Latest / Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant / The Pain, Power and Promise of Credit Scores

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The Pain, Power and Promise of Credit Scores · Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome the Money in Wealth with John O'Briant, a production
0:03
Speaker 1: of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey,
0:15
Speaker 1: this is John O'Brien and this is Money and Wealth.
0:18
Speaker 1: The theme of this week's episode is the pain, power
0:21
Speaker 1: and promise of credit scores and how not to blow
0:25
Speaker 1: yourself up. So here is the trending topic. Yo Gotti
0:33
Speaker 1: almost got it and my man was teased, but I
0:38
Speaker 1: am actually applauding him. He in addition to being a
0:41
Speaker 1: very talented artist, when you're a rapper or an artist,
0:46
Speaker 1: particularly rappers, because of the fluidity of their art form
0:50
Speaker 1: and the hustle community that it normally emanates from, they
0:54
Speaker 1: started to want to include and expand that hustle to
0:58
Speaker 1: other art forms and see themselves as business people and entrepreneurs.
1:03
Speaker 1: Even yes, those two things are different. More naturally than
1:07
Speaker 1: just a recording artist might see themselves as something more
1:11
Speaker 1: than just a very talented singer. I don't know what
1:14
Speaker 1: that is. I'll get into that maybe in a separate episode.
1:17
Speaker 1: But I found a lot more grittiness with the rappers
1:20
Speaker 1: who come up who think that immediately they can be
1:23
Speaker 1: a businessman. And many of them are businesswomen, and many
1:25
Speaker 1: of them have been and to Yo got he's credit
1:28
Speaker 1: that my man went on to create several businesses that
1:31
Speaker 1: spin off of his successful career as a rapper, and
1:36
Speaker 1: many of them did actually pretty dang gone well, it appears,
1:41
Speaker 1: but keep in mind those were in the creative realms.
1:45
Speaker 1: He did that in part because it built on what
1:49
Speaker 1: he already knew well and his brand would allow him
1:53
Speaker 1: to amplify that. But when he got off into real estate,
1:57
Speaker 1: well it didn't go so well. He'd buy a house
2:00
Speaker 1: and he was like, this is cool, and he rehabbed
2:02
Speaker 1: that house, and then when he went on tour, he
2:04
Speaker 1: went buy another house and paid cash for it, as
2:08
Speaker 1: I understand it, again, so far, so good, and rehab
2:11
Speaker 1: that house and turn it into a business, renting it
2:15
Speaker 1: or whatever selling it. I guess hopefully he kept it
2:18
Speaker 1: because I'd like to buy and hold. That's my philosophy.
2:21
Speaker 1: They aren't growing anymore land and my man did this
2:25
Speaker 1: fifteen times, went on tour and bought homes, rehabbed them,
2:30
Speaker 1: and kept them. So you're saying, John, why are you
2:32
Speaker 1: hating on Gotti? Yo, Goati? He seems to have done
2:35
Speaker 1: it absolutely right is and it's exactly what you're talking
2:38
Speaker 1: about he's got these other businesses. He's got his record label,
2:43
Speaker 1: he's got I think, a fashion design business and marketing business.
2:46
Speaker 1: And when he's in the studio, he's two hundred percent
2:50
Speaker 1: all in working with his artists, et cetera, et cetera,
2:52
Speaker 1: et cetera. Why you have a problem with him because
2:54
Speaker 1: my man thought you didn't have to pay property taxes.
2:58
Speaker 1: He thought, because you paid, now, mind you, there's a
3:00
Speaker 1: compliment coming for him now. He didn't do it like
3:03
Speaker 1: Mike Epps. Mike Epps took the time to understand the
3:06
Speaker 1: game of real estate on the front end. But I'm
3:09
Speaker 1: gonna give Yo Gotti credit because he caught it on
3:11
Speaker 1: the back end. He had almost caught a falling knife,
3:15
Speaker 1: but he turned it into a butter knife and put
3:17
Speaker 1: some butter on his bread at the end. So he
3:20
Speaker 1: had bought fifteen homes, as I understand it. Just because
3:23
Speaker 1: I don't know him personally, I'm so I telling you
3:25
Speaker 1: what I think I understand. He bought fifteen homes cash,
3:28
Speaker 1: and us soon impresumed that because he bought it cash,
3:31
Speaker 1: bought them cash, he did not have to pay property taxes. Wrong,
3:37
Speaker 1: and so he almost lost all fifteen homes because the
3:42
Speaker 1: city and or county and or municipality for which the
3:46
Speaker 1: homes were in wanted their portion of the proceeds. Now,
3:51
Speaker 1: I want you to remember how they got al capone.
3:54
Speaker 1: They didn't get al capone for murder and mayhem and
3:57
Speaker 1: all the stuff that he no doubt had done illegally.
4:01
Speaker 1: They couldn't catch them on in their stuff and make
4:04
Speaker 1: it stick. They got al capone on tax evasion, that's right.
4:10
Speaker 1: They send them to prison on tax evasion. This is
4:13
Speaker 1: not tax evasion. This is I didn't pay my taxes
4:17
Speaker 1: on some real estate. So they're not going to put
4:19
Speaker 1: you in jail for this piece. This is not personal
4:22
Speaker 1: income tax you're evading. This is I didn't pay my
4:25
Speaker 1: property taxes on the home that I own. They just
4:27
Speaker 1: take the house, they sell it on the courtyard steps
4:31
Speaker 1: for often pennies on the dollar. And this is how
4:34
Speaker 1: a lot of black folks have lost property going back decades.
4:39
Speaker 1: Now are tax defaults, property tax defaults. It's actually a
4:46
Speaker 1: business that somebody listening to this will think about going
4:50
Speaker 1: into in the city or county that they live in
4:53
Speaker 1: where somebody's not already in that business. And there's just
4:56
Speaker 1: too much competition, but showing but a researching owners that
5:00
Speaker 1: I have not paid their property taxes and being willing
5:02
Speaker 1: to buy the debt, buy the property tax, pay it off,
5:05
Speaker 1: and buy that property tax bill if that property tax owner.
5:09
Speaker 1: In fact, it's happened to me before. By the way, supposedly,
5:11
Speaker 1: I'm the financial literacy expert, and I had a piece
5:14
Speaker 1: of property that I ended up a daze from allowing
5:18
Speaker 1: somebody to buy my tax bill because I didn't see
5:21
Speaker 1: the notices in the mail. Because I was transitioning that
5:24
Speaker 1: particular property with another one. I didn't see the notice
5:26
Speaker 1: in the mail, and it was a parent when I
5:28
Speaker 1: was really busy. So this is not just a situation
5:31
Speaker 1: with rappers. This is me, and I was days away
5:35
Speaker 1: from having to deal with somebody who had a bit
5:37
Speaker 1: too much leverage for my taste on my own property.
5:40
Speaker 1: I paid the property tax and of course was able
5:44
Speaker 1: to retain my ownership. Yo, Gotti situation is a little different.
5:47
Speaker 1: He just assumed and presumed and whatever you assume. Well,
5:51
Speaker 1: I can't say that on air, but you make an
5:52
Speaker 1: ass out of you and me. So you should never
5:55
Speaker 1: assume anything, never assume or presume. Always be nosy. Quincy
5:59
Speaker 1: Jones friend, my mentor, how'd you get so smart? I'm
6:01
Speaker 1: just nosy as hell, John, I want to know everything
6:03
Speaker 1: about everything. I want you to be nosy about real estate.
6:06
Speaker 1: I want you to get into the details. You can't
6:09
Speaker 1: generalize on this topic. It's really important to dive into
6:12
Speaker 1: the details. And so my man bought these homes, rehabed them,
6:16
Speaker 1: did it right? Looks like he bought right, owned these
6:18
Speaker 1: beautiful homes and almost lost everything and before it was
6:22
Speaker 1: too late. It appears he was able to correct his
6:24
Speaker 1: ways and learn from them. Because Rainbow's only faut old storms.
