Buy Now, Pay Later Is Everywhere. Is It Quietly Wrecking My Finances?

You know the story. Four easy payments, no interest, just a click at checkout, and it feels harmless. So why is your money always gone by now? Pay later is everywhere.And it's changing how we spend in ways most people never even notice. But today we're going to pull back the curtain. What feels free is actually a trick, and I'm going to give you a test whether it's safe or a trap.So stay with me today and and let's look at what's really going on at checkout. Hello and welcome to Financially Confident Christian. I'm your guide, Ralph Estep Jr. And I just want to thank you for joining me today.Now, today we got a great listener question of something that's going on all around us. The that buy now, pay here later. If you've done any online shopping, you know exactly what I'm talking about.Hey, four easy payments, no interest, billed right to your credit card, and people are using it constantly. And what this lady said is money is always spoken for. And she's asking, Ralph, is that a problem?I'm going to tell you right now, these things are designed to feel painless, but it's almost like cuts. It's like death by a thousand cuts. Now, if you've got a question for this show just like this one, I would love to answer it.You can go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/question We'll put a link in the show notes, but I want to hear from you. Financiallyconfidentchristian.com/question All right, here's today's listener question.Hi, Ralph, I need an honest gut check. Over the last year, I've started using those buy now, pay here later plans for almost everything, clothes, electronics, even groceries. One time.It's so easy, Ralph, Four payments, no interest, and it barely feels like spending. But here's the thing.I looked at my bank account the other day and I have like six different little payments coming out on different days to different companies. I genuinely lost track of how much I actually owe across all of them. Now, Ralph, individually, they're small.Together, I think it's more than I realized. It never felt like debt because there's no interest and it's just a few payments. But now I'm worried that I've been fooling myself.Is this actually hurting me and how do I get a handle on it? Ralph, thanks for being straight with me. Well, the thing you need to know about me is I'm always going to be straight with you.And these things are designed to trip you up because they're all about making you make a spending decision that's painless. But here's the thing I've learned over 30 years working with people. Painless spending is dangerous, and people are losing track of all of them.So today, I want to help you build clarity and a rule for how to use these effectively. I'm not saying they're bad things. I'm just saying that we need to be clear and we need to have a rule to use them. So let's start with this.You got to see the whole picture first. There's danger in invisibility.So first thing I want to encourage everyone to do, if you're doing these, list every single plan, the who, the how much and which dates. Now you might be saying, ralph, why are you doing that? Because here's the thing. You need to understand that total is actually debt.It might not feel like. It might not feel like a credit card, but that combined total shocks a lot of people. But you've got to add it up to manage it.Because six small debts you've lost track of are still one big debt. But now we got to go into the psychology of this, why it doesn't feel like spending. And that's the whole point.This is why retailers doing it, because what they've done, and they've been masters of it, they've split the pain from the purchase, they split the cost, and they encourage you to spend more. Because you just think about it, it's like, well, I don't have the money right now, but if I can do it in four payments, hey, I can make this work.It makes you buy what you would have skipped if you didn't have the money. And just because there's no interest doesn't mean there's no cost. So you got to see it and you got to take control of it.It's not free just because the pain is delayed. There's still pain in this. So let's talk about the real teeth. A lot of people don't talk about this. The real teeth in this is late fees.And the pile up of these, this is where it really bites those late fees. Yeah, Maybe there's no interest, but miss a payment, man, they whale you with late fees.The other problem is if you get a lot of these, it overlaps and then all of a sudden your account goes overdrawn. Because I didn't think about that. And here's the thing. A lot of people don't know. Some of these are actually reporting to the credit bureaus now.And if you have a tight week and all of these things hit at once. That is a problem that just cascades like dominoes and they pile up. Yeah, there's no interest.The trap isn't the interest, it's the pile up you didn't see coming. And I promised you one simple test before you click. And here it is. Here's my simple test. This will solve the problem.If you can't buy it today with money that you have, you can't afford it. It's really that simple. If you get one of these options where it says buy now, pay later. If you can't pay for it right now, you can't afford it.Just because it's convenient doesn't mean it's affordable. People don't understand that. It really gets into a discussion of needs versus wants.If it's something you need and the cash is there, then by all means, use this. I think it's. I use these personally. I think they're great. But you got to have a mindset of if I could pay this off today, I could.So I'm going to take the value of what they're