SPEAKER_00 1:48

Welcome back to the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Today we have the special pleasure of speaking with Tamara Edwards. Tamara Edwards, founder of Financial Transformation and Financial Care Center Incorporated. With over 17 years of experience, Tamara focuses on community service, financial literacy, and business development. As a licensed credit counselor and certified personal finance coach, she empowers individuals to improve their financial futures. Her vision is to foster a society where everyone can achieve a healthy financial lifestyle. How are you today?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Yes, ma'am. So here's the thing. I know there's going to be a little bit of delay, so anytime we ask a question, we'll get make sure there's a pause so that you can jump on it, and then likewise we'll make sure that we're aware of that, okay?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Okay. So tell us a little bit about your upbringing. What was it like as a child? We like to give a little bit of history about you know your childhood experiences so our community can get to know you a little bit more.

SPEAKER_06 3:16

Okay. Um, I came from a um two-parent household. So it was just my brother and I, mom and dad. Um, dad worked for the government, so he often traveled a lot. My mother was um a stay-at-home mom. Um, I would say our childhood was very good. I I think um me and me and my brother both are entrepreneurs. Um, and I think my dad and still very good work ethics in us. You know, you gotta work for what you want. And I always tell the story and did not even know that um I kind of stumbled into um this personal financial world. But when I was 16 and got my first job, and literally my job, I worked at Hardy's, and Hardy's was right across the highway from where I live, so I can walk home. And um, when I got my first paycheck and I walked outside happy to get my first paycheck, there's my dad, he's waiting on me, and I'm like, why is he here? And at that moment, he said, Okay, it's your payday, right? And I'm like, Yes, sir. Come on. He took me to a bank, opened up a check-in and a savings account, and got me back home, and that's when he started teaching me about finances, how to always pay myself first. So he had this little trick that he would do when it was time for me to get paid, and I have to put money in the back where I couldn't see it. So I tell individuals right then, you know, at 17 I was doing my taxes because my dad he was very, very disciplined when it came to finance and saving um and having something for later. So um I I owe it all to him, and I always say that. I said, I owe it all to my dad, and I think that's what I just took for granted, and I thought everyone, dad or mom, sat them down at this age and taught them about finances.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

And that's just not the case, that's not that's not the case.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Man, that makes so much sense. Do you have how many siblings do you have?

SPEAKER_06 5:44

It's just me and my brother. Oh, right. I am the oldest, and my brother is three years younger, so it was just me and my brother in the household. And like I said, we both are entrepreneurs.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

And so did he get the same type of financial education from your father that you received?

SPEAKER_06 6:00

Oh, yes. Dad was very strict on that, and and I say yes, my dad was very, it's like he wanted to know how much did you get paid? How much did you put aside? So that was always the question. And I had to give my mom $25 every week when I got paid, no excuses. And then he gave me a bell, right? He gave me a cable bowl. And I think back the cable bowl was like back then $45. Yeah, wow, so amazing. I gave mom $25, the cable was like $45, and I could remember coming home one Friday, and I said, Dad, can I just pay this cable bowl later? I I don't have enough money. And he goes, Excuse me, you get paid every Friday $45 once a month, and he really got on me for saying that. And he told me I should never. You're gonna pay your bills for your savings come first, and you're gonna pay your bills, and you're gonna pay your mom. So I know I knew that I had to pay myself first, and I better have $25 to pay my mom, and I better have $45 to pay the cable because he was not playing that.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

I like that discipline though.

SPEAKER_06 7:19

So that was his discipline. And then another one, I must have gone out, you know, you're hanging out. Yeah, 16, 17, and he comes in one Saturday, and he must was get my dad was he was a hustler. I think that's where me and my brother got it from. Even though he worked for the government, he had his own cab business, so he always was working, and he got out for work and he said, Young lady, I thought you were supposed to work today. I said, I called in. Now I called in to my boss, said I was sick. You know, this man made me go to work after you called out. After I called in. Yo, yes, he said, honey, let me tell you something. If you better know, if you can't burn that candle at Bullfans, you better know what side to burn it on. You're gonna get out of here. That's true. No such thing as calling in to work because you went to a party. Wow, bam! I'm with that.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

That's the kind of dad we had. So, at what age do you did you notice that your upbringing was different from your friends?

