Taraji P. Hensonearned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but years later she was still fired up by the $150,000 she accepted to be in the movie—after producers rejected the $500,000 quote she brought to the table.
As for the film’s leads Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, “You don’t hear a lot of $20 million quotes anymore, but at this time that was happening,” Henson said on the Ladies First With Laura Brown podcast in 2021. “And rightfully so—I’m not saying they shouldn’t have paid Cate and Brad what they deserved.”
But, she continued, “I’m bringing a certain amount to the seat too and I felt like what I was asking at that time in my career was fair, was fair to the ticket sales that I would contribute to this big film. Wouldn’t do it.” Henson was “gutted” when they offered $100,000, she recalled. “When it was all said and done I got $150,000, but I had to swallow my pride, baby.”
Breaking it down, “I know people go, ‘$150,000, that’s a lot of money!’” Henson acknowledged. “I don’t ever want people to think that I’m ungrateful because that is not me.” But, she calculated, “Uncle Sam is going to take 50 percent of that, so now you’re left with, what? $75,000. Now before Uncle Sam takes the money, I have to pay my team before taxes, 30 percent. So once Uncle Sam takes his 75, then I got another 30 that’s coming off of that 75, so I may have made $40,000?”
More than a third of Tuvalu citizens have entered the ballot for a world-first climate visa which would allow them to permanently migrate to Australia.
Opening for the first intake on 16 June, the influx of registrations could indicate that programme will be hugely oversubscribed, with only 280 visas awarded to Tuvalu citizens from the random ballot each year.
The visa programme has been pegged by the Australia’s foreign affairs department as a landmark response to the threat of climate-related displacement.
At just five metres (16ft) above sea level, the tiny Pacific archipelago is one of the most climate-threatened nations in the world.
There have been 1,124 applications submitted to the ballot as of 27 June, which accounts for 4,052 Tuvalu citizens with the inclusion of family members.
The island nation is home to 10,643 people, according to census figures collected in 2022.
Getty Images
If successful, holders of the Pacific Engagement visa will be granted indefinite permanent residency in Australia, with the ability to freely travel in and out of the country.
The visa will also provide for Australian supports on arrival in the country, such as access to the country’s Medicare system, childcare subsidies and the ability to study at schools, university and vocational facilities at the same subsidisation as Australian citizens.
Entry to the 2025 ballot costs A$25 (£11.93, $16.37), and will close 18 July.
The new class of visa was created as part of the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union, announced in August 2024, which includes a commitment by Canberra to defend the island in the face of natural disasters, public health emergencies and “military aggression”.
“For the first time there is a country that has committed legally to recognise the future statehood and sovereignty of Tuvalu despite the detrimental impact of climate changed-induced sea level rise,” said Prime Minister Feleti Teo in a statement last year.
Scientists at Nasa have predicted that the majority of land mass and critical infrastructure in Tuvalu will sit below the level of the current high tide by 2050.
Democratic senators said they were left with questions Thursday about what the Trump administration has largely trumpeted as a successful strike in Iran.
Many lawmakers cautioned the damage done to Iran’s nuclear program may fall short of the Trump administration’s claims.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and other top intelligence officials briefed lawmakers for the first time about the Saturday strike — a meeting held as Trump administration officials have worked overtime to push their argument that the attacks left Iran’s nuclear facilities “obliterated.”
“The point is: We don’t know,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “Anybody who says we know with certainty is making it up because we have no final battle damage assessment.”
“Certainly, this mission was successful insofar as it extensively destroyed and perhaps severely damaged and set back the Iranian nuclear arms program. But how long and how much really remains to be determined by the intelligence community itself,” he added.
Reports emerged Tuesday about a preliminary assessment that said the U.S. strikes may have set the Iranian nuclear program back by “a few months.” The administration has pushed back forcefully at those reports, including at a Pentagon briefing earlier Thursday.
Some Democrats criticized Trump’s assessment that the plants were obliterated, which they widely viewed as overzealous, especially after seeing the latest information in the classified setting.