offering me. Use their money for free. My wife and I have this conversation all the time. Use their money for free, but know what you're getting into.If it's a want, you don't have the cash. Wait, big red stop sign. That one question solves it. It filters this whole thing.If you can't buy it today, you can't afford it in four payments either. And I know that stings a little bit, but it's the truth. It's truth with love today.If you can't buy it today with cash that you have, you can't afford it. Even if it's four, six, eight or two years worth of payments. But now maybe you found yourself like this listener. You're already here.What you've got to do is you got to focus on paying down the stack and simplifying your life. Clear that stack, make a list of those things, pay the smallest one off first and don't do any new ones.And instead of doing this, listen, one of the things you can do is build sinking funds. If you need clothing, if you need those type of things, build some sinking funds. Reduce those streams.Because once you reduce those streams, you're gonna have farther, fewer slip ups. You're not going to get nailed with those payments and those overdrafts. Be intentional about this. You can't set this on autopilot.This is a tool that you can use on Purpose or it will use you on autopilot. Now I want to go a little deeper because you asked me for an honest gut check. Listen, I think I've been a little bit more honest than I usually am.And I love the fact that you realize you weren't fooling yourself and you were brave enough to look at that. That honesty that you took is the first and the hardest step. And you've already done it. Now here's what our fate doesn't promises us.It doesn't promise that marketing is going to stop being clever. These folks in marketing are paid to make you spe. Do you understand that? That's their goal.And it doesn't promise that spending will ever feel hard the way it should. And it doesn't promise you'll never be tempted by an easy click. Those temptations are common to me.It talks about that in the Bible, but God also gives us a way out of that. Here's what our faith does. Promises us. God offers you a spirit of self control. I think a lot of people lose trade of lose track of that.God is giving you that. That's self control. It's not a burden. It's a gift that sets you free. Some of the things that God talks about are power, love and self control.It protects your peace.And even when you have to take that test and say, rafa, I really don't have the money for that, every no that you say is actually a yes to your freedom. You're being led by wisdom, not by some button that you click. So take back the click today.Spend on purpose, be intentional with a free and steady hand. And love self control. Be the gift it was meant to be. I just want to encourage you today. Here's your win for today.Take an honest look at what you're doing. Awareness is the battle and that autopilot will get you in trouble. So today, list every single plan and total it.Check your apps, check the statements. That's the other thing about these. I mean, they make them tricky. You got to go in 12 different places to find it.But know who, how much and the due dates and give you that grand total. Bring it into the light today because it stays in power when it's hidden. Well, let's get today's Bible verse.It comes to us from second Timothy, chapter one, verse seven. It says, for God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, of love.And that last one we talked about so much today, self discipline. And these buy now, pay later. Bypass that discipline but that discipline is already programmed into you. It's something that God gave you.It's already yours. You're not powerless at checkout. You just have to stay in that discipline as you go through this. How about we pray together right now?Heavenly Father, I bring before you someone who took an honest look at their spending and they want to do better, Lord. Now they're not in crisis, they're just seeking wisdom before things get away from them.And Lord, I know, you, Honor, that you want us to be good stewards of what you've given us. So today, Lord, I ask that you would help them find clarity on the full picture of what they're doing.Strengthen that self control that you've given us, Lord.Give them the wisdom to pay it down and to simplify their life and guard those painless pulls that all of us feel and give us freedom to do on purpose spending. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. Today I've given you clarity and a simple rule.Remember, if you hear nothing else, autopilot's the enemy, it's not the tool. So see it all add up, every plan. That painless spending isn't free. It's got teeth, that's got fees and the pile up.And remember today's test, if you can't afford it today, don't buy it. So pay those down and use those with a purpose. Again, I'm not saying they're bad plans. I use them myself.But know what you're getting into and have the money to pay it. Now, maybe you were dealing with a situation similar to this. You just need a little encouragement. Or maybe you want to share a triumph that you had.I love to hear that as well. You can reach me by voicemail by going to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/voicemail we'll put a link right in the show notes.But listen, it doesn't have to be a question. It could be Ralph, here's something I did that worked for me. I'd love to share that with the audience again.That's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/voicemail thank you so much for joining me today. I want to encourage you as I always do, stay financially savvy, God bless you and you have a truly great day.