SPEAKER_06 8:30

Yeah, you know, it wasn't till probably in my 20s. Um, like I said, I started at Hardy's at 16. By the time I was 20, I was a manager at Hardy's, so I was managing Hardy's. Wow. And me being around individual grown people. Huh?

SPEAKER_01 8:54

I said you were managing grown people at 20.

SPEAKER_06 8:58

Yeah, okay, yes, yes, and they didn't like me. I had one lady told me she was gonna get her daughter to come and broke my arm because she wasn't taking, you know, she wasn't taking orders from a little girl.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Oh, wow. Wow, wow.

SPEAKER_06 9:13

Um, but it was at that time with me going out and being around other friends, and I'm just hearing their upbringing, I'm seeing how they're utilizing their funds, and also me doing the schedule, I would hear individuals know. I don't want, I don't want all of these hours because such and such is the case, meaning maybe their benefits will get cut off, or um, they had a lot of different reasons, so I was like, hmm, this is odd. Um, because me and my brother, as soon as we got a job, dad sat us down and he talked to us about credit. Now, I would be lying to you if I said, even though I had that upbringing, that I did not make my own mistakes because I did.

SPEAKER_05 10:15

Good point.

SPEAKER_06 10:16

I did make my own mistakes when it came to credit and and because I could get the credit. Um, I kind of overloaded myself. And then at the time when my dad took me to get a new car, because we would always buy my car cash, and that's the time when he realized, what is this? I was making all of the payments, but he's wondering, how are you maintaining all of these credit cards that you have? He took them all from me, cut it up, sat me down. We had to come up with a plan on how I was gonna pay all of these credits card off.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Wow. But it's great to get it done as opposed to having to learn that lesson down the road once it really affects your build your ability to build a family and maintain a proper lifestyle.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Yes, yes. So going into credit, can you name some like financial skills that the average person is lacking when it comes to knowing about credit and how to build credit?

SPEAKER_06 11:26

One that I found is budgeting and expenses, and when I deal with individuals that come, I want my credit fixed. I want y'all to think about this question. Is the credit really broken? Or you just don't understand what you're doing? So is the individual the one that's broke that needs to be fixed?

SPEAKER_05 11:48

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_06 11:50

So I always say, okay, let's look at your budget, let's look at your spending habits, because once we get our budget and our spending in order, you're gonna start paying your bills on time, and that's basically how our credit gets messed up because we take on too much debt because we don't understand debt management, yeah, and then we're not budgeting and tracking our expenses, and you have some individuals my age and older that probably never saw their credit report, but they got turned down for something and they said, I got bad credit, or I need my credit fix. And then I have to educate them. Let's look at it. You got nothing but late payments. Can a credit repair person really fix late payments? They might get rid of the late payments, one or two, but what's gonna happen if you don't have debt management skills?

SPEAKER_00 13:01

It's gonna happen again.

SPEAKER_06 13:02

Happen again, it's gonna happen again. So, first we need to create a budget and track our expenses.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

And how detailed would the budget be? Would it be like a weekly budget, budget, daily budget, monthly?

SPEAKER_06 13:22

I would first start off as a monthly budget. So when clients come in to me, I first want to do a financial assessment that is simple as you bringing in 90 days of your bank statements, and we doing what I call the highlighting game. We're gonna sit there and we're gonna tear that bank statement apart.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

I tell individuals I could tell a lot about you if I see your yeah, it tells you on you.

SPEAKER_06 13:51

It's gonna tell. You were here, it's gonna tell a story.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

We're here all these stories, eating all this, getting all this cash out, ATM, right?

SPEAKER_06 14:01

Cash up, and you're gonna tell me that you can't save $25 a month. I'm just gonna say that you can't save. I don't have it, Miss Rivers. I can't save. But when I go through your bank statement, I'm noticing that you're spending an extra $500. Ow. Ow. We find the money. We're gonna find the money.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Yeah, it's the accountability though, too. Like the education with accountability and tools, and that's what you're talking about, like putting all that together to allow for somebody to take their take control again over their finances.