“I hope that is the final assessment,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking member on the Intelligence Committee. “But if not, does that end up providing a false sense of comfort for the American people?”
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said all of the descriptions of the damage to the program were fitting.
“Everybody’s got their own words: set back, obliterated, destroyed, greatly diminished. It’s all of those things. I would say, I think all those are accurate, depending on how you use any one of those terms,” Cramer said.
But pressed to select his own term, Cramer paused.
“I would say that it is severely set back. And not just because the bunker busters were so effective at Fordow and the other sites that got hit by the missiles. And just to build a building like that would take probably a year, just to get some scientists up and running … it would take a long time to reestablish from scratch.”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) faulted Trump for his glowing assessment of the mission before the planes had even returned.
“The way this should work is the president and the secretary of Defense should have waited until they had an assessment in their hands, and then figure out what they want to share publicly about that assessment. That’s not what happened in this case,” Kelly said.
“The president said something, the secretary of Defense repeated it, before they had anything from the [Defense Intelligence Agency]. I think that’s pretty clear to people. I mean, he basically made his own assessment based on very limited information. … The airplanes weren’t even back in Missouri by the time he’s doing his own personal [battle damage assessment].”
Welcome to The Hill’s Defense & National Security newsletter, I’m Ellen Mitchell — your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond.
Democratic political strategist David Axelrod said the drama over the U.S.’s recent strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and the intel surrounding the outcome has been driven by President Trump’s “unquenchable thirst for credit.” “The controversy over the facts around the Iran attack stems from the @POTUS’s unquenchable thirst for credit and praise that leads him to overclaim,” Axelrod said Thursday in a thread on the …
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta described President Trump’s recent remarks doubting the intelligence community while launching military action against Iran as “very scary” Thursday. “It undermines the work of our intelligence professionals who really are focused on trying to provide the president with the truth — when the president questions their credibility, that certainly undermines their morale, …
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday called a rare Pentagon press conference to defend the U.S. strikes on Iran and lambast the media’s coverage of the effectiveness of the operation. Hegseth criticized “fawning coverage” of early intelligence findings of the impact of Saturday’s bombing of three Iranian nuclear facilities — which suggested the strikes did not fully take out Tehran’s nuclear program and only set it back …
Supporters of the MAGA movement are more likely than traditional Republicans to back the U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, according to a new poll from NBC News Decision Desk and powered by SurveyMonkey. In the survey, conducted in the days after the U.S. bombed Iran, Republicans indicate broad support for the strikes — with 78 percent supporting the military intervention, including 60 percent who strongly support …
The House is scheduled to be separately briefed tomorrow morning on the U.S. military’s recent strikes on Iran by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
In Other News
Branch out with a different read from The Hill:
Senators diverge sharply on damage done by Iran strikes after classified briefing
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators emerged from a classified briefing Thursday with sharply diverging assessments of President Donald Trump’s bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites, with Republicans calling the mission a clear success and Democrats expressing deep skepticism. CIA Director John Ratcliffe, …
The National Institute for Deterrence Studies will host a seminar on “Growing Concerns of Missile Threats in the Middle East,” at 8 a.m.
The Center for Strategic and International Studieswill have a discussion on “The role of landpower in the Indo-Pacific,” with U.S. Army Pacific Commanding Gen. Ronald Clark, at 11 a.m. TK
What We’re Reading
News we’ve flagged from other outlets:
Pentagon to request $848 billion in delayed base budget release (Military Times)
As military helps more with law enforcement, Senate Democrat’s proposal seeks guardrails (Military.com)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attacked Jennifer Griffin, his former colleague at Fox News and a longtime member of the Pentagon press corps, amid … Read more
Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) on Thursday called for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to fire Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough “ASAP,” … Read more
Opinions in The Hill
Op-eds related to defense & national security submitted to The Hill:
Tucked between two massive buildings in the hills of the Nevada desert, 805 retired EV batteries lie in neat formation, each one wrapped in nondescript white tarps — and hiding in plain sight.
