Mailbag with Tori Dunlap: “$100K in Debt, $180K Income, Now What?”

HerMoney with Jean Chatzky

Jean Chatzky Her Money

Investing, Entrepreneurship, Business

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this special HerMoney Mailbag episode, Jean Chatzky is joined by financial feminist icon Tori Dunlap, founder of Her First $100K and host of the Financial Feminist podcast. Tori returns to tackle some of your most pressing financial dilemmas. 💳 One listener is drowning in $100,000 of credit card debt despite making $180K/year. What can she do next when consolidation loans and HELOCs are off the table? ✈️ Another wants to know if her premium travel credit card is still worth the sky-high fee now that her lifestyle has changed. Should she downgrade and preserve her credit? 💼 And a couple wonders if their $4 million net worth (including real estate) means they're ahead of retirement benchmarks or behind. Whether you're reevaluating your spending, saving for retirement, or simply wondering if you're doing enough with your money, this episode is full of insight, empathy, and financial empowerment. … Does more financial confidence sound good to you, then you might want to try: 🚀 FinanceFixx – HerMoney’s 4 or 8-week Money Makeover financial coaching program that will help you get your finances on track! 📈 InvestingFixx – HerMoney’s investing club for women who are ready to learn market lingo, and grow their wealth. Your first month with us is completely free! Have a question for us? Write to us (or send us a voice note!) at [email protected]. While you’re at it, join the HerMoney community! For the latest episode drops and financial news-you-can-use, subscribe to our newsletter at Hermoney.com/subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Race the rudder, raise the sails, raise the sales!
0:05.0	Captain, an unidentified ship approaching. Over.
0:07.0	Roger that. Wait, is that an enterprise sales solution?
0:13.0	Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors.
0:17.0	With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title, and more.
0:21.4	To get £100 off your first campaign, go to LinkedIn.com slash lead to claim your credit.
0:26.6	That's LinkedIn.com slash lead. Terms and conditions apply.
0:32.9	Hey, everyone, it's Gene Chatsky. Welcome to Hermione. today we have a very special mailbag episode we're so
0:39.0	excited to be joined once again by the fabulous tori dumlop if you caught our wednesday episode
0:45.1	you know it was powerful we talked about how tory built her wealth how she spends joyfully and
0:50.2	unapologetically and what financial feminism really looks like in 2025.
0:55.0	So today, Tori is back with us to dig into your money dilemmas.
0:59.0	How much is it worth for a premium travel card? What to do if you've paid thousands towards your debt,
1:04.0	but it still feels like nothing and more. Tori, are you ready?
1:09.0	I'm ready.
1:10.0	All right. Our first question comes from an anonymous listener.
1:13.5	She writes, I'm really embarrassed about where we are right now, but I am out of ideas. We have about
1:19.1	$100,000 in credit card debt. We've changed our habits, made a budget, cut out the extras.
1:24.8	Since the start of the year, we've paid almost $30,000 toward it using the
1:28.8	avalanche method, but with high interest rates, the balance has only gone down by about
1:34.6	16K. We've been denied for a HELOC and a personal loan due to a high debt to income ratio.
1:41.2	Most consolidation offers we're seeing are over 20%, and some have fees that make them
	...

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