SPEAKER_06 14:39

Yes, yes, and I think coming up, you know, you can't understand, you can't fix what you don't understand. So some people just shy away from it. I'm not gonna look at my credit, I'm not gonna deal with the creditors that call because they don't understand, they don't know how to go through that process. So we kind of bury our head in the sand, and that's the same. Um, I spent five years. Um, my degree is in business and legal studies. I originally wanted to go in the legal field. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 15:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 15:16

And um during 08, if you could remember, we had the mortgage bubble burst. So I worked for a foreclosure law firm at that time. This is how I really got into this. I worked for that foreclosure law firm, and the bulk of the clients, I'm not gonna say all, the bulk of the clients looked like you and me. They signed a mortgage, they did not understand what they signed. No, and they were getting foreclosed on, some prematurely, because they buried their head in the sand because they didn't understand it. So, what they did, they threw the summons and complaint to the side, and now when it's time for foreclosure, they're looking for help when they could have looked for help earlier. Or if they had just read the summons and complaint, their homes could have been saved. So South Carolina was awarded, I forgot how many dollars to save individuals from foreclosure. At the time, there was uh they call it uh administrative order that came down to put um foreclosures on hold because they believed that the banks were foreclosing prematurely. They wasn't doing what they said was in the summons of complaint. This is how I know I'm on the right track because I know this was all God's work. Um I got laid off from the I hated, I didn't like that firm. I hated that job. I would literally go to my car and cry. I would have people call me and be crying because they're they're about to be put on the screen, and I'm and I wanted to tell them, you're not answering a complaint, you're writing us letter, and all we're doing is putting in as a response. I was in charge of getting people served. Oh wow, and they would invade service, so you think that you're prolonging the case because you're hiding from the process server. But little do you know, I would run you in the paper, your name, your home in the paper for eight weeks, and after that, you are served. They didn't understand that. And I'm like, how do I help them? Well, I got laid off from the law firm because it was a bunch of paralegals. Happened so I got employed with a nonprofit heading up a foreclosure task force, and we served the state of South Carolina, and through that I saved over 2,000 homes from foreclosure only because I educate individuals. Wow, I made them understand their rights, quit digging your head in the sand, and sometimes there's options that you don't know about, but you gotta call and ask.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

I think that's very important.

SPEAKER_06 18:31

And when I yeah, yeah. So when I started working with them, then I started realizing okay, where's your deed? They didn't know what a deed was. Where's your mortgage? Because I had to collect all of these docs to send to get the money. So I was putting files together to get the state to pay. We can get up to $36,000 to save their homes. And some individuals, some seniors, I was paying off their homes because they had signed a mortgage with a balloon payment. So that means they thought they were paying off their mortgage, they were down to their last year, but that last payment was $15,000 or $20,000, some $30,000, and they were losing their homes. So as I'm talking to these clients, I realized they really didn't understand what they were doing.

SPEAKER_05 19:32

Nope.

SPEAKER_06 19:33

They were so happy they could buy a house. And that's where the education part kicked in with me through that foreclosure. So after I had clients that trusted me, and they're like, Miss Rivers, you saved my home. Now I need to get my finances back on track. Can you help me? And that's what started me on this road of personal financial coach by my foreclosure clients. That was that was like my my first job out of college. And I became back then they call it housing counselors. Now today they call it personal financial coaches.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

And that's where it is, man. Um, I mean, they always speak about this, but people are gonna die for the lack of um lack of understanding, yeah, lack of knowledge, not knowing what it is that you're out there dealing with. And like you said, it's really simple. Actually, and and I think in our community, it's something that we're really bad about is we hide from the bill collector, we avoid the doctor, like hearing bad news, getting bad news, and just like sitting there, like I said, just simply reading the the summons and seeing what was given to you, you would you would see what your options are, and that you don't there's not gonna be a situation that's gonna be as negative as you think it is, but that fear, that fear keeps you from reaching that potential.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Yeah, and also, like you said, calling the people, the number that's on the paper, and asking, are there any uh potential other options? Yeah, you know, that's some that's that should be something easy to do, but a lot of people shy away from that as well.