A passerby might not realize this unassuming array is the largest microgrid in North America, that it’s powering a 2,000 GPU modular data center for AI infrastructure company Crusoe, or that it represents the next big act of JB Straubel, the co-founder and CEO of Redwood Materials.
Redwood Materials announced Thursday during an event at its Sparks, Nevada facility that it was launching an energy storage business that will leverage the thousands of EV batteries it has collected as part of its battery recycling business to provide power to companies, starting with AI data centers.
The new business, called Redwood Energy, is kicking off with partner Crusoe, a startup Straubel invested in 2021. The old EVs, which are not yet ready for recycling, store energy generated from an adjacent solar array. The system, which generates 12 MW of power and has 63 MWh of capacity, sends power to a modular data center built by Crusoe, the AI infrastructure company best known for its large-scale data center campus in Abilene, Texas — the initial site of the Stargate project.
The scale of Redwood’s battery collection operation is staggering. Redwood said it recovers more than 70% of all used or discarded battery packs in North America. Today, it processes more than 20 GWh of batteries annually—the equivalent of 250,000 EVs. It has apparently been stockpiling batteries that aren’t ready for recycling, with more than 1 gigawatt-hour worth in its inventory already. In the coming months, it expects to receive another 4 gigawatt-hours.
By 2028, the company said it plans to deploy 20 gigawatt-hours of grid-scale storage, placing it on track to become the largest repurposer of used EV battery packs.
Straubel’s confidence in the endeavor was apparent in every detail of the launch event. To illustrate the commitment of Redwood — and by extension, Straubel — everything about the production, from the lights and music to the projection on the big screen were powered by the microgrid.
“We wanted to go all in,” Straubel said, breaking into a wide, toothy smile. Splashy effects for the event aside, the microgrid setup with Crusoe is not a demonstration project. Straubel said this is a revenue-generating operation, which was constructed in four months, and one that is profitable. He added that even more of these will be deployed with other customers this year.
“I think this has the potential to grow faster than the core recycling business,” he said.
Redwood Materials has been on an expansion tear in recent years. The company, which has raised $2 billion in private funds, was founded in 2017 by Straubel, the former Tesla CTO and current board member, to create a circular supply chain.
The company started by recycling scrap from battery cell production as well as consumer electronics like cell phone batteries and laptop computers. After processing these discarded goods and extracting materials like cobalt, nickel and lithium that are typically mined, Redwood supplies those back to Panasonic and other customers. Over time, the company has expanded beyond recycling and into cathode production. Redwood generated $200 million in revenue in 2024, much of which comes from the sale of battery materials like cathodes.
The company’s footprint has grown too, and well beyond its Carson City, Nevada headquarters. It has locked up deals with Toyota, Panasonic, and GM, started construction on a South Carolina factory, and made an acquisition in Europe.
Redwood Energy is the next step — and one that isn’t tied to setting up its systems to be off-grid. The retired EV batteries can be powered by wind and solar, or they can be tied to the grid. In the case of the Crusoe project, the system is powered by solar.
“There’s no green intent required here,” CTO Colin Campbell said during a tour of the microgrid. “It’s a good economic choice that also happens to be carbon-free.”
The business model addresses a longstanding challenge in the energy storage sector. For over a decade, companies have been promising to build grid-scale storage from used EV batteries, but they’ve only materialized in small amounts. Redwood, which got its start as a battery materials and recycling company, is creating a new line that promises to deliver gigawatts of much needed energy storage in just a few years.
“This really demonstrates how economical the waste hierarchy actually is,” Jessica Dunn, a battery expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told TechCrunch. That a large recycler like Redwood recognized the profit potential in repurposed EV batteries shows “where this end-of-life market will go,” she added.
Repurposing batteries is a clear business opportunity for Redwood, but it might also be a business imperative. Redwood was founded to build a supply chain that could handle the predicted wave of used EV batteries that will hit the market. But that wave hasn’t materialized quite as quickly as some predicted.