6:28
Speaker 1: So I commend the brother for owning his mistake and then,
6:31
Speaker 1: you know, making it right. And now the homes are
6:34
Speaker 1: his to accumulate for the rest of his life, as
6:38
Speaker 1: long as he pays his annual property taxes. Now, if
6:41
Speaker 1: you live outside of the United States, or if you
6:43
Speaker 1: buying real estate outside the United States, that's a different situation.
6:46
Speaker 1: You got to check the property tax laws in that area.
6:49
Speaker 1: There's an area. I bought some property in another country
6:54
Speaker 1: and I'll be specific Turks and Kkos, and you only
6:58
Speaker 1: have to take pay property taxes when you buy the property.
7:01
Speaker 1: It's called a stamp tax. You buy the property, you
7:03
Speaker 1: pay the stamp tax at closing as ten percent of
7:06
Speaker 1: the purchase price, and you don't pay another tax tied
7:09
Speaker 1: to that property for the history for the life of
7:11
Speaker 1: that property. And I don't actually think that's the best
7:13
Speaker 1: deal for the government. I think they should get more
7:16
Speaker 1: than that. But you know, it's a great deal for
7:18
Speaker 1: the investor. And I'm willing to allow the advantage on
7:23
Speaker 1: my side until they update their systems, but I really
7:26
Speaker 1: think they should be charging me more. I hope they
7:28
Speaker 1: don't listen to this. So God, he got off without
7:31
Speaker 1: having to catch a falling knife. He turned his lesson
7:35
Speaker 1: into an opportunity to know more so he can do
7:39
Speaker 1: more and accumulate hopefully not only fifteen homes, but hopefully
7:42
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty homes over time and become a
7:45
Speaker 1: successful real estate investor. So I commend the brother for
7:47
Speaker 1: owning the mistake, learning from it, and even being public
7:52
Speaker 1: about it so that he can teach well you and me.
7:56
Speaker 1: All Right, this is John O'Brien, and this is my
7:58
Speaker 1: trending topic of the week. Hey, this is Money and
8:11
Speaker 1: Wealth with John Hopebriant, and this is the pain, power
8:15
Speaker 1: and promise of credit scores. When you go out to
8:19
Speaker 1: your date this weekend, and ladies, you see a handsome
8:24
Speaker 1: dude in the club, Brothers, you see a fine woman
8:28
Speaker 1: in the corner at the night spot or the restaurant.
8:32
Speaker 1: When you go over to them and you say, what's
8:34
Speaker 1: your name? How you doing, baby? Or you let the
8:37
Speaker 1: man get a word with you, or maybe you have
8:39
Speaker 1: a girlfriend or a guy friend to say to the
8:43
Speaker 1: guy you might be interested. You start a conversation after
8:46
Speaker 1: you have found each other's name, the next question is
8:49
Speaker 1: what's your credit score? And I'm only partially kidding. After
8:55
Speaker 1: you roll up on somebody in the club this weekend,
8:58
Speaker 1: you ask them their name, and then the next this
9:00
Speaker 1: question should be what's your credit score? Because you're marrying.
9:04
Speaker 1: If this is a serious situation, not just a pretty
9:07
Speaker 1: face pretty face that can't pay a bill. This is
9:10
Speaker 1: your business partner, possibly for life. This is a mother
9:13
Speaker 1: or father of your children. This is the head of
9:15
Speaker 1: your household or partner in your business. And only in
9:17
Speaker 1: a relationship should the math not work. Two plus two
9:20
Speaker 1: should equals six eight or ten, not even four. Two
9:23
Speaker 1: plus two in a relationship should be six, eight or ten.
9:25
Speaker 1: You should be better together if two plus two equals
9:28
Speaker 1: four in a relationship, Why should you do it? You
9:31
Speaker 1: can do bad all by yourself. You don't need any help.
9:33
Speaker 1: As my friend Quincy Jones would say, not one answer.
9:36
Speaker 1: My self esteem depends on your acceptance of me, and
9:38
Speaker 1: I can do bad all by myself. The only thing
9:40
Speaker 1: worse in being alone is wishing that I were right
9:43
Speaker 1: or wishing that you were. So you want to make
9:44
Speaker 1: sure you're better together, and like, like I said, romance
9:48
Speaker 1: is beautiful, but it's not enough. You need to know
9:50
Speaker 1: that your partner can add value to your situation. And
9:54
Speaker 1: so when you meet that person, you may not be
9:56
Speaker 1: as bold as saying as your credit score is. I
9:58
Speaker 1: don't mean literally that, but I mean I mean within
10:00
Speaker 1: the first serious series of serious conversations, you just start
10:04
Speaker 1: to like get around to it, because you wouldn't know
10:07
Speaker 1: what you signing up for and what you signing on
10:09
Speaker 1: with and with whom. Because if you have a seven
10:12
Speaker 1: hundred credit score and they have a four hundred, right,
10:16
Speaker 1: then you toe up from the flow up, You're gonna
10:17
Speaker 1: end up hitting your face against their fist. Right, You're
10:21
Speaker 1: gonna blow yourself up with a financial hand gernade. You
10:24
Speaker 1: don't lease the card. It won't be Mercedes, It'll be Mercy.
10:26
Speaker 1: These payments, I mean, and and people who don't pay
10:29
Speaker 1: their bills right in love will default on your bills
10:32
Speaker 1: as well and look at you and go, well, what's wrong.
10:36
Speaker 1: So I'm joking about it, but I'm serious. I am
10:39
Speaker 1: so serious about this. You've never seen a riot in
10:42
Speaker 1: a seven hundred credit score neighborhood in all of America's
10:45
Speaker 1: history because seven hundred credit score neighborhoods don't riot. They
10:48
Speaker 1: go shopping. Right, And it doesn't matter whether you're black
10:52
Speaker 1: or white or whatever. You've never seen a riot in
10:56
Speaker 1: any race a seven hundred credit score community centered of
11:00
Speaker 1: any race, right when the credit score is seven hundred
11:03
Speaker 1: or above, right, because the color is green there, right.
11:06
Speaker 1: But let me tell you where you see all the
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Speaker 1: problems that you can imagine. Every problem you can imagine
11:11
Speaker 1: in America is in a five hundred credit score neighborhood.
11:14
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that again for those in the back
11:16
Speaker 1: of the room. Every problem in America, whether it's black
11:20
Speaker 1: and brown urban community or to be fair, a poorer
11:24
Speaker 1: white community rural. I'll say it again, whether it's a
11:27
Speaker 1: black and brown urban community or a poor white community.
11:30
Speaker 1: Here's what you see in a five hundred credit score neighborhood.
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Speaker 1: A check cashing business next to a rental owned store,
11:38
Speaker 1: next to a title lending store, next to a liquor store,
11:42
Speaker 1: next to a pawn shop. Help me out here in
11:46
Speaker 1: the comments in the feedback loop right of you and
11:51
Speaker 1: your friends, I want you to have this conversation. You
11:54
Speaker 1: see a check casher next to a petty loan lender.
11:57
Speaker 1: Come on, this is a wrap now the rental od
11:59
Speaker 1: store next to a petty lender, next to our title lender,
12:03
Speaker 1: next to our a pond shop, next to a liquor store,
12:09
Speaker 1: next to a renting rims store. That's right, renting rims
12:12
Speaker 1: with spinners, twenty inch rims with your car with spinners.
12:14
Speaker 1: They're renting rims in low lef neighborhoods and then charging
12:17
Speaker 1: you insurance for it because they know you're gonna hit
12:20
Speaker 1: a pothole. They own the rims, they can't wait for
12:22
Speaker 1: you to break it. And then there's a church down
12:24
Speaker 1: the street trying to make sure you don't go crazy
12:27
Speaker 1: once a week, So that's your neighborhood. Therapist always amuses
12:30
Speaker 1: me when black folks say I can't go to a shrink.