SPEAKER_06 21:15

So, you know, um Fit Academy, financial intelligence training. That's my my first week, it's eight weeks training, and that's why I had to do research on the psychological factors of how all of us spend our money. And some of it stems from early childhood. You know, I could look at my childhood, we always talk about our finances, you know. We always needed to make sure we had our stuff in order. Not everybody had that, but when I look at individuals and I coach individuals, a lot of our spending habits come from our first relationship with money. A lot of households, we don't they don't talk about their finances. That's a topic that we don't talk about it, we just try to get through.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Yeah, that's survival, survival mentality instead of the right, yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

So, how would you encourage more families to talk about financial literacy to their kids or to the other family members?

SPEAKER_06 22:28

You know, you can start off with teaching your kids about financial literacy, and and you wouldn't even you wouldn't even think making up a game with chores. You know, I have three boys, and and then I have a curriculum for ages five and up with financial literacy. And someone said, How am I gonna teach a five-year-old? First, we need to teach that five-year-old the difference between needs and wants. So now you're gonna teach your kids is this a need or is this a want? And giving them chores around the house, okay, you're getting paid for this, you have $25, and now you're gonna make a little budget game, you're gonna create a little budget game which with your five-year-old or or your six year old, and make it fun for them the whole time. You're teaching them the importance of money and supply and demand.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Oh, you ain't lying, right? They won't understand the copy.

SPEAKER_06 23:39

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, you could teach them as early as. Five years old. Five years old.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

That's so important. Um, that's very important. And I um just want to interject and say this if you put that on your child at a young age and you trust that they'll learn it, they will learn that hey, this is something that is normal, and then once that became behavior becomes normalized, as they get older, like you said, you didn't set up a foundation for them to be um be able to receive the more technical information without being afraid of it. Again, you took the fear out of finances for them.

SPEAKER_06 24:22

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I think that's I thought it was normal that everybody parents sat down and talked to them about finances.

SPEAKER_03 24:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:32

I thought it was normal for you gotta pay your bills on time, you gotta maintain your credit, you gotta put something away. Um it's normal till it's not, I guess. If I if I could say that, because it's right, it's normal until it's not, right? You know, um it but then I had to again the psychological factors, you have to break that down first. Um, there is such a thing as financial trauma. Yeah, and and what would you think a financial trauma would be? I could tell you one of my clients, she has money in the bank, she makes good money, but she will never pay her bills on time. She will wait for the last minute to pay. And I had to sit down, I said, okay, we gotta figure out what is the root problem. Because you have the money, you're telling me you want to purchase a home, but we can't move forward until we start paying our bills on time. And at that time, she shared with me that and her mind, she couldn't let her bank account go under a certain amount because when her she was afraid that her kid, her kids would come home and ask for something and she couldn't provide because as a child, her parents always said they didn't have they didn't have the money for this, they didn't have the money for that. And she told herself if she ever had kids, she would not do her kids the way her parents did. So in her head, she had and she had to keep a certain amount, and she thought that was healthy. She would spend her money because she had eight siblings, it was nine of them, and she always had hand-me-downs, never knew pair of shoes. She would buy four and five pair of shoes every payday. Oh, that's right. So she was running her account and trauma.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

So, what about the people that have the money but they they hold it, they don't circulate the money, they just let it sit in their account.

SPEAKER_06 27:06

That's that's where they need some financial, deeper financial planning.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 27:13

You know, um money is supposed to be in a movement, like you say, circulate. And I tell people, money is not supposed to be still. You know, you gotta try to invest your money, and that's where you need to get a financial advisor, um, a financial um um the financial investor, those advisors to start moving your money around. Most of us allow our money to work us instead of us working our money. We should be telling our money where to go. Our money should be working for us, not us working for the money. So learning um to plan your taxes efficiently, learning about investments, so many people they have 401k and they have matching 401k and would not invest. So if I was to give you five dollars right now and I said I'm gonna match, and that means you're gonna get ten dollars each time you put and you're not taking free money, yeah. That's painful, that's painful because they don't understand how it works, so that's what we have to do. You know, you need to be looking at investments, you need to be looking at CDs. Um, definitely if your job has any type of full 1K plans, you need to be investing your, especially if they match.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:59

Yeah, I didn't even know that.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

I because just I hurt mine. I I that'd be all that's part of the reason why I walk around broke, because I put my money in there. I don't need it right now. I'll get it later. And then um, speaking about that, because you're right on this topic and we're talking about spending wisely. Um, could you speak about the importance of health? I mean, not health insurance, life insurance, especially for um younger folk. We don't think about it because we're like it's something that we have. If our employer offers it, we'll take it. But could you explain why it's so important, especially for our elders out there who may have not had the chance to invest in that? You do have their family members that take care of them, et cetera. And I'm like, we should all still have life insurance, even if you don't, even if it's not something that comes with employment, we should invest into it.

