I recently did my first radio chat about personal finance. I crashed and burned. I had terrible stage fright, and turned into a brain-dead zombie who could only repeat one thing over-and-over. It was a learning experience, one which makes me all the more appreciative of the work done by Rodney Olsen, a regular Get Rich Slowly reader.

Olsen is the host of the morning show at a radio station in Perth, Western Australia. He wrote to share the following:

You may not have heard of David Koch, but in a survey conducted by Money Management newspaper, his peers named him as one of the 10 most influential people of all time in the financial services industry. He’s written several practical books on family and business financial management and these days he’s better known as a television presenter here in Australia.

I had the privilege of chatting to him on my radio programme yesterday about his Debt Diet. He’s trying to help families wipe out debt and be more financially responsible. [I've posted] a little bit of background to ‘Kochie’ and his idea, as well as linking to the audio of our chat.

In the interview, which you can hear at Olsen’s site, he and Koch discuss:

• How national economic growth doesn’t necessary translate into personal financial success.
• The trap of convenient credit. (In Australia, minimum credit card payments aren’t even required to cover monthly interest!)
• How to put yourself on a debt diet, including budgeting, earning extra income, and shopping for better credit cards.
• Which sort of credit card is best for you?
• Issues to think about when consolidating debt.

Though this interview contains Australia-specific information, the concepts are applicable anywhere, for anyone who is dealing with credit problems. Best of all for me, listening to Olsen interview Koch helped me realize that I should treat any future radio interviews as a pleasant chat with a friend.

This article is about Credit Cards, Debt  Saturday, 24th February 2007 (by J.D. Roth)