12:33
Speaker 1: I can't go to a psychologist. Somebody may think I'm crazy.
12:37
Speaker 1: If you're black in America and you don't think you're crazy,
12:39
Speaker 1: then you are crazy. Right. If you don't think you're
12:42
Speaker 1: a little crazy, and you're black in America, then you
12:45
Speaker 1: are a little crazy, maybe a lot crazy. Right, So
12:47
Speaker 1: just acknowledge it admitted. Everybody could use somebody. I mean,
12:51
Speaker 1: all therapist says is a paid friend. So these churches exist.
12:57
Speaker 1: By the way, that's not just black and brown communities.
12:59
Speaker 1: Those are white communities. And don't trust me, go see
13:02
Speaker 1: it for yourself. And you have these companies now real talk. Now,
13:06
Speaker 1: these companies are target marketing underserved communities. Whether you're black
13:11
Speaker 1: and brown urban or your white rural. It's the same
13:14
Speaker 1: situation in a five hundred credit score neighborhood, and everything
13:17
Speaker 1: negative you can imagine, it's concentrated in those communities. High pertension, diabetes, obesity,
13:24
Speaker 1: that's the easy stuff. And by the way, you live
13:27
Speaker 1: twenty year shorter life in a five undred credit score
13:30
Speaker 1: neighborhood then you do in a seven under credit score neighborhood. Yes,
13:34
Speaker 1: I said it, I'll say it again. You lived at
13:37
Speaker 1: sixty one years of age. By the way, don't trust me.
13:40
Speaker 1: Go to the Operation Hope Credit Score Index. It's on
13:43
Speaker 1: the Operation Hope website. Either type in on your search
13:45
Speaker 1: engine Hope Credit Score Index or Hope Financial Wellness Index.
13:50
Speaker 1: It'll come up either way on your search the Hope
13:52
Speaker 1: Financial Wellness Index or Hope Credit Score seven hundred credit
13:56
Speaker 1: score Index. It's data powered by experience. Now we have
13:59
Speaker 1: the US Census Department involved in a bunch of other providers,
14:03
Speaker 1: and we have the only organization to map every zip
14:06
Speaker 1: code in America by credit score. I may do a
14:10
Speaker 1: separate episode and just unpacked specific city so you can
14:14
Speaker 1: see the tale of two cities fifteen minutes apart. If
14:17
Speaker 1: you have a community, not if where you have this
14:21
Speaker 1: is the normal situation. You'll be in Garfield Park in Chicago.
14:26
Speaker 1: Those listening in Chicago, you know what I'm talking about.
14:28
Speaker 1: And then you have I guess Lincoln Park. If I
14:30
Speaker 1: got that right, fifteen minutes away on a drive and
14:34
Speaker 1: you have five fifty five eighty credit score compared to
14:37
Speaker 1: a seven hundred credit score neighborhood in those two areas
14:40
Speaker 1: in Chicago, you have people living to sixty one years
14:43
Speaker 1: of age. In Garfield Park living to eighty one to
14:47
Speaker 1: ninety years of age and better in Lincoln Park. By
14:51
Speaker 1: the way, you find that all cause country where you
14:53
Speaker 1: have just go on my map. If you want to
14:55
Speaker 1: know how you live in, type in your zip code.
14:57
Speaker 1: I'll tell you your credit score through this index, and
14:59
Speaker 1: I'll tell you how you live in. We've mapped every
15:01
Speaker 1: zip Coldness Merit in this country by credit score, and
15:04
Speaker 1: the data is unimpeachable. Right, So you lived a twenty
15:07
Speaker 1: year longer life or shorter life, depending on how you
15:10
Speaker 1: look at it, whether you live in a seven credit
15:12
Speaker 1: score neighborhood longer a five hundred credit score neighborhood shorter.
15:16
Speaker 1: You tend to have finished high school in the five
15:19
Speaker 1: hundred credit scord neighborhood on average, which means you you
15:23
Speaker 1: have a high school You know, I think it's like
15:24
Speaker 1: sixty one sixty two percent of people have a high
15:26
Speaker 1: school equivalency compared to those with a ninety ninety six
15:30
Speaker 1: percent on average in a high school equivalency, which means
15:34
Speaker 1: it's going on the college in a seven hundred credit
15:37
Speaker 1: scored neighborhood. The violent crimes per thousand jumps off the
15:40
Speaker 1: sheet in a five hundred credit score neighborhood, it's almost
15:43
Speaker 1: non existent. In a seven hundred credit score neighborhood, home
15:45
Speaker 1: ownership rates tend to be twenty six thirty forty percent
15:49
Speaker 1: at most in a five hundred, five point fifty five
15:52
Speaker 1: eighty credit scored neighborhood. Anything with a five is that
15:54
Speaker 1: attached to it. When you get to a seven hundred
15:56
Speaker 1: credit score neighborhood, the number it starts with a seven
15:59
Speaker 1: seventy percent, seventy five percent, seventy eight percent home ownership rates.
16:03
Speaker 1: Because the number one way you build wealth in America
16:06
Speaker 1: is home ownership. And it goes on and on and
16:08
Speaker 1: on from there. And so there's there's this huge golf
16:13
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes apart. And if you want me to do this,
16:15
Speaker 1: send me a note, right, send me a note on
16:17
Speaker 1: social media. When you see wherever you see this, let
16:20
Speaker 1: me and my team know, and I will unpack. Tell
16:22
Speaker 1: me the city that you want me to unpack, and
16:24
Speaker 1: I'll unpack it for you, and I'll tell you I'll
16:26
Speaker 1: tell you areas that you can recognize. I don't even
16:28
Speaker 1: need to go to your city to tell you what's
16:30
Speaker 1: going on in your city. We've mapped it all by
16:33
Speaker 1: credit scores. Neighborhood by neighborhood with the Community Credit Score
16:37
Speaker 1: Index at Operation Hope. Here's a shocker for you. The
16:41
Speaker 1: average credit score for forty plus million African Americans in
16:45
Speaker 1: the wealthiest country in the world. The average credit score.
16:49
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about poor people now, I'm talking about everybody.
16:52
Speaker 1: The average credit score is below six to twenty. Or
16:55
Speaker 1: if you want me to be optimistic about six twenty, Okay,
16:59
Speaker 1: you want me to lie on, say six fifty is
17:00
Speaker 1: not six fifty, it's six twenty. And this is forty
17:03
Speaker 1: million people. So yes, we can talk about police brutality
17:06
Speaker 1: as we should, in racism as we should, and all
17:10
Speaker 1: kinds of problems happening to us and those we care
17:13
Speaker 1: about in the realm of civil rights. But in the
17:16
Speaker 1: realm of silver rights sil v e er right, because
17:21
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get you from the streets to the suites, right,
17:24
Speaker 1: and the realm of silver rights, which is what we
17:27
Speaker 1: do at Operation Hope. What I'm about with a third reconstruction,
17:30
Speaker 1: which is from twenty twenty to twenty thirty, from George
17:32
Speaker 1: Floyd's murder forward to twenty thirty. In that realm, we
17:36
Speaker 1: we got to know better, so we can do better. Right.
17:39
Speaker 1: And what we found is is this is this whole
17:42
Speaker 1: conversation flips the script completely. And here's what I have
17:47
Speaker 1: to say to you. Beyond the fact that if you
17:49
Speaker 1: want to stabilize our communities, you just move to credit
17:52
Speaker 1: score is one hundred points. That's a whole nother conversation.