SPEAKER_06 29:46

So you know it's life insurance and it's barrier insurance. Life insurance is just what it says. Life insurance is for the living. So you're getting life insurance, you're making sure that your your children, your wife, your parents don't have that financial burden. One, to bury you, and two, let's say you're married, your life insurance should be three times the salary.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

The at your comment because okay.

SPEAKER_06 30:29

Yeah, yeah. So if if something happens to that individual, that income is gone, you want to make sure that your children and your spouse is taken care of. You want to make sure that your family is taken care of.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

Yep, I agree to that. And there's this, there was a um individual on the podcast, they were talking about this, and they were breaking down how a life insurance plan is like a step up because everybody's gonna pass away eventually. I hate to say it ain't nobody, nobody beat Methuselah yet. And um until we get to that, until we get to that point, you might as well go ahead and prepare uh for that for that time when it comes. And if you have a life insurance plan, you're basically making sure that the generation that comes after you, if you aren't already where you want to be, it's gonna help them get to that place, especially if you start financially advising them properly or getting them an advisor and planning properly and making sure that you're educating them on what to do with money and how to use money. When that money comes to them, that will change the generation there and afterwards. And if they're doing those same things, they'll keep rolling over. Our community doesn't do that a lot, and there was this weird, I guess it's a weird analogy. Well, not analogy, but reason why we should use it. If there's a large portion of our community that has life insurance plans, there's a lot of groups and communities that would be very remiss to bother or cause us harm or hurt. Because those insurance companies would be on the table, they'd be on the books to have to then make sure financially they're blessing that community. And they don't want to do that. And they would rather not to have to use that. So in our communities, when somebody's 17 years old to say to 45 gets shot or something happens, or say something violent happens, somebody dies, or say car accidents, etc., most of the times there's nothing that comes of it. It's just that's the end of everything. Um, but having life insurance is a really good thing to first of all guard to assist the folks who are gonna have to live after that person has passed away. Um, but also groups or individuals that aren't a part of the communities, it's gonna make it less likely that they're gonna want to infringe on your life in your pursuit of happiness. Because why would I do that? Why would I cause because then I I'm literally just making sure that you're doing better than what than what you were doing before. I'm trying to say it in certain terms to not talk about certain other things small-sided, but you know, in generalities, it is a very protective measure um within our community to make sure that our community is able to be safe and and pursue the goals that we want to.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

But can you talk about that? I guess how people take money from their life insurance and invest it or you know, use it to pay back.

SPEAKER_06 33:39

I didn't hear the question.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Can you talk about how people who have a life insurance policy, how they're able to pull money from their life insurance policy to either invest it or start a business or pay back money or a credit that they may owe?

SPEAKER_06 33:56

Yeah, there's certain types of um life insurance definitely that could um bill cash value, and some could take um from that, and they could definitely um I forgot the name of it. Um so it's either like whole life or term.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

I think it's whole life. The two different ones.

SPEAKER_06 34:22

So it's two different ones. The whole life, the term is what um you hear a lot of um like what's the guy name? I know Susie, she says get term, but you know, term, let's say I got term at 19. Term is only for a term, it's only good for 20 years. So after 20 years, I have to go get more insurance.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

That's true, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:53

You know, so you have you really it the key is if you start off younger, because what happens is individual will wait till they're 50, 60 and want to get life insurance, and now the price has doubled, gone up, not a liability, you're a liability because you're a liability. You wait, you wait till you got high blood pressure, diabetes, and you know, but if you got it when you were in your 20s, and you get a whole life with growing cash value, imagine how much funds you're gonna have right now, yeah. And you could possibly take some funds from that and like you said, start your business, start another um investment. But we don't look at those as so there are different ways um that we can think outside of the box to be financially stable and again allow our money to work for us instead of the money we working for the money.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

And I I want to interject and say this. I think some of it, and you can either agree or disagree, just let me know what you feel about this. I think part of it has to do with the patience that is required to allow for money to do its work.

