Episode 129 - What Does Debt Say About Who You Trust

Financing is sold as freedom, but what if it is actually a trap that feeds stress and steals clarity? We dig into a blunt claim that cuts against modern money culture: borrowing and debt can act like a disease, not because cash is evil, but because interest, leverage, and desperation quietly distort judgement. If you have ever taken a “lifeline” line of credit without hearing the rate, or carried a balance that never seems to shrink, you will recognize the pressure we are talking about. 

We also bring the lens back to entrepreneurship and day-to-day work. Customers, vendors, and tradespeople can look reliable one week and become the source of chaos the next, and the truth is you cannot know their agenda. That uncertainty is where anxiety grows. We explore the mindset shift of doing your job with care while stopping the attempt to run the whole universe, choosing instead to make God the CEO and let the “big boss” handle outcomes you cannot control. The payoff is not lazy optimism; it is practical peace of mind that supports better decisions, healthier relationships, and steadier leadership. 

Along the way, we connect stress management to physical health, and we challenge the “world of lies” framing that makes predatory interest sound normal. We even talk about government programs like COVID relief and how “help” can come back later with strings attached. If you want Jewish personal finance wisdom that feels grounded, direct, and usable in real life, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend who is feeling the squeeze, and leave a review with the line that hit you hardest.

Transcript

The World Tells You Lies

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you're listening to secularism, if you're listening to governments, if you're listening to the institutions that are running the world, you're being told exactly the opposite of what's true. And here's a wonderful example. Financing is a disease. Have you ever heard the banks say that? Have you ever heard governments tell you that? Mortgage brokers tell you that? Nobody's ever going to tell you that. But here's the reality: it's a sickness. The trust factor is the ticket to a better life. The trust factor shows you how to get through the life.

Practical Torah For Daily Life

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Hi, everybody. Thank you for joining us on another episode of the Trust Factor Podcast. As you've noticed, I'm sure, we're getting really practical in the book. We're talking about things that apply to every single one of us. That's what I love about Torah. It's not all esoteric, it's not all up in the mind. It's not Jewish mysticism every day, things that you can't really connect to, or Gemara that in many cases, oftentimes, again, you can't connect to simple principles. You have to make them apply in today's day and age. This Torah that we're learning, the book that we're learning from, is really all about practical use, practical application of Torah in our daily lives.

Business Owner Or Employee Mindset

SPEAKER_00 1:19

So we're talking about a business person, somebody who works for himself, an entrepreneur, has to deal with customers and vendors and employees and all kinds of different people that we deal with on a daily basis. And we established yesterday, and what I want to reiterate for everybody, if you want peace of mind, if you want to be able to go into your business the same way you would go into a job and still have the same potential for success, because in our minds there's a disconnect. In our minds, I'm a business owner. That means I can't just be an employee. And to an extent, that is very wrong. The book is telling us. You can act like an employee, or you can act like a CEO. You determine which one you want. The one who acts like a CEO is going to take on that much more responsibility. That heavy weight sits on his shoulders. Or he gives it off to another CEO and allows God to run the show. And if you make God your CEO, suddenly you don't have all of those burdens and stresses.