17:55
Speaker 1: I'll get to it before I stop. But half a
17:58
Speaker 1: black folks have a credit SCORELIX. That means when you
18:01
Speaker 1: wake up in the morning, half of us are locked
18:03
Speaker 1: out of the free enterprise system. I'll say that again,
18:06
Speaker 1: when Black America, forty million Black Americans wake up in
18:10
Speaker 1: the morning, before you do anything else, before you fight
18:14
Speaker 1: any of the challenges out here in this frustrating world
18:16
Speaker 1: of ours, half of us are locked out of the
18:18
Speaker 1: free enterprise system. And I'm not talking about poor people.
18:21
Speaker 1: I'm talking about folks with advanced degrees. I'm talking about
18:24
Speaker 1: people with PhDs. Right, I'm talking about people who are
18:27
Speaker 1: doctors and lawyers and bankers, even entrepreneurs, small business people.
18:33
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about folks just who are tow up
18:34
Speaker 1: from the flow up. I'm talking about everybody. Think about this.
18:39
Speaker 1: Your whole life is a financial transaction. You can't even
18:42
Speaker 1: go to bed without having a financial transaction. Because the
18:44
Speaker 1: government didn't give you a pillow. You don't live in
18:46
Speaker 1: a government issued pillow. You purchased it. A government issued
18:49
Speaker 1: comforter or blanket or sheets, you purchase them. The government's
18:52
Speaker 1: not paying for your light bill. I don't think you
18:56
Speaker 1: pay for that. The government didn't pay for your mobile
18:59
Speaker 1: phone bill. You paid for that. I mean, when you
19:02
Speaker 1: wake up in the morning and you cooked the breakfast,
19:04
Speaker 1: you paid for that. When you open the refrigerator, you
19:07
Speaker 1: paid for that. When you get in your car, you
19:10
Speaker 1: paid for that. When you paid for uber, you paid
19:13
Speaker 1: for that. This is the church of what's happening? Now?
19:15
Speaker 1: What have you done for me lately? I can go
19:16
Speaker 1: on this aut and you stop at the drive through.
19:18
Speaker 1: You paid for that. By the way, you know where
19:20
Speaker 1: the drive through window came from, and in part came from,
19:24
Speaker 1: in large part came from the South, where blacks had
19:26
Speaker 1: to go to the back or the side of a
19:28
Speaker 1: building to pick up their meal because merchants in the
19:32
Speaker 1: in the twentieth century, in the South, in the sixties
19:34
Speaker 1: and the fifties that refused to serve black So we
19:37
Speaker 1: need this horrible thing, this horrible thing came a global
19:41
Speaker 1: innovation called a drive through window, and we didn't get
19:43
Speaker 1: paid for it. That's a whole other thing. At least
19:45
Speaker 1: we at least give us a patent on it, or
19:46
Speaker 1: a residual payment or something. Right, anyway, to the back
19:50
Speaker 1: to the story. Whatever you're doing in the course of
19:52
Speaker 1: your day, if your day's not about God or love,
19:55
Speaker 1: your days about money. And let me tell you something.
19:57
Speaker 1: You go to the bank and you think the bank
20:00
Speaker 1: get discriminating against you. You think the bank hates you, you
20:02
Speaker 1: think the bank does not like you. They turned you down.
20:04
Speaker 1: That must be racism. It could be just as your
20:06
Speaker 1: credit scores thinks right. My mother, Jannita Smith, God rest
20:11
Speaker 1: her soul, Juanita Murray Smith. She had a credit score
20:15
Speaker 1: in the mid eight hundreds, eight hundred and fifty four.
20:18
Speaker 1: It was the last one I saw. And my mother
20:21
Speaker 1: was not black. That means my mother was green. That
20:23
Speaker 1: means that when she went to the computer at midnight
20:25
Speaker 1: and whatever she wanted to get, the answer is yes.
20:27
Speaker 1: The computer just says yes, yes, yes, yes, yes yes right.
20:32
Speaker 1: Because my mother proved herself to be a great credit risk.
20:36
Speaker 1: And by the way, credit crims on the Latin a
20:37
Speaker 1: root word credito or credibility. That's what that means. Credit
20:41
Speaker 1: means credibility, right, So my mother had credibility, and so
20:45
Speaker 1: could you as well. Wouldn't it be beautiful if if
20:48
Speaker 1: you knew when you walked in the bank, the bank
20:49
Speaker 1: just said yes to you. Right, Well, it's possible, right
20:53
Speaker 1: because the bank says yes mostly to me, not because
20:57
Speaker 1: they like me, not because of a good personality. Is
21:00
Speaker 1: because I have a good credit score. Right. My credit
21:02
Speaker 1: scar is just over eight hundred, not as good as
21:05
Speaker 1: my mother was, but I used to be in the
21:06
Speaker 1: four hundreds, used to be in the five hundreds. When
21:08
Speaker 1: I was homeless, it was in the five hundreds for sure,
21:11
Speaker 1: and I could have fouled bankruptcy, but I chose not to.
21:13
Speaker 1: I decided these were my debts. I owed them, and
21:15
Speaker 1: I had to pay it back. So I just worked
21:17
Speaker 1: hard to pay it back over time and talk to
21:19
Speaker 1: my creditors before they talked to me. I called them
21:22
Speaker 1: before they called me, and surprised them, right, and told me,
21:26
Speaker 1: I can't pay all your money, so don't even call
21:28
Speaker 1: me about that. But I'm calling you because I'd like
21:30
Speaker 1: to make payments and arrangements. So I can pay you overtime,
21:32
Speaker 1: and nine times out of ten they were very cooperative
21:35
Speaker 1: and didn't destroy my credit, and I built it back
21:37
Speaker 1: up over time. So how do you repair your credit again?
21:43
Speaker 1: Half of black folks when you get up in the morning.
21:44
Speaker 1: This is deep. Now we're locked out of the free
21:47
Speaker 1: enterprise system. You can't get a decent car loan below
21:51
Speaker 1: what six point fifty six twenty? Maybe you can't get
21:54
Speaker 1: a decent Like I said, it's not if you have
21:57
Speaker 1: a five eighty credit score you buy that Mercedes is
21:59
Speaker 1: not a merce. These are the mercy these payments, right,
22:02
Speaker 1: eighteen percent interest on a car means the car is
22:04
Speaker 1: going to explode. It's a mobile bomb is going to
22:06
Speaker 1: explode on you and take you with it, right, at
22:09
Speaker 1: least financially. So you can't get a decent home loan
22:13
Speaker 1: below today seven hundred six 't eighty maybe right, but
22:17
Speaker 1: with the raising interest rates, the lenders are more a
22:19
Speaker 1: bit more conservatives. They really want you to have a
22:21
Speaker 1: seven the credit score. You can't get a small business
22:24
Speaker 1: loan certainly below seven hundred. It's the riskiest credit on
22:27
Speaker 1: the planet. Don't be hating on the bank. You wouldn't
22:29
Speaker 1: lend somebody money. Who you know is credit is tow
22:33
Speaker 1: up from the flow up and has a horrible reputation
22:35
Speaker 1: of paying their bills. You want some security. And if
22:38
Speaker 1: they didn't pay you back, you want your money back.
22:40
Speaker 1: So why is the bank any different. They just want
22:42
Speaker 1: their money back, right, And so we want the approval,
22:45
Speaker 1: but we don't want the repayment. I don't mind either conversation.
22:47
Speaker 1: I want the approval, and I know in advance what
22:50
Speaker 1: I'm signing up for, and so I don't mind the repayment.
22:53
Speaker 1: I'll talk about good debt versus bad debt in a
22:56
Speaker 1: different podcast. But if you want to get a small
23:00
Speaker 1: business loan, you've got to have good credit because it's
23:03
Speaker 1: risky credit. So that means again, if the average credit
23:06
Speaker 1: score for Black Americans is six twenty or below, half
23:10
Speaker 1: of us, I'm sorry, then half of us are locked
23:12
Speaker 1: out of the system and we don't even know it.