SPEAKER_06 36:19

Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. I don't know. Um I'm gonna I'm gonna say this lightly because I don't I don't know the age group, but typically right now we're living in a generation of microwave. Everybody wants this quick turnaround, everybody wants this quick success, and that's just not how things work.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

Nope.

SPEAKER_06 36:49

It takes time to build. So I do agree. They they want things like right now, so they get impatient and then forget it. I'm not gonna do this, or it's not working.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Yeah, and I think that's one of the things if we could figure out with within our community a way to make it I don't know, hip, cool, chic, whatever it is, to have financial patience alongside the other things, I think it would be good. And I and I know with with social media and the speed of media nowadays, like how quick you can see things, how quickly things move. You're looking at Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook, and all you see are all the financial trappings of success, and you think stuff is coming like that overnight, but it because they never show you the back. We don't know how the sausage is made. And when you don't, you don't get to see that, you don't know they're putting this spice in there, that meets getting ground, a little hoof go in there, or whatever it is, right? You don't get to see that. And so at the end of the day, you're like, well, these have this beautiful package, it must have just happened quickly, not realizing this this is probably a 15-year process. You're seeing the last three months that they've been experiencing the success or the uh the products of their labor. Um, and I don't think that that reality is coached enough to our um our community.

SPEAKER_06 38:21

Absolutely correct. I agree with you a hundred percent on that.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

So can you explain? I know some people get mad about us having credit, even having credit here. So, can you explain the importance of it?

SPEAKER_06 38:41

So, you know, in the United States, um we are built on consumer spending and credit. So having no credit right now is like having bad credit.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 38:56

Um, because you you need credit, of course, to buy a home, you need credit, of course, to buy a car, you need credit to rent an apartment, you need credit to even get car insurance. Um, so it's very important to teach and start building credit at a young age. Now, you can take your 14-year-old and add them on as an authorized user. Don't give them the card, but add them on as an authorized user at 14.

SPEAKER_02 39:32

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_06 39:33

Just so you can start, and they do it in other communities. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 39:37

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_06 39:38

The kids come out of college with 700 credit scores and don't even know it because the parents add them on two or three credit cards. Okay, so multiple. So it's very important. And I I heard someone say, I'm not, I don't need credit, I'm just gonna buy everything cash. Okay, eventually you're gonna need it. Yeah, that'll be good if you could go and buy everything cash, but we have this that's how the United States is built. We have this credit rating that they have attached everybody to. And I tell individual, you got 49 different versions of your credit score out there. It's 49 different versions.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

No, no, you don't stop it. Really? That is horrible. 49.

SPEAKER_06 40:29

So you ever heard? Well, I've heard people, well, I went to the lender and I saw on credit, comma, my credit score was 680. But when I went to the lender, it was actually five something, or I saw my credit score on my bank account and it said it was this. Well, you have a score for each industry and what you are applying for. If you are applying for a mortgage, there is mortgage scores. So you have three set of scores for the mortgage. If you're applying for a car, there are automobile scores, and they are different from your mortgage scores, they are different. Even insurance company, you get car insurance, they'll send you your score for your car insurance score. You have banking industry scores. So I always tell them, what is the goal at hand? What are you trying to do? Because we got to make sure that we're looking at the right score and we're working on the right scores. Because if you want to buy a house, we don't need to be looking at automobile scores.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

True, true, true.

SPEAKER_06 41:47

So there's several different versions. FICO has 10 different models. You have FICO one on up to 10, you have a vantage that has their own model, and it's very easy to get confused. And like, I'm like, credit comma is not wrong. Credit comma is just on a different model. Okay, it's an advantage model.

SPEAKER_01 42:12

They use three different scores to get a um a kind um, I guess a median level that you're looking at, and it lets you know, it lets you know she's so right. I didn't know that there was everything. FICO 8. I said, What's FICO 8? So that means there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Yes. So talk about um yes, your credit.

SPEAKER_06 42:35

Like does that damage your possibility of being a if you so the only time it hits your credit hard is when you are going and asking for credit. So that's what's called a hard hit. So you you went into a bank, you're applying for a loan, you're shopping to for a car, you're asking for credit. Now, if you request your own credit score, it's not a hit.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 43:09

That's good to know.

SPEAKER_06 43:11

So that wouldn't that wouldn't damage your credit. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

So they don't they don't penalize you for getting your own information.

SPEAKER_06 43:21

Right. Okay. But it is a hit if you was to go to Bank of America and request a loan, Navy Federal, and request a loan, Wales Fargo, and request a loan, that's a hard hit because you're going in there and you're asking for credit. Now, I will say this: as a consumer, you have the right to shop rate. So if let's say, for instance, you're shopping for a car and you go to three different places, that will and within 14 a 14-day window, that's just going to count as one hit because you have the right to shop rate.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_06 44:07

And same thing as a mortgage. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

So as long as you're doing it within a specific time span, and is it usually 14 days?

SPEAKER_06 44:17

It's usually 14 days within the 14-day window. Okay. Some may say now I heard they may give you 30 days. Um, but it I know for a fact it's 14 days because when I help individuals um apply for a mortgage, I'm like, okay, we're gonna apply at three different entities because we want to make sure. How do we know that Wells Fargo is giving us the best deal? We have nothing to compare it to.

SPEAKER_05 44:43

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_06 44:45

So we want to get three, and we want to make sure that we're looking at apples to apples and not apples to orange or bananas. And we want to make sure that we're getting a good rate. So having a good credit score saves you money when you want to borrow money. So I used to use, I used to use this slogan like, hey, I'm gonna teach you how to keep the money in your pocket. Because if you get that 700 and up, and now the credit score goes to like 850 and above now, um you got a paper, you just go sign your name, but it's gonna cost you less to borrow to borrow money if you have a high credit score.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Wow. That makes sense because you're more you're trusting. I trust you now to pay, you trust make your payments.

SPEAKER_05 45:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

So, what kind of advice would you give a millennial coming out of college if they didn't have it already set up?

SPEAKER_06 45:44

I Would tell them, you know, I really would like individuals to start building credit early. Um before they you know, so when you're getting out of college, I would say, you know, first get your credit report. And you really need to get with someone if and learn what's on your credit. You have to learn your credit profile. Um, because what may work for mom and dad may not work for you because everybody has their own unique credit profile. Two, I would I would advise them to get one of each because you want to have a healthy mix of credit. Some individuals they have bad credit because they lack a healthy mix. Well, what is that? That's revolving and installment accounts. You need to have a mixture of the two different accounts. So revolving is simply your credit cards. Your installments is like your um automobile loan, um, any low installment loan. And when I tell individuals you need an installment loan, they want to run quick to the world finances. No, that is the quickest. No, don't do it. That is the quickest way to tank your score. And they're wondering, well, I had to build credit, but I have five finance companies, and my scores, I'm paying them every month on time, but my score is still 500. They're not gonna award you for going to the finance company. The finance company is for subprime credit scores, and that means you know, individuals with poor credit goes to the finance company. So you can go to the finance company and your score may jump five, but if you get a credit card and you keep your credit card under 30% of the limit, you will see your score jump 40 points in the first month.

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Yeah, talk about and why is that?

SPEAKER_06 48:03

Yeah, why is that? Because installment loans is term loans. So I said, okay, you got this loan from me, your payment is $100 a month for the next 12 months. That's kind of easy, right? Yeah, you would would you think if I gave you a loan, you know I'm gonna pay you a hundred dollars each month. Now, with a revolving, it takes a little bit more discipline. So I'm gonna reward you a little bit more because revolving, I'm gonna give you a $500 credit card. But they don't tell you they only want you to spend 30% because I'm gonna reward you if you could keep that card under 30% of that 500, which is 150, that's where you're gonna start seeing your credit go up. Because, oh, this person has a 500, and so it takes a little bit more discipline. So I'm gonna reward you, I'm gonna give you more points for that. So I would say get two revolving accounts, that's the quickest way to build your credit, and make sure that you keep it under 30% of whatever that limit is. Easy math. If you got $200 credit card times 0.30, whatever that gives you, which is going to come out the 60, that means don't spend over $60, especially in the first year of you starting to use credit.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

And talk about paying. How um paying uh, I guess before it helps increase it.

SPEAKER_06 49:48

Yes, you want to pay. Some of them said the trick is to pay before the statement day would help. Um, but how you're gonna save on interest, so you use the credit card and you're trying to pay, make two payments instead of one. And what I mean by that, if the payment is a hundred dollars, I'm gonna make fifty dollars this week and a hundred dollars before the due date or on a due date, and I'm cutting that entry in half.

SPEAKER_00 50:16

Yeah, okay. You're paying you're cutting it, okay. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:23

Man, that is dope. Man, well, I will say this because I know I know we have to wrap up, but we're gonna have to have you back on.

SPEAKER_00 50:30

Yeah, this is a more questions.

SPEAKER_02 50:33

Some more questions.

SPEAKER_06 50:34

Um let me tell you, y'all really made me feel comfortable here.

SPEAKER_00 50:38

I'm chill not to be nervous. It's it's we're really chill.

SPEAKER_01 50:42

And then the next time we're in Charleston, we like to have you coming in person. Um, so we can do that at the studio down there. It just, I mean, because wealth of knowledge, and like you said, when you're raised and you don't have the information or the education directly, you gotta get it from somewhere and each one teach one, especially in our community. Come on, let's do it. So um, we definitely will have to have you back. Um, before we do get off, though, if you could please share with our audience where they can find you, where they can get in contact with you, and how they could utilize your services.

SPEAKER_06 51:12

Yes, so um they could um look me up on my website. My website is www.financial sc.us. Um, they could go on there and book an appointment. I am also on Facebook um under the financial transformation. So if they look at the financial transformation, they can find me there. I also want to mention for those that are in the Charleston area, um, I am having my third um cohort classes, the Fed Academy, which is an eight-week training starting from financial psychology and ending with financial plan, I mean, excuse me, career planning. Um, that's an eight-weeks course, and we will start on May 1st through the 22nd. The classes is just $25 a week.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

Wow. Wow. That's affordable.

SPEAKER_06 52:09

Yes, yes, that is through my nonprofit because I want individuals to get that. Plus, they will get two free sessions with me if they take all eight classes. Um, and I have I have some very special and and unique individuals coming to teach about um risk management when it comes to insurance, because I want to make sure everyone has adequate insurance. That's gonna be in the class, teaching them about credit, teaching them about account management, um, teaching them how to monetize off of the skills that they have, because sometimes you know we can only cut butt so much from our budget, right? So that means now it's time for us to grow from where we are. And leverage. How do we our skills bring in more money and leverage our skills to do that?

SPEAKER_03 53:05

Yeah. Awesome.

SPEAKER_06 53:07

So if you're ever in Charleston, if if your listeners are ever in Charleston, my office is located in the Opportunity Center. That's 8570 Rivers Avenue. Um, I am in Suite 100. Um, you can stop by and see me, and that's also where the classes will be.

SPEAKER_00 53:26

Awesome. Perfect, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 53:29

Well, we want to thank you so much for joining us today on the Hilltop Club Podcast. I'm DJing Wood.

SPEAKER_00 53:35

Tamaya.

SPEAKER_01 53:37

Mike, Skip. And our esteemed guest, Miss Tamara Rivers. We appreciate it. Oh, wait, we missed Edwards. Edwards. I was about to say, I know I was missing some.

SPEAKER_06 53:49

No, I got Rivers. It's Rivers, Edwards. That's fine.

SPEAKER_01 53:54

Okay, okay, okay. And uh we want to we want to thank you for joining us today. Um, it's been a very insightful conversation. There's just there's lots to pick from this. I know when we do the snippets and stuff from it's gonna be a lot of information that our audience will uh learn from and um be edified by, but we will have to have a part two of this conversation. So we will reach out to you to make sure we can do that in person, Charleston. Um, but like I always tell folks, make sure you tell somebody next to them that you love them, that you appreciate them, and you cherish them. And into the next episode. Peace.