Hand The Burden To God

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Let's read the way he puts it in the book. He says, remember, he's talking to an individual, a merchant who came to him to discuss his problems. And he said, as a clerk, if you decide to be a clerk, then you could concentrate on doing your job and let the big boss, the creator, worry about the rest. Tons of pressure would fall off of your shoulders. You have no way of knowing if the individual that you're about to contract with, that you're about to do business with, doesn't matter if it's a supplier or if it's a customer. You have no idea if they're honest or not. You have no idea what they're about to do. They could be your best customer ever, or they could be the bane of your existence. They could be the reason you want to get out of the industry, or they could be, in fact, the customer or the supplier that puts you out of business. You don't know that. You therefore must pray to the creator asking for assistance and guidance in every transaction that you make. He who puts his trust in the creator will be surrounded by divine compassion. I don't know if this guy is coming to put me out of business. It's happened to me before where I've had terrible customers, I've had terrible vendors that you can't rely on. That's a real problem. Or tradespeople, when your equipment goes down, your machinery is not working, your business effectively comes to a grinding halt. And if you don't have a maintenance person, if you don't have a tradesperson at your beck and call, you're in trouble. You're in real trouble. And even if you do, even if you outsource it, and now you've got people coming in to fix your equipment, they can only dedicate so much time and energy to yours because they've got so much to take care of. They've got other customers, they've got an entire business. You're but one customer. And that applies to even your vendors. Guy who sells you your raw goods or your main ingredients. He's got many other customers. And oftentimes you're a very small customer. If you happen to be his biggest customer, great. But most of the time we don't have that, and not with certainly all of our vendors. So you're at their mercy. That's the reality. And you don't know what their agenda is. Or when you get a new customer. Here you are thinking, wow, I'd love to have that customer. They would really turn my business around. And they come over to you finally. They come knocking on the door looking for potentially to do business with you. You don't know why. Wait a second. You had a vendor for the very same thing that I'm about to supply you with. You had that relationship for years. I couldn't break in. Why all of a sudden do I have this opportunity? You think they're going to tell you that they left their previous vendor hanging, that they didn't pay their bills, or that the previous vendor of theirs couldn't wait to get rid of them because they were a terrible high maintenance customer? You'll never know that. You think you're going to call your competition and ask them, and they're going to be straightforward and honest with you? They may say, let him have it. Don't then put him out of business. That'll take care of my competition. You don't know. You know who does know? The big boss. So you can decide, do you want to roll the dice in business, or do you want to have the master of the universe, he who controls everything, run the show for you. Either we appoint the creator of the world as the CEO of our company and all of our affairs, our business and otherwise, right? Which would allow us to enjoy a smooth, enjoyable, worry-free life, or we shoulder the problems on our own.

Stress As A Root Cause

SPEAKER_00 5:50

We take on those responsibilities, and that comes with all kinds of stress and worries, nerves and health problems. That all leads to it, my friends. The number one cause of health problems is stress. It is an indirect cause, but really it's a direct cause. If you ask anybody in the medical industry, they'll tell you it's indirect, but it is the impetus. It's what turns your blood and your system acidic, and the body doesn't want acid inside of it. And so when you create that stress, that anxiety, the constant state of worry, whether it's in business or at home or any of your relationships, you end up bringing disease, sickness, illness because of that stress.

Financing Framed As A Disease

SPEAKER_00 6:34

We're switching gears. In the Torah, it's discussed a concept of lending money. It's not looked upon favorably. As Jews, we're not allowed to take interest on money lent. Yeah, he's about to get into this whole concept of financing over here. Borrowing money, which is not a strange idea to somebody who's in business. And today, it's not a strange idea to 98% of the population. Everybody is leveraged to their teeth. Everybody's got visas, they're all filled up or close to being maxed out. Everybody's carrying huge mortgages on properties these days, with the prices of real estate being what they are. Financing and debt is a way of life in our culture, in our society, in Western democracies. What does he say about it? What does the Torah say about it? It's exactly the same. He says financing, borrowing money, is a disease. If you're in business and you're a secular individual, that's exactly the opposite of what you've been taught. And if you go back to the beginning of this podcast, the many, many times that I've told you that if you're listening to secularism, if you're listening to governments, if you're listening to the institutions that are running the world, you're being told exactly the opposite of what's true. And here's a wonderful example. Financing is a disease. Have you ever heard the banks say that? Have you ever heard governments tell you that? Mortgage brokers tell you that? Nobody's ever going to tell you that. But here's the reality: it's a sickness. Why?