23:14
Speaker 1: So at Operation Hope, here's what we do. You walk
23:16
Speaker 1: in the front door. We're the only nonprofit allowed to
23:19
Speaker 1: operate side of a bank branch in US history. That's right.
23:22
Speaker 1: Operation Hope is easy to tell you which banks we're
23:25
Speaker 1: not in than to tell you which banks we're in.
23:27
Speaker 1: You walk into one of the branches, it features an
23:30
Speaker 1: Operation Hope coach and counselor. I really shouldn't start naming
23:34
Speaker 1: names of banks, So just go to Operation OHS website.
23:37
Speaker 1: You'll see for yourself where we are located. We have
23:40
Speaker 1: three hundred locations physical locations, serving over one thousand locations
23:44
Speaker 1: by satellite. And you go into that branch and the bank,
23:48
Speaker 1: the banker can't tell you the truth, which is if
23:51
Speaker 1: they tell you that when they pulled your credit they
23:53
Speaker 1: knew right then you'd be declined. They're afraid you're going
23:56
Speaker 1: to assume them, assume them for discrimination or something because
23:58
Speaker 1: they're highly regulated. At least they just tell you someone
24:01
Speaker 1: will be in touch. They process your loan even though
24:04
Speaker 1: they know it's highly unlikely to be approved. So some
24:08
Speaker 1: of those bankers now say, look, Operation Hope is right
24:10
Speaker 1: off across the hall. They don't work for us, they
24:12
Speaker 1: work with us. Go and talk to them right now,
24:14
Speaker 1: because they operate by different rules than we do. And
24:17
Speaker 1: when you come talk to us, we sit you down,
24:19
Speaker 1: We ask you for permission to pull your credit score,
24:22
Speaker 1: your credit report. We pull it and then we say, well, baby,
24:27
Speaker 1: that looks like a bus accident. That credit report and
24:30
Speaker 1: we all have a nice laugh because we know you know,
24:34
Speaker 1: either you know your credit's tow up, or you haven't
24:35
Speaker 1: checked it so long and you presume it is, or
24:37
Speaker 1: you're not shocked that it is. But it's not a
24:39
Speaker 1: mystery to anybody. You know you didn't pay your bills
24:42
Speaker 1: when you were divorced, and you know that eight hundred
24:44
Speaker 1: number wasn't the lottery calling you. That was a bill collector.
24:47
Speaker 1: I don't know nobody with a one eight hundred number.
24:49
Speaker 1: I'm not answering that. Let that go to voicemail. So
24:53
Speaker 1: it's never a surprise when we say that to somebody.
24:55
Speaker 1: Oh my god, right, and then we have a nice laugh.
24:57
Speaker 1: By the way, the point is, the shame is out
24:59
Speaker 1: of it. Now. They're all angels with thirty faces, right,
25:02
Speaker 1: a saint as a center that got up. There's no
25:03
Speaker 1: shame in the game of having problems. It's doing nothing
25:06
Speaker 1: about it. We pull that credit report together, we look
25:10
Speaker 1: at it together, we find something on the report. We say,
25:13
Speaker 1: missus Jones, what's that? I don't know what that is?
25:17
Speaker 1: Fantastic that's called an error. And the law states under
25:21
Speaker 1: and this is civil rights education. Now sil ve e
25:25
Speaker 1: Er civil rights education. The law states, if the three
25:28
Speaker 1: credit bureaus Experience, Equifax, and TransUnion cannot confirm that that
25:33
Speaker 1: debt is yours, that item is yours on your credit report,
25:37
Speaker 1: they must remove it. Did you hear me? They must
25:40
Speaker 1: confirm within thirty days of us notifying them. And we're
25:43
Speaker 1: going to ask you for permission to send a letter
25:45
Speaker 1: to the credit bureaus and we're gonna do it together,
25:49
Speaker 1: hoping you one of my coaches, this is a private
25:51
Speaker 1: banker for the working class. We're gonna send that note
25:53
Speaker 1: in and if they can't confirm within thirty days that
25:56
Speaker 1: that item belongs to you, they must remove it. You know,
25:59
Speaker 1: what happens is a pop to your credit score. Typically,
26:03
Speaker 1: you know, twenty thirty points for a negative item that
26:07
Speaker 1: is not yours and a good portion at the time
26:09
Speaker 1: the credit bureas cannot confirm that that is yours and
26:12
Speaker 1: so it gets removed. So what happens to your confidence
26:15
Speaker 1: in your self esteem? Now? Remember banking, banking is a
26:18
Speaker 1: trust business, right right? And remember the capital comes from
26:21
Speaker 1: the Latin root word copy toass knowledge in the head.
26:24
Speaker 1: That's where capital comes from. Credit is creditoe Latin word
26:28
Speaker 1: meaning credibility, capital is copy toass knowledge in the head.
26:31
Speaker 1: Neither one of them have anything to do with money, right,
26:33
Speaker 1: And banking is a trust business, so they need you
26:36
Speaker 1: to trust them, right, and you need to be trustworthy.
26:39
Speaker 1: So when we sitting in the bank, pop your credit
26:42
Speaker 1: score from five to eighty to six ' ten In
26:44
Speaker 1: this example, what happens to your level of trust? What
26:47
Speaker 1: happens to your self esteem? What happens to your personal confidence,
26:50
Speaker 1: your belief in yourself. I believe your shoulders go back
26:53
Speaker 1: are results for millions of clients. Confirmed, shoulders go back.
26:56
Speaker 1: Chess comes out, the chin comes up, You're like, okay, okay,
26:59
Speaker 1: I'm I'm in this game now perfect, and then you
27:02
Speaker 1: say okay, what next. The minute you say what next,
27:06
Speaker 1: we know that you're in the right party. Now, you're
27:09
Speaker 1: taking your life back right now, you're leaning into your future.
27:12
Speaker 1: So then we say okay, what's this item here? You go, oh, man, well,
27:17
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean I got divorced ten years ago.
27:19
Speaker 1: I think that was tied to the divorce. It was,
27:20
Speaker 1: oh yeah, it was a phone bill and we didn't
27:23
Speaker 1: pay it and we got divorced. My husband didn't pay it,
27:26
Speaker 1: and I don't know. I didn't answer the phone. Call Okay,
27:29
Speaker 1: what's a thousand dollars? Well, I don't have a thousand dollars.
27:32
Speaker 1: They would miss Jones would say, well it's okay, SBC,
27:35
Speaker 1: so it's right here. Was sold to Pack Bail. Pack
27:37
Speaker 1: Bail was sold to AT and T. AT and T
27:40
Speaker 1: called you and chase you. You didn't answer the phone.
27:42
Speaker 1: They ended up selling that debt five years, eight years,
27:44
Speaker 1: two years, one year ago to Joe's Finance company. Joe's
27:49
Speaker 1: finance company, my experience in banking tells me they bought
27:51
Speaker 1: that for about five cents on the dollars, called bad debt.
27:56
Speaker 1: You shouldn't want bad debts, so don't do this in
27:58
Speaker 1: person on purpose? Is it ruins your credit? But I'm
28:00
Speaker 1: just telling you how the game is played. A right.
28:02
Speaker 1: So they bought it for fifty bucks one thousand dollars debt,
28:05
Speaker 1: All right, don't hate on them. It's a business and
28:07
Speaker 1: it was your debt. Legitimately, they're a right to claim
28:11
Speaker 1: what they want is one hundred percent of profit. And
28:14
Speaker 1: they have fifty dollars investment in you. So now they're
28:16
Speaker 1: calling you, were blowing you your number if they can
28:18
Speaker 1: find you, trying to get their one hundred dollars, so
28:20
Speaker 1: we call them Joe's Finance company. Hello, I got missus
28:23
Speaker 1: Jones with me. We're looking for her, she's looking for you.