“If Redwood didn’t enter the repurposing market, then they wouldn’t get a share from the repurposed battery. They’d have to wait the five, 10, 15 years until they retired,” she said. In the meantime, other companies would be able to sell the batteries for grid-scale storage, cutting Redwood out of years of revenue.
Straubel acknowledged this, noting in an interview that in many ways Redwood Materials started a bit early.
“We started really early, and in a way we started Redwood almost too early,” he said, noting the company initially was collecting consumer batteries and production scrap ahead of the coming wave of EVs.
The current state of the recycling market underscores the challenge. “Right now, the recycling market is mostly manufacturing scrap, consumer electronics, and EV batteries that have failed under warranty,” Dunn said. That has been enough for Redwood to process over 20 gigawatt-hours annually. But it pales in comparison to the 350 gigawatt-hours in EVs today and the 150 gigawatt-hours expected to hit the road every year.
Redwood currently has a recycling facility at its 175-acre campus in Sparks, Nevada, and it’s developing a 600-acre facility in Charleston, South Carolina. The latter will remanufacture cathode and anode copper foil, both of which contain critical minerals that the U.S. would prefer stayed within its borders.
The company previously said that it will be capable of making 100 gigawatt-hours annually of cathode active material and anode foil by the end of this year. By the end of the decade, it expects production to hit 500 gigawatt-hours.
NEW YORK — The Mets‘ depleted pitching rotation took another hit Thursday night when right-hander Griffin Canning likely suffered an Achilles injury during a noncontact play in the third inning of New York’s 4-0 win over the Atlanta Braves.
“He’s getting an MRI, we’re waiting for the result — but it looks like an Achilles injury,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
The Mets initially said Canning suffered a left ankle injury when he was hurt while breaking toward the left side of the infield on Nick Allen‘s one-out grounder to shortstop.
Canning, 29, who allowed one hit and struck out three Thursday, immediately began hopping on his right leg and took only a couple of steps before dropping onto the field with his left leg elevated. Mets catcher Luis Torrens signaled for time and assistance before Allen was thrown out at first by Francisco Lindor.
“I was watching the play, and before you know it, I see him on the ground,” Mendoza said. “Not a good feeling there.”
Canning covered his face with his hands as he was tended to by trainers. Mendoza and Mets infielders gathered around the pitcher as the Braves’ Ronald Acuña Jr., the on-deck hitter, watched from a few steps behind.
After a couple of minutes, Canning limped off the field with his arms draped around athletic trainers.
“See him just wincing in pain and his leg in the air — for anyone to do that, when they’re not getting up by themselves, it’s obvious, you kind of know something’s not just off but really, really wrong,” Mets first baseman Pete Alonso said. “Hate to see it.”
Austin Warren relieved Canning and retired Acuña on a popout, stranding White at second. Warren earned the win with 2⅓ innings of one-hit relief.
“Adrenaline kicked in right away,” Warren said.
Canning, who signed a one-year deal worth $4.25 million on Dec. 19, is 7-3 with a 3.77 ERA in 16 starts this season after going 6-13 with a 5.19 ERA for the Los Angeles Angels last season.
“Feel sorry for the guy, especially how big he’s been for us and the way he’s been throwing the ball the whole year,” Mendoza said. “He’s been pretty consistent.”
Canning is the third member of the Mets’ Opening Day rotation to get hurt in the past two weeks — a stretch in which New York has gone just 4-10.
Ace Kodai Senga is on the injured list after suffering a right hamstring strain reaching for an Alonso throw June 12, while Tylor Megill hasn’t pitched since June 14 because of a right elbow sprain.
In addition, left-hander Sean Manaea, who appeared to be nearing a return from an oblique injury suffered in spring training, was diagnosed with a bone chip in his elbow after his most recent rehab appearance for Triple-A Syracuse last Friday.
Mendoza and president of baseball operations David Stearns said they hope Manaea, who received a cortisone shot, can resume his rehab next week.
The Mets got one starter back Tuesday, when Frankie Montas tossed five scoreless innings after recovering from a lat injury suffered in spring training.
“We lost two starters very quickly with Senga and Megill and here we are now with Griff going down,” Mendoza said. “We’ve got some reinforcements coming back. Guys will step up.”
To cover the costs of the wedding and all its related parts, Luca Zaia—president of the Veneto regional government, which governs the city of Venice—told reporters June 24 that he expects the couple to pay €40 to €48 million, approximately $46.5 to $55.6 million in the United States, per Reuters.
As for what all is contributing to the bill’s total? The answer includes multiple luxuries and charitable donations.
Bezos—whose estimated net worth is $238 billion, per Bloomberg—is expected to make €1 million ($1.2 million USD) donations to CORILA, an academic organization that studies and restores Venice’s lagoon ecosystem, as well as the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, according to Reuters.
The Grammy Award-winning composer of the Mission: Impossible theme, Lalo Schifrin, has died aged 93, his family announced.
The Argentine musician’s son, Ryan Schifrin, confirmed his father died of complications from pneumonia on Thursday, in a statement shared with the BBC’s US partner CBS.
Schifrin was known for his unique percussive and jazzy style during a career that spanned more than six decades, with over 100 film and TV soundtracks to his name.
He was nominated for six Oscars and won four Grammys, three of which were for his most celebrated theme for the Mission: Impossible TV series in 1966, which he later updated for the Tom Cruise blockbuster film franchise.
Schifrin’s family said he “passed peacefully” surrounded by loved ones and thanked the public for their moving messages of support.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paid tribute to the musician’s “genius” compositions which “built tension, ignited adrenaline and gave stories their pulse”.
“We’ll forever remember the composer who turned every beat into a thrill, and every silence into suspense,” it said in a post on X.
The prolific artist – a composer, pianist and conductor – was a consistent nominee at the Oscars with scores for films such as The Sting II, Cool Hand Luke, The Amityville Horror and Dirty Harry.
In 2018, Schifrin received an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar presented by Dirty Harry lead Clint Eastwood, who hailed his “unique musical style, his compositional integrity, and his influential contributions to the art of film scoring”.
When accepting the honour, the Argentine musician said composing for film had given him “a lifetime of joy and creativity” and the award was “a culmination of a dream”.
“It is a Mission: Accomplished,” he said at the time.
Born into a musical family in Buenos Aires, Schifrin studied classical piano as a child before moving to Paris in his early 20s to play jazz – later sharing the stage with famous artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie.
After a move to America, he began writing for Hollywood with an eccentric blend of musical genres including jazz, classical, contemporary and pop.
His most unforgettable melody for Mission: Impossible was written in an unusual 5/4 time signature and, in his words, was intended to inject “a little humour, lightness” to form a theme “that didn’t take itself too seriously”.
The result became a global earworm to introduce one of the most successful film franchises, with the latest iteration Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning crossing $540m (£393m) worldwide.
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The Big Story
Trump Mobile ditches ‘Made in the USA’ language
The Trump Organization’s new mobile phone venture, Trump Mobile, has removed language from its website suggesting that its forthcoming smartphones will be made in the U.S.
Trump Mobile, which President Trump’s sons unveiled last week, initially said in a press release that its golden T1 phone would be “designed and built in the United States.”
The official site touted the phone as “MADE IN THE USA.”
However, such language has since been removed from the site, which instead advertises the $499 phone as “designed with American values in mind.”
“The T1 Phone isn’t just powerful—it’s brought to life right here in the USA,” the site reads. “With American hands behind every device, we bring care, precision, and trusted quality to every detail.”
When the president’s sons unveiled Trump Mobile last week and committed to building their phones in the U.S., experts were immediately skeptical.
They suggested the company was likely to encounter the same problems that have prevented other smartphone manufacturers from building phones in the U.S.
Smartphone makers, like Apple and Samsung, are heavily reliant on supply chains that run through Asia.
It would likely require years and vast amounts of investment to move manufacturing to the U.S., an endeavor that could also result in more expensive phones.
Despite the change in language on the website, a Trump Mobile spokesperson said its phones are still being built in the U.S.
“The T1 phones are being built by Americans in three facilities in the U..S, and we’re excited to have them available later this year,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Meta has signed four new clean energy agreements, securing additional solar and wind energy for its massive data center operations, the companies announced Thursday. The technology company’s agreements with developer Invenergy will make way for projects in three U.S. states and provide Meta with an additional 791 megawatts. The projects in Ohio, Arkansas and Texas are expected to bolster Meta’s operations, data …
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has asked Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to rewrite the controversial artificial intelligence (AI) provision in President Trump’s tax package, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) told reporters Thursday. Cruz and Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, met with the Senate parliamentarian Wednesday night, a source familiar with the conversations …
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will speak at a Federal Reserve conference on bank regulation next month. The leader of the key artificial intelligence (AI) firm will join newly confirmed Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman for a fireside chat at the Integrated Review of the Capital Framework for Large Banks conference on July 22. It’s unclear what Altman plans to discuss at the banking conference, which is set to feature …
Welcome to Crypto Corner, a daily feature focused on digital currency and its outlook in Washington.
The White House is pushing the House to quickly get stablecoin legislation across the finish line with limited changes, frustrating efforts to tie the bill to a larger crypto framework and limiting the lower chamber’s ability to put its stamp on the measure.
After the Senate passed the GENIUS Act last week, President Trump called on the House to move “lightning fast” and get a “clean” bill to his desk without delay.
“Get it to my desk, ASAP — NO DELAYS, NO ADD ONS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This is American Brilliance at its best, and we are going to show the World how to WIN with Digital Assets like never before!”
But the push to pass the stablecoin bill on its own cuts against efforts supported by some in the industry and Congress who worry that another key crypto bill — seeking to divvy up regulation of the broader crypto market — will lose momentum.
“From the House’s perspective, there is a significant risk that if the House passes stablecoins without a market structure bill, the Senate will just not take up the market structure bill in a timely fashion or at all,” said Jennifer Schulp, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives.
The GENIUS Act, which lays out a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, passed the Senate last week by a 68-30 vote, becoming the first major crypto legislation to clear the chamber.
While it marked a significant milestone for the crypto industry, the stablecoin bill represents just one part of the equation.
The second key priority for the Trump administration and GOP leadership has been legislation that would clearly split oversight of the digital asset market between two regulators — the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. They hope to pass both bills by August.
Some House lawmakers have indicated they would like to tie market structure legislation — such as the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that advanced out of the House Financial Services Committee earlier this month — to the stablecoin bill and pass them together.
Slotkin calls for ban on cellphones in all K-12 classrooms
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) called for a ban on cellphones in every K-12 school in the U.S. during a speech in Washington on Thursday. “As we increase technology in schools, we also have to acknowledge where technology is already harming our kids,” Slotkin told an audience at the Center for American Progress Action. “Too many students are lagging in the people and the problem-solving skills that will be even more …
Democratic senators said they were left with questions Thursday about what was largely viewed as a successful strike in Iran, even as many cautioned … Read more
The Trump administration is calling out reporters by name as it seeks to push its narrative about U.S. strikes on Iran, seeking to put the media on … Read more
Most Americans carry debt, and that includes the high-interest debt that comes with credit cards. Finding yourself in credit card debt is severely unfortunate. But how do you even know when things have spiraled to a level that is nearly or totally out of control? GOBankingRates spoke with financial experts to learn five of the key signs you have a serious debt problem — and some steps you can take to fix it.
If you’re making only the minimum payments due on your credit card every month, you’re throwing money away at a hazardous rate.
“Have you found the lowest monthly payment on your credit cards?” said Shawn Carpenter, chairman and CEO at Stock Alarm. “This is a classic sign that things are looking bad. It’s easy to get caught in this trap, but how can you pay more on that debt and increase your interest rate? It’s crazy.”
“A credit score drop is a big red flag,” Carpenter said. “If it’s because you’re maxing out your cards or missing payments, you’re in troubled waters.”
How you feel in terms of mental health matters, and when a debt problem becomes serious, it can take its toll here.
“If you’re having trouble sleeping at night, are anxious and stressed consistently, or feel your physical or mental health declining because of debt worries, then you likely have a serious debt problem,” said Erika Kullberg, a personal finance expert, an attorney and the founder of Erika.com. “Don’t hide from your debt, even if it’s scary. Tackling it head-on is the best way to take control and lower your stress.”
If you feel held back because of your debt, that’s another key sign of a problem.
“Does your debt get in the way of your personal, professional or financial goals?” Kullberg said. “Can you not afford to buy a home because of credit card debt? Can you not afford to take time off work to pursue higher education because you’re drowning in an expensive car loan? If you can’t reach your goals because of debt, you need to take paying it off more seriously.”
Once you’ve understood that you have a serious debt problem that needs an urgent fix, you must explore the array of potential solutions available to you.
“Acknowledge there’s a problem and that you are ready to take action,” said Sean Fox, president of debt solutions at Achieve. “It’s important to accept that it will likely require some belt-tightening and other changes in your financial behaviors.”
It’s one thing to say you’re going to get out of debt; it’s quite another thing to actually do it. Eliminating high-interest debt takes time, commitment and a concrete plan.
“You need to do your research and figure out a realistic plan that you can commit to,” Fox said. “Each person will be different. The ‘realistic’ part is important. Many people anxious to work their way out of debt start out by cutting expenses so drastically and/or jumping into a program so quickly that there’s no way they will be able to stick to it.”
To get out of debt, you need to overhaul your budget and aggressively track your spending. Fox pointed out that there are a lot of budgeting apps available that can make budgeting easier.
“If you go that route, make sure you select a budgeting app that connects all financial accounts to give you a unified view of your finances, automatically tracks spending and organizes your finances into categories,” Fox said, adding that you should track your expenses (online and in-person) for a couple of weeks to see just where your money goes.
“Then you can identify areas to cut back and direct the savings to your debt payoff,” Fox said.
If you can’t budget your way out of debt, it’s smart to look into a personal loan.
“A personal loan may offer a rate lower than on your credit cards (or other debts),” Fox said. “The idea is to consolidate your other debts into one with a lower rate, and pay that one personal loan off faster. Interest rates can vary widely, and are generally dependent on your credit profile and scores (people with higher scores qualify for the lowest rates). This is also called a debt consolidation loan.”
You may be able to qualify for a balance transfer credit card. These are great as they enable you to move all your credit card debt onto one card for a low interest rate.
“If you are eligible for one, know that the promotional interest rate is limited, often expiring in six-12 months (sometimes longer, up to 21 months),” Fox said. “You must be able to pay off the balance within that window. In addition, fees can be high, so read the fine print and see if it’s worthwhile for you. Also, understand that each balance transfer card issue has limits on how much debt can be transferred — something that may come into play for an individual with a significant amount of credit card debt.”
Debt management plans, offered by credit counseling firms, are also potential solutions.
“These can lower the interest rate on a credit card by a small amount,” Fox said. “Cardholders can also call their credit card issuers and ask for a lower rate. If you have a good track record of payment, and can explain why you are asking for the lower rate, the card issuer may agree. Assess carefully whether a slightly lower rate may not be enough to really get you out of debt.”
If your debt problem is serious and you can’t dig yourself out of it, heading into debt resolution may be the best move you can make.
“Debt resolution is the process of working on a consumer’s behalf to lower principal balances,” Fox said. “This can be a smart option for someone who is having a hard time making minimum payments, particularly if the reason is that they’ve had a real financial hardship (such as job loss, medical expenses or divorce). Programs are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission.”
