Negotiating Your Way to Financial Success: From Bills to Salaries and Promotions

Forbes

Matt Schulz is currently with LendingTree as one of the company's public faces. Schulz speaks with schools, companies and media outlets about personal finance and money. His experience includes public engagements such as: TV appearances, speaking, workshops and education.   Matt Schulz, a personal finance expert and author of ‘Ask questions, Save Money, Make More’, joins Forbes Talks, to give tips on negotiating bills, salaries, and promotions.   0:00 Introduction 0:20 How To Optimize Your Financial Standing 1:37 What Are The Right Questions When Negotiating A Promotion? 5:00 Credit Cards: What To Know 6:21 Strategy To Negotiate Your Goal Salary 9:59 Common Mistakes With Negotiating Salary 12:57 Tips On Negotiating Lease/Rent Contracts   Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00 Hi everyone, I'm Rosemary Miller here with Matt Schultz, a personal finance expert and

00:08 the author of Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More, here to tell us about negotiating financial

00:14 success.

00:15 Thank you so much for joining me today, Matt.

00:18 Thanks for having me.

00:19 I appreciate it.

00:20 Absolutely.

00:21 So Matt, how can individuals effectively negotiate bills and expenses to optimize their financial

00:27 situation?

00:28 Well, the good news is that there are so many ways that you can do it and so many opportunities

00:36 because one of the things that I try and put out there as much as I can when I'm doing

00:44 interviews in my day job at LendingTree is that you have more power over your money than

00:52 you realize if you are willing to wield it.

00:57 And that comes whether you're talking about a gym membership, a mortgage, a credit card,

01:06 a job interview, or if you're talking about trying to split the cost of a group dinner.

01:15 You have so many opportunities to negotiate and to find ways to pay less, earn a little

01:25 bit more, keep more of your hard-earned money by asking the right questions and kind of

01:33 taking the right approach when it comes to negotiating.

01:38 So what are those right questions?

01:41 Well, it really depends on what you are looking at and what you're trying to accomplish.

01:49 One of the inspirations for this book was the fact that I've done a bunch of interviews

01:59 over my time as a personal finance expert talking about how 76% of people who ask for

02:06 a lower interest rate on one of their credit cards get one.

02:11 And the average reduction can be anywhere from six to seven percentage points.

02:16 It's a really big deal.

02:18 And whenever I tell that to people, I get a lot of response of, "Oh, wow, that was something

02:24 that you could do."

02:26 But the truth is that it is.

02:29 But it's something that you generally have to ask for, and they're not going to necessarily

02:36 throw at you.

02:38 And just to kind of give an example of what some of the right questions might be, in this

02:44 particular case, it's a situation where maybe you look at sites like LendingTree or in your

02:54 snail mail or at your local bank or credit union to see what other credit card offers

03:01 might be out there for you.

03:04 And then you pick up the phone, call the 800 number on the back of your card and ask your

03:09 card issuer, "Hey, I've had your credit card for three or four years.

03:15 I've never missed a payment, but I just got offered this card with a 21% interest rate

03:23 instead of the 25 or 26 that I'm paying.

03:27 Do you think, would you be willing to match that?"

03:31 And oftentimes, you're going to at least get a, "Well, let me consider it."

03:38 They're very rarely going to give you a solid no right off the bat.

03:43 And that's really the case whether you're talking about credit cards, mortgages, gym

03:48 memberships, contractors, whatever the case might be.

03:53 We feel kind of funny about asking for these things because we don't necessarily feel that

03:58 we have all this power that we think we do.

04:01 But the truth is that these businesses want to keep you around.

04:05 And a lot of times they will do a little bit of negotiating and work with you if you are

04:13 willing to pursue it.

04:14 Oh my goodness.

04:16 You're letting me in on stuff right now.

04:17 I know the phone calls I'm making when I finish this interview.

04:21 Ask and you shall receive.

04:24 It really is amazing.

04:26 I can't tell you how many interviews I've done where people have reacted like you just

04:32 did where they're like, "No, there's no way that that's the case."

04:37 But the truth is that I've been following these numbers for many, many years, even going

04:44 back before COVID and all that sort of thing.

04:47 And these success rates have stuck around for many years, good times, bad times, COVID

04:54 times, high inflation times.

04:57 It's generally always a good idea to ask.

05:00 Wow.

05:01 So is this only for credit cards you've had for a while or let's say you have a new credit

05:06 card, can you call as well?

05:10 You may not want to call if you've only had that card for like six weeks or something

05:15 like that.

05:16 But certainly once you've gotten to a year or more, you absolutely can make a call.

05:24 And just sticking with the credit card idea, there are plenty of other things that you

05:31 can negotiate too.

05:33 Like for example, if you're late with making a payment, which we all do every once in a

05:42 while, even with auto pay, that stuff is kind of imperfect.

05:46 But you can call and ask them to waive that late fee.

05:51 And if you're somebody who only has this happen once every few years, you are almost certainly

05:56 going to have the person on the other end say, "Oh yeah, no problem, we'll waive it."

06:01 A lot of credit card issuers have policies, whether they're unwritten or otherwise, that

06:07 kind of give you a mulligan on that first missed payment.

06:15 So again, it's just another example of why it's so important to pick up the phone and

06:20 ask.

06:21 Oh my goodness.

06:22 You're like letting me in on secrets right now.

06:24 Why do people know this stuff?

06:27 Well Matt, could you give us some strategies for negotiating salary?

06:34 Yeah, really, it depends on kind of what your situation is, whether you are negotiating

06:43 salary for a promotion for a job that you already have, or if you're pursuing a new

06:52 job.

06:53 And in either case, it really is kind of about making sure that you have all the information

07:00 you need and not being afraid of asking other people for their advice and not being afraid

07:09 to kind of tell people what you've done.

07:13 One of my favorite things in the book is where a career coach talks about the idea of taking

07:22 a little bit of time each week to make notes of what you have accomplished in that week,

07:31 even if it's just stuff that is basic kind of blocking and tackling in your job, all

07:37 the way up to when you kind of went above and beyond.

07:41 And having that sort of thing is helpful when you are pursuing something like a promotion

07:48 or a raise because we all do things that go above and beyond.

07:53 We all work really hard.

07:55 We all try and do a good job in our roles, but we don't always remember all the good

08:01 stuff that we've done.

08:03 And if you can take a couple of minutes once a week, once a month, whatever you feel comfortable

08:08 with to kind of keep a log of what you did that's amazing or even what you did that was

08:15 just kind of, like I said, kind of blocking and tackling basics of your job sort of stuff

08:20 and how you are doing your job well, that can be a really powerful tool for you to use

08:28 to kind of craft your story that you're going to give to your boss when you're asking for

08:35 that promotion or that raise.

08:37 So I noticed you didn't say, tell your boss that, you know, somebody else is trying to

08:43 poach you from the company.

08:45 Is that not something someone should do when looking for a raise, promotion, anything like

08:49 that?

08:50 Well, it's it really, it really depends on your situation.

08:57 And like in so many aspects of negotiation, there's an aspect of are you willing to walk

09:04 away?

09:06 And we think about that with like a car dealership, if they're just not coming down and we'll

09:11 walk away and then they'll chase us to the car, not letting us leave without making another

09:17 another offer.

09:20 But when you are doing something like that, when you're saying that somebody is offering

09:24 me a little bit more money, if I am, if I go ahead and change jobs, then that is something

09:33 that you need to be careful about.

09:36 Because if if you mentioned that it could kind of change how you're viewed in your in

09:41 your boss's mind, depending on how valuable you are, it can be a useful tool and also

09:49 how willing you are to potentially walk away.

09:53 But long story short with that is that it's probably good to tread lightly with that.

09:59 Well, in your experience, Matt, what are the most common mistakes people make during financial

10:04 negotiations and how can they be avoided?

10:07 Well, honestly, the biggest mistake that people make is just not participating.

10:16 And I understand I'm somebody who is on camera and talks to people all the time.

10:22 And I am also somebody who gets nervous about raising my hand in a room full of people I

10:29 don't know or making a phone call to to ask for something.

10:33 And these things are hard, especially when you're talking about a giant international

10:40 mega bank or mega company.

10:43 You just feel like you don't really have a chance.

10:46 But the whole theme of my book is really that you have more power than you realize because

10:54 you are valuable to these companies.

10:58 And ultimately, if they can waive a 30 dollar late fee or give you a 10 dollar logo T-shirt

11:08 or something like that to keep you around, the companies are often willing to part with

11:15 that money because they know that that'll engender a lot of goodwill with you, keep

11:21 you happy and keep you spending money with them.

11:25 And then your lifetime value as a customer just goes up.

11:29 So it's it's not a philanthropic thing.

11:32 Businesses, businesses aren't charities, but they also understand that giving a little

11:38 bit to the customer when it's likely to be followed by good feelings and extra spending

11:45 is ultimately worth it in the long run.

11:48 Well, Matt, when negotiating contracts or agreements, what financial aspects should

11:53 individuals pay close attention to for their benefit?

11:57 Well, it really does depend.

12:03 Some of the when you're talking about, for example, like a like a credit card or some

12:08 other sort of loan, it's important to understand some of the headline details, things like

12:15 any fees that might be involved, any interest rates that might be involved, any deadlines

12:21 that might be involved, because all of that stuff matters.

12:25 And as the old saying goes, what you don't know can cost you.

12:31 And that is certainly true.

12:33 So we've all we've all got to do lists that are 100 miles long and we all don't want to

12:38 spend a whole lot of time looking at financial fine print and kind of going through all of

12:44 this sort of stuff.

12:46 But it is important to take time, regardless of what that document is, to make sure that

12:52 you at least understand the broad strokes of it before you sign.

12:57 And I do want to go back because one thing just crossed my mind that I'm sure a lot of

13:01 people have questions about.

13:03 Do you have any tips for negotiating your rent on a commercial lease or even your rent

13:09 on your apartment?

13:11 Yeah, it's that's that's a tough one because it is so dependent on your circumstances,

13:21 on where you live, on the time of year.

13:25 But when you are looking at rent against so much of these negotiations, whether you're

13:32 talking about rent or any other negotiation is about kind of having data to back your

13:40 view and to help you create your story.

13:44 So if you are somebody who is negotiating a lower rent, you can do a little bit of homework

13:53 to see what the availability is of apartments like yours in the area that you are looking.

14:03 That can give you a little bit of clue as to how much wiggle room there might be when

14:09 it comes to negotiating, if if there's any.

14:14 And so that that is certainly one of those key points.

14:17 It really is about data.

14:20 And that's really one of the things that I share a lot in the book is that the more homework

14:24 you can do, the more data you can derive, the more input you can get from people who

14:31 have been through these things before.

14:34 Oftentimes, the better off you'll be.

14:36 Wow.

14:37 This has been so helpful, Matt.

14:39 Thank you so much for joining me today.

14:42 Thank you.

14:43 I appreciate you having me.

14:44 Thank you.

14:44 [END]

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