28:26
Speaker 1: We want to pay your debt. Well, we want one
28:28
Speaker 1: hundred dollars. No need to get aggressive, Joe's Finance company.
28:32
Speaker 1: We're calling you from operation to Hope. We have her
28:34
Speaker 1: on the phone. We want to pay you. How about this,
28:37
Speaker 1: How about we pay you two hundred dollars and you
28:39
Speaker 1: let me speak to your supervisor. Well two hundred dollars.
28:43
Speaker 1: Why were you going to pay me double? And why
28:45
Speaker 1: do you want to see to my supervisor? Am I
28:47
Speaker 1: been rude? No, you have been a little rude, But
28:49
Speaker 1: I'm gonna actually give you a compliment because I actually
28:51
Speaker 1: need your in their cooperation in the future. We're going
28:53
Speaker 1: to pay you double, triple or quadruple of what you're
28:56
Speaker 1: looking for. Quadruple what you paid for the debt, but
28:58
Speaker 1: double what you're looking for because we're gonna we want
29:01
Speaker 1: your cooperation. We want you to pull us off her
29:03
Speaker 1: credit report once we pay you, all right, and when
29:06
Speaker 1: we write you a letter or call you three months
29:08
Speaker 1: from now or five months from now, because it would
29:10
Speaker 1: back on her credit report, because it's been done for
29:11
Speaker 1: so long, it may just keep get repeating for a while,
29:14
Speaker 1: get reposted. We want you to cooperate and keep cooperating
29:17
Speaker 1: because fair exchange is no robbery, and we want you
29:19
Speaker 1: to keep removing this from her credit report. And I
29:21
Speaker 1: need to have your name in case you leave, and
29:23
Speaker 1: need to have the supervisor and preferably something in writing
29:28
Speaker 1: you will remove this from her credit report. Okay, So
29:31
Speaker 1: in that situation, missus Jones got an eighty percent discount,
29:33
Speaker 1: they got a two hundred percent profit. If my math
29:36
Speaker 1: is right, fair exchange is no robbery. Her credit score
29:38
Speaker 1: goes up. I'm making this up forty points, all right.
29:42
Speaker 1: So now you're at six point fifty in my example,
29:44
Speaker 1: you gone from five to eighty to six fifty. Your
29:47
Speaker 1: whole life has changed. A light is back on in
29:50
Speaker 1: Omaha or Detroit or wherever you live. Right now, you're
29:53
Speaker 1: in the game, and now we start working with your budget. Right,
29:56
Speaker 1: operation hope is moving. Credit score is fifty four points
29:59
Speaker 1: on average and six months one hundred plus points in
30:02
Speaker 1: a year to eighteen months one hundred twenty points in
30:04
Speaker 1: twenty four months. Reducing debt for somebody making forty nine
30:07
Speaker 1: thousand dollars on average forty one thousand dollars, reducing their
30:10
Speaker 1: debt by thirty eight hundred dollars or increasing savings by
30:13
Speaker 1: twelve hundred to twenty four hundred dollars, just by helping
30:16
Speaker 1: to do financial re engineering for you. And by the way,
30:18
Speaker 1: our services are free. Don't go to these predatory companies
30:22
Speaker 1: trying to separate you from your wallet telling you if
30:23
Speaker 1: I'm bankruptcy, charge you all this money to do what
30:26
Speaker 1: we'll do for free. Hello, And we have I think
30:30
Speaker 1: thirty eight plus federal authorities and memorandums and licenses, including
30:34
Speaker 1: HUD and a bunch of others, so it is easy
30:37
Speaker 1: to check out who's legitimate and who's not. An Operation
30:40
Speaker 1: Shope is the largest in the country. Okay, enough with
30:42
Speaker 1: the commercial for Operation Hope. Back to the story Missus Jones.
30:44
Speaker 1: So now we got missus Jones. She's trying to be
30:46
Speaker 1: a homeowner, now right, she's trying to buy a house.
30:48
Speaker 1: So now we got missus Jones credit rights not toe
30:51
Speaker 1: up from the flow up anymore, and we work with
30:53
Speaker 1: her to get her budget straight. We've got her to
30:56
Speaker 1: get a CUREC machine at home and stop going to
30:59
Speaker 1: Starbus whatever it is, every three times a week and
31:02
Speaker 1: stop smokings and Gon'll kill you anyway. And that's eight
31:04
Speaker 1: bucks every pack of cigarettes or more. And so now
31:07
Speaker 1: she's living in a longer life. But she also reclaimed about,
31:10
Speaker 1: you know, six thousand dollars a year from Starbucks and
31:13
Speaker 1: smoking cigarettes. Well, if you're making thirty six thousand dollars
31:17
Speaker 1: a year, my simple math from a simple person, you know,
31:22
Speaker 1: that's you know, twenty percent give or take of your
31:25
Speaker 1: income that we just got reclaimed to you. And then
31:27
Speaker 1: we got the earning Come Tax credit. And we turn
31:29
Speaker 1: to missus Jones's example, who's a teacher. Let's say she
31:31
Speaker 1: makes thirty eight thousand dollars a year. Missus Jones, ever
31:34
Speaker 1: heard of the e Tcuh? What's that congratulations you get
31:40
Speaker 1: in the check? What do you mean? It's called the
31:42
Speaker 1: Earning Them Tech credit. It's a bonus for working. This
31:44
Speaker 1: is a video for another day. I'll get really deep
31:46
Speaker 1: into details, but I'm trying to get you to understand
31:48
Speaker 1: how the system works right, because credit scores are a
31:51
Speaker 1: building block to the everything else. But you got to
31:53
Speaker 1: get that part right anyway. In this example, if she
31:55
Speaker 1: makes thirty eight thousand dollars a year, it has three children.
31:58
Speaker 1: Missus Jones qualifies for somewhere between My guess is five
32:01
Speaker 1: to seven thousand dollars in a check from the government.
32:04
Speaker 1: It's a bonus from working. That's right. And here's the
32:06
Speaker 1: real kicker. If you've never filed for EITC, it's retroactive
32:10
Speaker 1: for three years. Boom, that's what eighteen thousand dollars quick
32:15
Speaker 1: math something like that. Fifteen to eighteen thousand dollars. So
32:18
Speaker 1: now here's her down payment for that one hundred thousand
32:20
Speaker 1: dollars house or condo, the entry level condo she wants
32:22
Speaker 1: to get. So you add the EITC plus city and
32:25
Speaker 1: county benefits, plus down payment assistance programs are available to
32:29
Speaker 1: many banks. Plus she's a low income barer, so Community
32:32
Speaker 1: Reinvestment Act loans we're allowed to get under market rates
32:35
Speaker 1: when everybody else is to pay market rates. We got
32:37
Speaker 1: a credit score up or a debt down. We know
32:39
Speaker 1: what the bank takes for the bank to say yes,
32:41
Speaker 1: and we've already sent to her. Will approve your loan
32:43
Speaker 1: and operation hope. If the bank doesn't, we'll fund your loan.
32:46
Speaker 1: So we'll approve you subject to the resolution of your
32:49
Speaker 1: primary denial factors. So if the bank tells you know,
32:53
Speaker 1: after we did over this work for you, we'll fund
32:55
Speaker 1: your loan. But then thirty years of me doing this
32:57
Speaker 1: four and a half billion dollars in capital delivered in
32:59
Speaker 1: under serve neighborhoods. Sure, let's me say, say over four
33:03
Speaker 1: billion dollars a prime bank debt for home ownership, small
33:06
Speaker 1: business ownership, or entrepreneurship or consumer credit, et cetera. We've
33:10
Speaker 1: never had the fund the loan because the bank always
33:12
Speaker 1: says yes, which means at that point you're not black
33:14
Speaker 1: or brown, or poor white or struggling middle class, whatever
33:17
Speaker 1: it is, you're green, your bank qualified. So look, I
33:21
Speaker 1: can go on for this. I could do this all
33:23
Speaker 1: day and all night, but I think you're getting a
33:25
Speaker 1: memo that like, if you want to change your life,
33:28
Speaker 1: move your credit score. Like, there's a lot of things
33:30
Speaker 1: else that are in your life, and I can't solve.
33:33
Speaker 1: I can't solve racism, right, I can't solve discrimination. I
33:37
Speaker 1: can't solve how somebody treats you, whether your boss is
33:39
Speaker 1: good to you, or whether society is kind to you,
33:42
Speaker 1: or who the president is. You know, a friend of
33:44
Speaker 1: mine who's the CEO. Chris Garman of Key Bank once
33:47
Speaker 1: told me that probably the only true freedom is financial freedom.
33:51
Speaker 1: I believe that the only true freedom is financial freedom
33:54
Speaker 1: because all the freedoms can be taken from you. So
33:57
Speaker 1: if you can't control those pieces, but you can control
33:59
Speaker 1: you credit score, why wouldn't you move that because that
34:02
Speaker 1: changes the whole game. You can't even get a job
34:05
Speaker 1: today without most major employers checking your credit. I mean
34:10
Speaker 1: it's everywhere, right. Some insurance companies will check your credit
34:14
Speaker 1: before they give you an auto assurance policy, and certainly
34:18
Speaker 1: the mobile phone companies. All those folks check your credit right,
34:22
Speaker 1: And we also give you credit will help you figure
34:24
Speaker 1: out operational how to get credit for things like phone bills,
34:27
Speaker 1: utility bills, rent statements which you don't automatically go on
34:30
Speaker 1: your credit. We call that thick file underwriting. We will
34:32
Speaker 1: submit those to the lender to give you extra credit
34:36
Speaker 1: for your credit. But if you're a mayor listening to this,
34:39
Speaker 1: or you're a city council person, or you know a
34:42
Speaker 1: city leader, you need to know you're telling them what
34:45
Speaker 1: my mayor Andre Dickens knows here in Atlanta, who's a
34:48
Speaker 1: great man. He knows credit scores. Mayor Andre Dickens knows
34:51
Speaker 1: his credit scores. That's why we're partnering together in so
34:54
Speaker 1: many ways, and you should model what he's doing. But
34:57
Speaker 1: if you're if you know a mayor somewhere in America
35:00
Speaker 1: who could benef from this, they could literally you move
35:03
Speaker 1: credit scores one hundred points. You stabilize communities. That's right,
35:07
Speaker 1: I said it. It's not about the credit score. It's
35:09
Speaker 1: a trending indicator underneath credit scores, hope, well being, belief, confidence, trusts, credibility,
35:16
Speaker 1: credit score, GDP, economic activity that follows small business startups,
35:22
Speaker 1: people getting higher education, which make more and will then
35:25
Speaker 1: spend more, invest more. All boats rides and all positive
35:29
Speaker 1: things go up and all negative things come down when
35:32
Speaker 1: you move credit scores one hundred points. And again, Andre
35:36
Speaker 1: Dickens here in the city of Atlanta, is but one
35:40
Speaker 1: of the mayors who has gotten a memo on credit scores.
35:45
Speaker 1: And I think that this has become a national movement
35:48
Speaker 1: from the streets to the suites. But you can do
35:50
Speaker 1: this right in your house. You don't need a mayor
35:52
Speaker 1: to do this. You can do this right in your home,
35:54
Speaker 1: having a family meeting and when in doubt just call
35:57
Speaker 1: Operation Hope, download the Hope and Hand app on whatever platform, Apple,
36:03
Speaker 1: Android platform. The services are free. And make sure you
36:07
Speaker 1: asked that question for somebody who seriously dating, what's your name?
36:12
Speaker 1: And then what's your credit score? And I'm nothing but
36:15
Speaker 1: serious when I say it. If you want me to
36:18
Speaker 1: talk about and map out individual cities in this country
36:21
Speaker 1: and give you a comparison and get into some details here,
36:25
Speaker 1: I'm happy to do it. There's so many examples in
36:28
Speaker 1: my life. When my credit was tore up from the
36:30
Speaker 1: flow up and I was denied credit, I'd buy a
36:32
Speaker 1: car and I drive off the lot with the car,
36:35
Speaker 1: and then I'd be called back a day or two later.
36:37
Speaker 1: The salesman was so excited to write it up. They
36:40
Speaker 1: just assumed it, presumed that I could pay. They pulled
36:42
Speaker 1: my credit report and it almost blew up on their
36:45
Speaker 1: face when they came out of the computer. Was so
36:47
Speaker 1: bad and I had to bring the car back, very embarrassing.
36:50
Speaker 1: This is what happened to me in my teens. I
36:53
Speaker 1: was homeless for six months when I was eighteen nineteen
36:56
Speaker 1: years of age. So I've been there. I understand bad credit,
37:00
Speaker 1: I understand having bad experiences. I know what it feels
37:04
Speaker 1: like to get that decline. I also know what it
37:05
Speaker 1: feels like to get a loan approval, and I want
37:08
Speaker 1: a few African American business people who was approved for it.
37:12
Speaker 1: I'm sorry the sign a two hundred million dollar credit
37:14
Speaker 1: facility on what's called non recourse debt. It was for
37:17
Speaker 1: my Promise Homes company. But to go from not being
37:20
Speaker 1: able to get a credit card, had to get a
37:22
Speaker 1: secured credit card with a two hundred dollar limit coming
37:24
Speaker 1: up when I was an entrepreneur, and I tend the
37:27
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars payment in and hope to God the
37:29
Speaker 1: payment got there before my twenty dollars bill hit the
37:32
Speaker 1: table for the dinner I was trying to the lunch.
37:34
Speaker 1: I was trying to buy it for the lady I
37:35
Speaker 1: was trying to date when I was you know whatever,
37:37
Speaker 1: you know, eight seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty years old. I
37:41
Speaker 1: remember back back in the days where you lick a
37:43
Speaker 1: stamp or you pop put a check in the mail
37:45
Speaker 1: for your twenty five dollars minimum payment, and then you
37:48
Speaker 1: hope the god had got there before your next charge,
37:50
Speaker 1: with all you had was about twenty five to fifty
37:53
Speaker 1: dollars worth of available limit in your card on neck
37:55
Speaker 1: like you'll know what I'm talking about. I'm just being
37:57
Speaker 1: real with you that that's real deal some of us,
38:00
Speaker 1: when you're just trying to make the credit our company happy,
38:02
Speaker 1: you'd admit that you sent the bill, but not with
38:05
Speaker 1: a stamp on it. Anyway, there's a did I say
38:07
Speaker 1: I did that? Nude? I didn't do that. Maybe I
38:09
Speaker 1: just heard about somebody You did that, right, but I was.
38:12
Speaker 1: We paid all my bills, but to be able to
38:14
Speaker 1: go from somebody who was, you know, floating checks. But
38:17
Speaker 1: you wouldn't know about this folks in this age, but
38:19
Speaker 1: we would write a check and send it and you
38:21
Speaker 1: knew you had to cover that check within four or
38:23
Speaker 1: five days. But from those days to where I am
38:26
Speaker 1: now where you know, I get, you know, millions of
38:30
Speaker 1: dollars of lines of credit on my signature because I
38:32
Speaker 1: have good credit or I recently got an auto loan,
38:35
Speaker 1: and I didn't even have to go through a long
38:37
Speaker 1: arger's process. They already had my file. I already have
38:39
Speaker 1: my credit report pulled, they already have my income statement,
38:42
Speaker 1: all that stuff, you know, And I just called and
38:44
Speaker 1: said I want to buy this car. It was a
38:45
Speaker 1: nice a nice car and for them to say yes,
38:48
Speaker 1: you're approved over the phone within minutes. That's credibility, all right,
38:53
Speaker 1: that's credit again. The latter word of credit is credito credibility.
