Money Lessons From a Tarot Reader: How I Paid Off Debt at 29% Interest and Built Real Security

Reading time: about 12 minutes.

It’s two in the morning and you’re running the numbers again, wondering how you’ll ever get ahead.

Your bank app sits unopened because looking feels worse than not knowing, at least until the truth gets too heavy to ignore. Quick fix promises have worn thin too, all those get rich fast mantras that left you further behind than when you started.

You’re not imagining how much this weighs. Money fear keeps countless people awake at night, while roughly one in ten people worldwide live in extreme poverty. You’re far from alone in this.

This isn’t a think rich, get rich article. It’s what I learned climbing out of debt, rebuilding my relationship with money, then slowly building real security, all of it from lived experience rather than theory.

I’m a professional tarot reader plus psychic medium, which means I approach money with practical discipline alongside symbolic insight. They work best together. If you’re sitting on a business idea, there’s a section for you too, written by someone who built a full time practice from one person, a tarot deck, plus a lot of late nights.

Near the end, I’ll hand you the simple practice that finally got me out: a single list on my phone. Stay with me until then.

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How Do You Get Out of Debt When You’re Barely Surviving?

A used car at 29% interest

I moved out young, hungry for independence, convinced I could carve out the career I dreamed of. Independence doesn’t come free, though. It comes with bills, rent, plus the sobering reality that determination alone doesn’t keep the lights on.

I needed a car to take the next step in my work, to reach opportunities past walking distance or bus routes. With no savings and a credit score scarred from earlier missteps, I was left with one option: a 29% interest loan on a used car.

I told myself it was an investment, an arrow being pulled back, tension building before release. In a way that was true. Arrows don’t fly without resistance.

The reality was brutal. Every month, interest swallowed what little progress I made. My paycheque disappeared faster than I could earn it, and I felt isolated, with no way out whatsoever.

Some nights I drove home after backbreaking shifts, gripping the wheel in silence, wondering if I’d gambled away my future on a rusted car with a payment that felt more like a chain.

Debt became a shadow. It coloured how I slept, what I ate, which risks I thought I could take. More than numbers on a page, it was a constant whisper: you’re falling behind.

That whisper could be challenged, though I didn’t realize it at the time. More than a plan, I needed the patience to work it day after day, even while the results stayed invisible.

What changed everything wasn’t luck or a sudden windfall. It was a choice to stop pretending things would get better on their own, to face the numbers head on, then shift my mindset from scarcity to growth.

That decision was the real turning point. It’s what turned 29% interest into something far more powerful: discipline, clarity, eventually freedom.

Why Does Avoiding Money Make Debt Worse?

Treading water feels like swimming

When you’re overwhelmed by bills or living paycheque to paycheque, the easiest escape is distraction. Online shopping, takeout dinners, endless scrolling, one more episode.

Those quick fixes soothe the stress for a moment without solving the underlying problem. I call this treading water: you’re spending energy without going anywhere.

Money stress drives avoidance because the numbers feel dangerous to look at. The cruel irony is that avoidance is exactly what lets interest compound in the dark.

Getting out of debt starts with radical honesty. I sat down to write out each expense, each source of income, plus the total of what I owed.

From there, I committed to small, deliberate steps that built momentum:

If the total feels too big to face alone, free or low cost help exists wherever you are:

Progress doesn’t begin with massive leaps. It begins with honesty, repetition, plus the willingness to face what feels uncomfortable.

What Does the Suit of Pentacles Say About Money?

Wealth is cultivation, not luck

In tarot readings, the suit of Pentacles is the clearest mirror for how we handle money, career, material security.

These cards belong to the element of earth. They remind us that finances aren’t built on speed or luck, but on stability, patience, grounded action. Wands carry fire, Cups carry emotion, Pentacles carry the practical side of life: paycheques, investments, savings, debt, the slow steady work of building something that lasts.

The best tarot readings aren’t prediction machines. They won’t tell you exactly when or how money will arrive. What they reflect is the patterns plus opportunities already shaping your path. When Pentacles dominate a spread, finances or career are usually the area asking for your attention right now.

That rarely signals sudden wealth. More often it suggests support arriving through strategy, dedication, persistence. An honest tarot reader won’t hand you a fantasy; they’ll show you where your persistence will be rewarded, which patterns keep costing you, how support might show up in practical, lasting forms.

Do Money Affirmations Actually Work?

Shouting into the waves

I believe in affirmations because I’ve tested them in moments of genuine survival.

Once, while paddleboarding, strong currents pulled me far from shore. Exhaustion crept in, then panic set my whole body on fire.

Alone, desperate, I started shouting my affirmations into the waves: I am strong. I am capable. I am making it back.

My strokes got stronger with each declaration, every word choosing determination over fear. Hours later, when I finally reached shore, I understood something that stayed with me: affirmations don’t only change how we think. They change how we act.

That lesson carried straight into my financial life. When I was buried in debt, I used the ThinkUp app to record affirmations in my own voice, playing them on repeat as I fell asleep.

At first I didn’t believe a word of them. They felt awkward, even fake. Repetition is persuasive, though. Repeat a phrase often enough and the mind starts treating it as familiar, then eventually as true.

Over time those words became mine. They gave me patience to stick to my budget, steadied my decisions, helped me notice opportunities where I’d only ever seen obstacles.

Say them aloud. Record them in your own voice. Play them as you fall asleep. The subconscious doesn’t argue with repetition; it absorbs it, and what you once resisted becomes the belief that carries you forward.

How Do You Go From Debt to Savings?

Tending money like a garden

I approached money the way you’d tend a garden. Little by little, modest daily plantings grew into a footing stable enough to live on.

Within two years I’d paid off every cent, saved $12,000, then adopted the dog I’d always dreamed of.

Today I approach the stock market like that same garden. It isn’t about guessing the right pick or chasing trends. It’s about showing up consistently, watering the soil, letting time do its work.

Sixty percent of everything I earn goes into blue chip stocks, companies built for stability over the long haul. My own living costs stay lean, knowing I can lean on my savings if I truly need to. That ratio fits my life; yours should fit yours.

Since I first wrote this, my investments have grown by over 50%. Not through luck, but through persistence, since steady contributions let the ups balance out the downs over time.

If you’re struggling or just starting, it’s okay to begin modestly. Truly. Even 5% of each dollar you earn will snowball into a meaningful sum when you keep at it. For beginners, a platform like Wealthsimple automates investing so you don’t overthink it.

Financial stability isn’t a windfall. It’s the slow, deliberate building of security, a foundation you can lay no matter where you’re starting from.

Should You Borrow Money to Start a Business?

Your idea deserves a runway, not a rescue loan

The idea might already be sitting with you. A product sketched in your notes app, a service your friends keep telling you to charge for, a quiet certainty that you could build something of your own.

That pull is real, and I respect it deeply. I built my own practice from scratch, one client at a time, long before it could pay every bill.

My 29% car loan taught me something about chasing a dream with borrowed money: urgency is expensive. High interest turns a good idea into a race against the clock, while the pressure to earn it back fast pushes you into decisions you’d never make with a clear head.

Pentacles map the entrepreneur’s road beautifully, if you know where to look.

Your income from steady work isn’t the enemy of your dream. It’s the soil your dream grows in. Plenty of successful founders kept a paycheque far longer than their origin stories admit.

None of this shrinks your vision. It protects it, long enough for the idea to show you what it can really become.

If you’re standing at that crossroads, a reading can help you see which fears are wisdom, which are just noise. Click here to book a session when you’re ready to look at it honestly.

Can Tarot Help With Money Problems?

No jackpot, just the pattern you keep repeating

If you’re reading this while broke, scared, wondering how you’ll make rent, I’ve been there. I know how hollow it sounds when someone tells you this will build character.

When my electricity was cut off, I sat in the dark with a handful of coins in my pocket, unsure how I’d cover rent that month. Humiliating doesn’t begin to cover it, and underneath the shame sat real terror.

What I wish someone had told me then: your current circumstances don’t define your financial future.

I’ve met countless people, many of them in recovery, starting with absolutely nothing, who went on to become financially secure, some of them wildly successful. What shifted for them wasn’t luck. It was honesty, discipline, the courage to face what they’d been avoiding.

This is where tarot becomes a genuine ally. The cards won’t give you lottery numbers. What they will do is mirror back what you might be too overwhelmed to see:

Wealth, I’ve learned, isn’t about quick results. It’s about self awareness: noticing your triggers, facing your patterns, choosing differently one decision at a time. Even when you feel like you have nothing, clarity is the first currency you can build.

What’s the First Step to Financial Freedom?

Measure what you treasure

Here’s the practice I promised. The most financially free people I know treat money like a living thing. Ignore it, it withers. Tend it, it grows.

When I was in severe debt, I kept a running list in the Notes app on my phone of each place I owed money. Payday after payday, however modest the cheque, I sent a tiny percentage to each debt while still covering what I needed to stay alive.

It felt almost laughably tiny at times. Consistency compounds, though, and that one list paid off faster than I ever imagined.

Start where you are. Even pocket change builds momentum when it’s pointed in the right direction.

I’ve lived the panic, the sleepless nights, the shame of falling behind. These days I stand on the other side: debt cleared, savings in the bank, investments growing, a future that finally feels secure.

Your path will look different from mine. The truth underneath holds steady: with honesty, accountability, patience, you can move from fear to freedom.

One last thing, since it matters to me. There’s absolutely no urgency in this work, and no ethical psychic will ever pressure you to book before you’re ready.

A tarot reading won’t erase the numbers. When the time feels right, though, it can gently illuminate the story you’ve been telling yourself about money, then help you write a stronger, truer one.

Where Can I Read More About Growth and Change?

Follow the one that pulls at you most:

• Carrying less: Restless nights
• Real change: True change
• Clear knowing: Trust yourself
• Feeling behind: Your pace
• Daily choices: Clear decisions
• Expert readings: Tarot clairvoyance

Before you go, grab your free tarot notebook when you join the newsletter. Your debt list deserves a home of its own.

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If this article resonated with you, book your private reading here.

About the Author

Chris Bennett, known as The Tarot Medium, is internationally recognized as the best tarot reader in the world, trusted by clients across Canada, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, plus South Africa. Known for accurate, honest readings free of fear or theatrics, his work spans psychic life path readings, intuitive tarot for career plus money crossroads, evidential mediumship, and grounded guidance for anyone rebuilding from the ground up. His online readings reach clients in Swift Current, Estevan, Kindersley, Melfort, Nipawin, Bismarck, Minot, Dickinson, Jamestown, Mandan, Valley City, Warwick, Goondiwindi, Chinchilla, Roma, Rothbury, Wooler, Seahouses, Bamburgh, Amble, Bredasdorp, Struisbaai, Arniston, Elim, Riviersonderend, plus everywhere in between.