new partnership that I just entered with DebtGo, I'm super excited to present this opportunity to my audience, because I love what you guys are doing. So we're going to get into what is DebtGo. But before we do that, I want to learn a little bit more about you. Okay. I'm excited that you're the co founder of DebtGo. But I want to know, what was Dana like before? What is your money story?

Dana Bartulovich 0:57

So growing up just a little bit of a background, I did grow up in North Bergen my entire life. I studied business management and undergrad at Montclair State University. I then went to do my MBA at Montclair State University as well. I finished in January of 2019. So recent graduate, after I graduated, I was able to apply my studies to the real world. I work in finance and HR right now. So it's a great thing, because I was able to do what I love and apply it to the real world. Growing up as a kid, to be honest, it wasn't easy. I lost a lot of loved ones went through a lot of rough times, I didn't have a lot of financial mentors. And to be honest with you, just like many other people, whether it was middle school, grade school, high school, even college, I didn't learn much about financial literacy. I don't know about you, but I feel like going into school, I learned a lot about accounting. I learned a lot about finance, but nothing about how to do taxes. How to do interest rates, how to know what an APR means, on a credit card? I know what the mitochondria is, but I don't know how interest rate works. It was 13 years old. So Isn't that crazy?

Acquania Escarne 2:12

It is crazy.

I'm just gonna say yes, I get what you're saying. A lot of my listeners will say the same thing. And their childhood money was either a taboo to talk about or it was scarce. So you just didn't mention it. Because you didn't want the sensitive subject to be brought up in the room. So that's a really good perspective. So now that you're in HR, and you're in finance, what is it that you had to face? What's your debt story? Did you take on any debt that you regret? Or are you pretty much debt free, and you're just helping people try to live the same life as you

Dana Bartulovich 2:46

Times were tough, I did grow up in a single parent home, I did have a lot of loans, student loans to be exact, starting from the beginning at 17,18 years old, signing my life away at these loans, not understanding exactly what they mean, if at that moment, I just wanted to get in school, I wanted to have an education. I wanted to further myself in life, just like everybody else, having no clue what those consequences were going to be. So many of you nothing hit where it made sense until it was too late. I figured you know what, I have to do this, let me sign my life away. I then once I got my MBA, I realized, wow, I'm in a lot of debt. I wish someone had told me at the time, while you're in school, pay those loans. Because you don't realize if you start paying while you're in school, that interest rate is not accumulating yet. So anything that you're paying is going straight to the principal. And I wish somebody would have told me that because it could make a big difference down the road. During college, I always worked two, three jobs just to save up that money. So one day in the future, I could buy a house and just be financially comfortable. But you don't realize I could have been putting that money towards the debt that I owed. And later in life been a little more comfortable than I was coming out of college. So yes, I did have debt. It was a lot of student debt. But along the way I learned exactly what it meant, what to do. And what helped me the most is as simple as budgeting. I do it on a monthly basis. So I basically put in my income for the month, put in your necessities, whether it's your rent, car payment, car insurance, but everything that you need, you'll see that leftover lump sum of money and you realize this is my money. I control this money. What I do with it is up to me and you realize maybe those little things that really matter buying that blouse at TJ Maxx, maybe getting your nails done, your toes done. You realize that leftover money. It's so important because you can start paying down your debt earlier. If I could really push people on budgeting. Do it as soon as possible, as early as you were in high school, you get that first job, maybe at shoprite, or Walmart, start budgeting.

Acquania Escarne 5:07

I love those tips. And I feel like budget is the bad word that no one likes to do. But I appreciate you sharing how it can empower you to spend your dollars the way you want to and take control of your money. So thanks for sharing that. I like that tip. And I'm sure that there are more that are shared on DebtGo. So let's hop into that. What is DebtGo and what inspired you to invest in this app?