38:59
Speaker 1: Put something on your news. They say, I want to
39:01
Speaker 1: put something on your name. I want to give you
39:03
Speaker 1: the license to dream at scale, and that's why I
39:07
Speaker 1: want you to master your credit. There's not just pain
39:10
Speaker 1: in this credit game, this power and this promise, and
39:14
Speaker 1: it just might be the way or one of the
39:15
Speaker 1: ways to set our people free in the twenty first
39:18
Speaker 1: century at scale. This is John O'Brien and this is
39:31
Speaker 1: a fan question. This is true face tr U, underscore
39:36
Speaker 1: Face Underscore Snatcher. This is true face Snatcher from Instagram.
39:42
Speaker 1: Why don't we buy all these liquor stores in the
39:45
Speaker 1: hood and start changing our people's conditions. I love the question.
39:49
Speaker 1: Let me start their Kudos to you, True face Snatcher.
39:53
Speaker 1: What a great question. And you should consider buying the block.
40:00
Speaker 1: You should consider buying liquor stores and owning them yourself.
40:06
Speaker 1: But don't be naive about it. There's a reason why
40:09
Speaker 1: that liquor store does well in that neighborhood. And whatever
40:12
Speaker 1: you I don't want you to make an emotional decision,
40:14
Speaker 1: because whatever decision you make emotionally is going to be
40:17
Speaker 1: a bad one. Whenever you make an emotional decision, it'll
40:19
Speaker 1: be a bad decision. So I want you to make
40:21
Speaker 1: an intellectual decision. I want you to respond and not react,
40:24
Speaker 1: so all good. I want you to be morally committed
40:28
Speaker 1: to buying the block and buying and putting the liquor
40:31
Speaker 1: store out of business. But, as I said in the
40:33
Speaker 1: Credit Score conversations, if you see a fire and a
40:36
Speaker 1: credit score neighborhood, there's a reason why you see a
40:39
Speaker 1: check cash or next to a pati loan lender, next
40:41
Speaker 1: to a rental owned store, next to a title lender,
40:42
Speaker 1: next to a liquor store, next to a pawn shop,
40:45
Speaker 1: and a church down the street. There's a reason for it.
40:47
Speaker 1: It's target marketing. These companies know that we're financially illiterate,
40:51
Speaker 1: we have low self esteem, we're in a surviving mindset.
40:54
Speaker 1: We're tow up from the flow up. We're depressed, we're distressed,
40:57
Speaker 1: we're angry. We want to forget about our problem, i e.
41:01
Speaker 1: Liquor stores. They are targeting. Marketing is behavioral economics at scale.
41:06
Speaker 1: And Bastard Andrew young my mentor Doctor King's right Arm
41:08
Speaker 1: and civil rights movement would state, to live in a
41:11
Speaker 1: system of free enterprise and not to understand the rules
41:13
Speaker 1: of free enterprise must be the very definition of slavery.
41:17
Speaker 1: So we've got to do more than have emotionalism. If
41:19
Speaker 1: you want to buy that liquor store right now, before
41:21
Speaker 1: we change the behavioral economics or the behavioral conditions or
41:24
Speaker 1: the mindset of people in that neighborhood, then buy the
41:27
Speaker 1: liquor store, turned it into a convenience store, and then
41:30
Speaker 1: start having fruits and vegetables or some kind of convenience
41:33
Speaker 1: products and not just liquor. Maybe you'd go from hard
41:35
Speaker 1: liquor to beer and wine and some liquor, but you're
41:38
Speaker 1: gonna in some convenience. But you got to understand that
41:41
Speaker 1: liquor store is there because it's profitable and because people
41:44
Speaker 1: go in there. I keep telling my friends who say
41:47
Speaker 1: they want to eradicate poverty and can understand it. I said,
41:49
Speaker 1: if poverty was there's nothing wrong with what you just said,
41:51
Speaker 1: except it's rational. If poverty was rational, poor people wouldn't
41:55
Speaker 1: be poor. There's a reason why there's a check casher
41:58
Speaker 1: across the street from a bank branch people are not
42:01
Speaker 1: making a rational decision or making an emotional decision. So
42:04
Speaker 1: you got now just think about the predator or the
42:06
Speaker 1: business purpose that may not mean be a predator, not
42:09
Speaker 1: even not just the business person there. You want to
42:11
Speaker 1: think about the market that's a tuning to that business.
42:14
Speaker 1: And you want to change the game. What in Malcolm
42:16
Speaker 1: X said, We've been bamboozled, We've been tricked, We've been fooled.
42:18
Speaker 1: We need to change the fundamentals and the game in
42:22
Speaker 1: these communities by getting the financial fluency up, getting the
42:25
Speaker 1: financial literacy up. That's why I say financial literacy is
42:27
Speaker 1: a civil rights issue of this generation. When you know better,
42:30
Speaker 1: you do better. And when you move credit scorers from
42:32
Speaker 1: five to eighty to six hundred to six twenty, now
42:35
Speaker 1: the lights start coming out the six fifty. People start
42:37
Speaker 1: making different decisions. Now you're not depressed anymore. You're not
42:39
Speaker 1: distressed anymore. You don't want liquor. You want orange juice, right,
42:43
Speaker 1: and you want to orange uses without vodka because now
42:45
Speaker 1: you want to be clear headed. You don't need to
42:46
Speaker 1: do marijuana all day, or to stay high all day,
42:49
Speaker 1: or to stay drunk all day. In fact, you want
42:50
Speaker 1: to be clear headed all day. You get the six
42:52
Speaker 1: eighty credit score, you want to drink water, right you
42:57
Speaker 1: go to the gym. You got a whole different set
42:59
Speaker 1: of innovations and things that are popping off in your brain. Right,
43:04
Speaker 1: your brain is refiring in different ways and rewiring it
43:08
Speaker 1: in different ways to be more aspirational. You're going from
43:11
Speaker 1: a surviving mindset to a thriving mindset to a winning mindset. Okay,
43:14
Speaker 1: I've well to answered the question. The point is, if
43:17
Speaker 1: you want to be in the business today, you need
43:20
Speaker 1: to realize that there are businesses that thrive in a
43:22
Speaker 1: five hundred credit score neighborhood unfortunately, and if you're going
43:25
Speaker 1: to be in that business, dude, like I did. When
43:27
Speaker 1: we bought a check casher, then we partnered with a bank.
43:30
Speaker 1: This is going back right at the Sydney Righty King Riots.
43:32
Speaker 1: We partnered with a bank. Back then, we'd open it,
43:35
Speaker 1: offered it to cash a check for free if you
43:37
Speaker 1: open a bank account, and we had just we had
43:40
Speaker 1: incredible success with that model from check cashing customers to
43:43
Speaker 1: banking customers, and we'd cash a check for free if
43:45
Speaker 1: you open a bank account. We had to acknowledged that
43:48
Speaker 1: you wanted to be to get your check cash. We
43:50
Speaker 1: wanted to transition you into a better life. And we
43:53
Speaker 1: had an ATM machine outside of the check casher and
43:55
Speaker 1: that RATAM machine was on fire. You can't do that
43:57
Speaker 1: unless you have a bank account. So it was beginning
44:00
Speaker 1: to work. So you just have to be elegant and
44:02
Speaker 1: thoughtful in how you do it. I want you to
44:05
Speaker 1: do it, but go to one MBB one million Black
44:07
Speaker 1: Business Initiative at Operation Hope and go through a business
44:10
Speaker 1: plan program at Operation Hope that create a business plan,
44:13
Speaker 1: to create a plan that works for you to buy
44:15
Speaker 1: the block. This is Money and Wealth with John O'Brien.
44:20
Speaker 1: I'm out. Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a
44:36
Speaker 1: production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts
44:40
Speaker 1: from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app,
44:44
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.