Credit Card Interest And The Trap

SPEAKER_00 8:05

The banks are happy to loan money all day long. And look at the interest rates that they charge, or look at credit card interest rates, see what they charge. Most people haven't got a clue when it comes to it. Those interest rates, when it comes to Visa, you're talking about high 20% a year. That means if you're carrying a $10,000 balance on a Visa card somewhere, you're going to spend almost $3,000 a year on interest alone just to be able to carry that balance. And that's every single month. And if you don't pay that interest out, that interest gets added to your current balance. So you're now paying interest on interest at a rate of almost 30%. You understand? That's crippling. That is designed to make you fail. That is designed to bankrupt you. The very same credit card that tells you that they're coming to give you here. Here's this piece of plastic. Take it. It'll make your life so much easier. You won't have to worry about coming up with cash. You'll have all this time to pay it. It's going to make life easy for you. That's the presentation. The reality, the exact opposite. It's designed to sink you. What should be coming to mind for you right now? Alma the Shikra, Olama Shekir, a world of lies. That's how God created it. Here's another wonderful example. I've been giving you, the book has been giving you, many examples, proving just that, that this is a world of lies. You have to walk around with your eyes open. You have to be aware. Credit card companies and banks are in it to profit. And the more money they make, the better. They don't care about you. They don't want you to make money. They want to make all the money. That's the way this world works. He says they are a treacherous entity to trust in. One who borrows money from them doesn't make proper calculations, namely that the cost of financing often exceeds the profits or the opportunity. The ready cash in his hands blinds him and obscures his better judgment. Especially when you're choked out. We were just talking about that. Especially when you're having a hard time staying above water, keeping your neck above water. What do you do? Somebody sends you a lifeline. I'm going to give you access to some financing, a line of credit, a visa. Doesn't matter what the rate is. I don't care. I'm not even listening to the rate. I just need that lifeline. I need something to help me breathe. So you take whatever's there. Or there's an opportunity to invest in a home in a piece of real estate or something else that you don't have immediate financing available for, and somebody offers it to you. It is very enticing, so much so that oftentimes we don't do the math. We don't even stop to think, can I afford to repay it? What happens if I don't? What happens if everything goes south? What are my options? Right? Who's coming after me? And what is my recourse? These are things that you need to take

COVID Relief And The Clawback

SPEAKER_00 11:04

into account. Now, there are extenuating circumstances, often. One of those was not long ago when we had COVID. We needed COVID relief. Those were government programs. Here's another wonderful example. Government programs where they said, We're here to help. We're here to help. Everybody's getting a little stipend to help them to get through. And then what do they do? Just a few short years after COVID, which is something I said while they were giving out the money, they come back to collect. They come back knocking on the door. No, no, no, no. We don't think you fit the criteria to be able to get any money from us. Why? I wasn't affected by COVID. There was a human being on planet Earth that wasn't affected by COVID. Clearly not. Yeah? Obviously with the small exceptions, but everybody, by and large, was affected. No, no, no, no. We're going back. Back then, we were very loose with the money. We just gave it out to be able to help everybody get through. But now we're going back and we're clawing back all of the money that we gave back to as many people as we can. That's exactly what's going on. Another example of Alama Shankare, a world of lives. What does this

Debt As A Message To Heaven

SPEAKER_00 12:11

say? When you go out and you take money that doesn't belong to you, when you borrow money and you're willing to pay interest, even high amounts of interest, what's the message? Let's say you're a father, and let's say you're worth many, many millions of dollars, and your child wants to buy their first car. And so instead of coming to you and saying, Dad, I'd love to be able to buy my first car. Can you help me with it? He decides to not say anything. Go to a loan shark and pay 30% interest on that money to be able to buy a car. What do you feel as a parent? You feel like your child doesn't get it. Your child makes bad decisions. Your child doesn't value your relationship. He doesn't recognize that he can come to you. There's something wrong with him. You want to shake him a little bit and say, Wake up, kid, I'm right here. What makes you think I wouldn't help you with this? Why would you go and spend all that extra money on interest to buy a car when I'm right here and I'm perfectly happy and ready to help you? It doesn't make any sense. So what you're doing when you go to borrow money, it is a clear message to your creator. I don't know where my money comes from. I don't know that it's you. I've heard about it, but I simply don't know. And clearly my actions are indicating that I haven't clued into it yet. When somebody recognizes that what they have is perfect, it is exactly what they need to have at any given time, not a drop more and not a drop less. When you recognize that because you know where it's coming from, and you know that he knows everything that ever was, is, and will be, then it makes sense and you become content and you don't build up all that stress and worry and fear and all of those negative emotions that we said earlier will only end up in illness. God forbid we should ever have to deal with

Daily Practice And Final Reminders

SPEAKER_00 14:05

that. Remember, guys, work on yourselves daily. Who runs the show is who provides you with your livelihood. When you recognize that, everything starts to change. Have an amazing day. Thank you for spending time with us on the Trust Factor Podcast. If you've heard something today that moved you, save this episode and share it with someone who might need to hear it. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss upcoming conversations that challenge, empower, and uplift. And if you're on social media, connect with us. Leave your thoughts, drop a quote that resonated with you. Hashtag the TrustFactor Podcast. Until next time, keep growing in your trust and keep living with purpose. I'm Jesse Revivo, and this has been the Trust Factor Podcast. Thanks for listening.