Dana Bartulovich 5:34

DebtGo is it's an incentivized learning model to help you become financially literate. So it's pretty much finance made easy, it helps you understand the financial topics that you should have learned in high school or college. So how it works is, you go on the app, you watch 30 second, educational financial videos, it could be investments about personal finance, budgeting, saving, we even have stories about influencers who have similar stories to people like myself, which is really great because you're able to connect. So once you watch those 30 second videos, you gain a ticket, that ticket puts you into a contest, and that contest runs every night 9pm Eastern Standard Time. And how it works is think of it like a debt lottery. Even if you watch one video a day, you have the chance to win. Once we pick a winner every night, we set up payments for all the users so you're able to be paid the same day. So it's really great, because we have a lot of people who really need this money. And it just it's such a great thing. So when someone wins, we give them that money. So they're able to pay down instead of choice, whether it be credit cards, student debt, maybe a mortgage payment, anything that they have, they can apply that money to it gives us a reason, it gives them a reason to want to learn finance. And I think it's so relevant today that I think everybody should just dive deep. I know it's a little bit weird of a subject, a lot of people don't even want to talk about it much. But it's so important. So that's pretty much how deco works. It's as simple as that. And that's it, you can have the chance to win money and pay down debt.

Acquania Escarne 7:19

That's awesome. So there's an app that encourages me to watch videos, and for every video I watch, I get a ticket, and then I could win the debt lottery. I love how you said it that way. So you win a ticket that gives you the opportunity to win money to help you pay down your debt. So where can we find the app? Is it on Android and iPhone?

Dana Bartulovich 7:38

It's on both. So you can download it Google Play download the app store? It's available on both.

Acquania Escarne 7:44

Yes, I love that. And so that makes it more accessible to everyone. Is there any incentives? If I have the app on my phone to refer other people?

Dana Bartulovich 7:53

Yes, that's actually a new major feature that we did just recently. So if you go on the app, you can invite your friends, invite your family, invite as many people as you would like, once you invite them and they download the app, you will both get 10 tickets for that night's contest. So again, remember, the more tickets you have, the more chances you win. So refer your friends refer your family.

Acquania Escarne 8:14

Have you gotten to hear from any of the users of the app who've won the debt lottery, they share their testimonies?

Dana Bartulovich 8:21

Oh, yes. So almost every night, you'll be surprised when we first did this, our main goal, again, was to help the people that were struggling. And every night when we pay those people we do hear back from them, whether it's a message, whether it's a short email just thanking us. And it really does warm our hearts because we know we're helping them whether it's just putting gas in their car, or putting food on the table to know that we're making a difference for them, is what DebtGo is about.

Acquania Escarne 8:49

So as a co founder, your vision is to help people what are your other goals in 2021? How do you want to use that goal to impact people?

Dana Bartulovich 9:03

Yeah, so basically, life gives you a lot of options, consolidating loans, refinancing, but you never actually learn anything. You can talk to somebody, but here's a fee to talk to somebody or here's a free consultation, but you have to pay me afterwards. But are you really learning anything? So we wanted to give everybody options, we wanted to give them real help, we wanted to give them a friend. So what DebtGo wants to do is not only learn about debt options, we want to teach them other things, about financial literacy, IRAs, retirement budgeting, there's so much more that goes into it. And we want to give everybody the opportunity that I didn't have growing up that I wasn't educated on. So that's what DebtGo wants to do. And we're going to continue to educate people who would love to learn. We want to continue to help the community because we all know 2020 is a hard time and especially now even if maybe you don't need the support, maybe somebody that does. So no matter what we're in this together. And that's how we see this. So we want to help the community we want to give back and we just want to have a financially literate society.

Acquania Escarne 10:14

I love that. So you guys heard it gets the app that go download it and refer a few friends to increase your opportunity to win debt lottery get more tickets, helps you pay down debt if you win. So last, but not least tell my listeners, where can they find DebtGo? Is there a website in addition to the app? How can we track you guys on social so we can stay in touch?

Dana Bartulovich 10:38

We're on the App Store, we're on Google Play, please feel free to download us. We have a website deco app calm. We are also on social media platforms. We're on Instagram DebtGo underscore app. We're also on Facebook DebtGo app. So follow us because we're providing tips and tricks just to get the most out of DebtGo, the most out of financial information that we can use in our everyday lives. If anybody has any questions just about the app about finance itself. Email us, message us. We're here.

Acquania Escarne 11:13

You heard that folks, make sure you stay in contact and you can check out the app and you might see some videos from me. I'm going to help provide some tips and short clips to help people with their finances. And I definitely want to make sure you guys are taking advantage of the opportunity to learn. We are here to provide wealth building tips to help you build generational wealth, get out of debt, and definitely improve your finances. So I want you to take advantage of this great opportunity. Dana, I'm so glad to have had you on the show today. I appreciate you sharing your story and letting us all know about debt go. Thank you so much.

Dana Bartulovich 11:50

Thank you for having me.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai