Financial News Features

The only way a small business can truly protect itself from these rate hikes is to go into “turtle mode,” said Howard Dvorkin, CPA and chairman of Debt.com. “Shelve plans to expand your business unless you’re damned sure you can outrun these rate hikes. Focus on efficiency instead of growth. Lock down your current client base so your numbers become predictable enough to weather the storm — and hope like hell the storm passes quickly.”

“The IRA isn’t open-heart surgery for inflation,” said Howard Dvorkin, CPA, founder and chairman of Debt.com. “It’s not that dramatic. Think of it like taking a daily baby aspirin to prevent a heart attack. Many IRA provisions won’t show up in your wallet after one year, but they probably stopped your finances from getting worse.”

People are subsidizing their normal costs, their normal living expenses, using the credit cards. So maybe things were great three years ago. But now with the inflated expenses for groceries and fuel, and all the other expenses – and travel I have to say because the airports are very busy – they’re using credit cards to pay for it.

"You can't get out of debt if you don't understand what's keeping you there," Debt.com's chairman Howard Dvorkin said. "And you certainly can't get out of debt if you don't even know the options you have."

"A lot of times, medical providers' prices are wacky," Howard Dvorkin, a certified public accountant and chairman of Debt.com, told CBS MoneyWatch. Dvorkin recalls receiving a bill for a medical incident that required his daughter to be airlifted for treatment. The initial total? $18,000. He asked the treatment provider what rate they would have billed his insurance company and said: "That's the rate I'll pay."

“Think of a credit repair company like you’d think of a tax preparer. Sure, you can do your own income taxes, but sometimes it’s worth the money to hire a professional,” says Howard Dvorkin, CPA and chairman of Debt.com.