The 700 Credit Score: The Real Key to Wealth Nobody Talks About

In this episode of Money and Wealth, John Hope Bryant breaks down why your credit score might matter more than you ever thought—and how raising it could literally change your life, your community, and even how long you live.

From his parents’ real-life story of hustle vs. paperwork to the eye-opening data behind 500- and 700-score neighborhoods, John shows how credit = credibility and how building trust with banks can unlock real wealth, not just fast money. He unpacks how half of Black America is locked out of the financial system, why that has to change, and what practical steps anyone—Black, white, Latino, Asian, rich or broke—can take today to get to a 700-plus score and start building wealth in their sleep.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome The Money in Wealth with John O'Bryant, a production
of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Yo, Yo, Yo,
this is John O'Brien and this is the Money in
Wealth podcast series on iHeartRadio and Black Effect Network. And

(00:24):
today we're tackling a really important topic that frankly, even
I might have taken for granted that everybody just sort
of knew and had figured out and understood. And but
then I apologize. Let's deal with seven hundred credit scores.
That's right, the seven hundred credit score phenomena. I keep
talking about. I keep talking about that if your day

(00:46):
is not about God or love, your day is about money.
That the new color is not black or white, or
red or blue as in race or politics, that the
new color is green, as in US currency. I have
talked about my mother, Wineda Smith, and how powerful credit

(01:10):
scores have been or were, to her life. She since
passed away, gone to glory, been promoted. How she had
a credit score of eight to fifty four back when
the credit scores went that high. I think the cap
out of eight fifty now really set her life free
to do as she liked. I talked about how my
dad had more hustle than my mother. My dad was

(01:31):
a natural hustler. He had built with my mother a
little monument up from nothing wealth into south central LA.
We owned our own home, which I now believe was
approved my mother's credit. By the way, we built an
eight unit apartment building. Same thing my dad's hustle economics,

(01:54):
my mother's credit. My dad's credit was so bad he
used to call it credit. He said his credit was bad,
as Johnny will Smith, great grade Man also says passed
on to glory. We had a gas station at Normandy
No Western End, Vernon Southeast Corner. If I'm not mistaken,

(02:17):
we owned our own home, semen contracting business, a nursery business.
I mean we were bawling. Then How is it that
my mother, working an hourly job after that McDonald douglas
Aircraft for thirty two years ended up being a millionaire
and which I was the executive of a state. So
I know that's true. And how is it my father

(02:40):
ended up broke and I ended up taking care of
him the last ten years of his life. He'd lost
everything essentially based on credit. How is that possible if
my dad was a better hustler, because the difference between
a hustler and a businessman or a business woman. It's paperwork,

(03:05):
not just paperwork with the county, the city, the state,
the federal government structured paperwork, but paperwork in your head,
paperwork in the sense of it's a business, not busyness.
It's about doing the details behind the sales. A large
part of those details deal with well the word. The

(03:27):
Latin word word for credit is credito, which means credibility.
So your credit has to do with your credibility. You're
just showing credibility in the marketplace of finance in this
particular example. By the way, capitis capital comes from the
Latin root word copy tass, which broadly defined means knowledge

(03:49):
in the head. And banking is a trust business. It's
about trust. So none of these things directly have anything
to do with money. But what do we talk about
in our communities. In my community, get that bag, get
that dollar, get that cash, get that money, get that dollar.

(04:09):
As I said, it's about money, it's about that green,
it's about that thing. It's about looking for love and
all the wrong places. Because all currency is all money
is a exchange of value, no different than a check.
I could write a check on a T shirt with
the writing number and the bank account number, because it's

(04:29):
really just transferring value. But if your outfloaks has your inflow,
then your overhead it will be your downfall. And so if
you're making a lot of money and you're spending a
lot of money, and you start making a lot of money,
how do you not go broke? That's why seventy percent
of those in the NFL, as an example, have foul
bankruptcy NFL, I think in NFL and I think probably

(04:52):
speaking NBA same it's over sixty percent bankruptcy within five years.
So credit allows you to access capitol knowledge in the head.
Capital is codified in the financial sector, access financial capital
knowledge about accessing this capital using your credit creditability to

(05:15):
get prime rate financing from banks because they trust you
so that you can build wealth in your sleep. You
make money during the day. Thank you Tony Wrestler again
for this great quote. You make money during the day,
you build wealth in your sleep. If you don't get
that memo, then you're just hustling your whole life. And

(05:36):
at some point when your outflows at your inflows in
your overhead will be your downfall. If you make a
dollar spend a dollar fifty. The more money you make
the broker you get. But you don't realize it because
you're not managing the paperwork. You're not looking at financial statements,
income statements, cash row statements, balance sheets, credit reports. You're
not noticing that you're not paying your bills and that

(05:58):
as result of that, you're paying the highest rate for
credit in the country, and you have the lowest access
to credit in the country. And that cost of capital
eats into your profit, which means you may actually be
making a lot of sales but not making a lot
of profit, if or if any and if you have
a profit margin of five percent or ten percent or

(06:20):
fifteen percent on your product, but you're paying twifteen or
twenty percent for the cost of capital. Simple math is,
you're actually losing money if you're fully leveraged in that business,
or even mostly leveraged in that business. Let's come back,
bring us back to home. Half of black folks, now,
this is my podcast is for everybody. Right, if you're Latino,

(06:44):
this applies to you. If your white middle class, this
applies to you. If you're white rural poor, it applies
to you. If you're Indian Indian Reservation. This applies to you.
If you're black in Africa. It applies to you if
you're if you're Asian, this applies to you. Certainly. Woman
trying to come up, This applies to you, certainly. If
you're African American. You should be paying attention to what

(07:05):
I'm saying because I'm African American and I've made it
up from nothing, and here's here. Unfortunately, African Americans lead
the bottom statistics of the worst areas in finance, which
means that if we've been doing so much with so
little for so long, we can almost do anything with nothing.
That means that if we improve on any of these indexes,

(07:27):
my god, the economy and just explodes positively, and we
don't have any choice but to do better. Half of
all black people, not half of poor people, half of
all black people in America, the richest economy on the planet,
Black people who've inspired people of color and black people

(07:48):
more than a billion Black people all around the world,
who inspire them with culture, community creativity. If we say
it's cool, it's cool anywhere in the world. As I've
said before, that same group who didn't know would never
get a lesson on capitalism and commerce and money. Half
of all black people have a credit score below six
to twenty. Let that sink in from it. I didn't

(08:11):
say poor people. Half of all black people have a
credit score below six twenty. That think that. Now, I
want you to think about this. That means in my
credit score, and my wife's credit score, and my you know,
I don't know my cousin's credit score, my brother killer
Mike's credit score. Our credit scores are let's say, in
above seven hundred, seven fifty, right, But then our cousin,

(08:33):
our nephews, our nieces, people that we love but didn't
go to the financial literacy coaching classes, their credit score
maybe five hundred. So the top credit scores get pulled
down on average from the bottoms. That means the average

(08:54):
is six to twenty, which means it's really worse than
what I'm saying. But let's just take this as an example.
Half of all American so twenty million of forty million
on average, have a credit score below six twenty. That
means when we wake up in the morning, even though
we're talking about police brutality and racism and discrimination and
what's going on in Washington, d C. And all these
things that are occupying our mind space in many cases rightly.

(09:16):
So that also means that that half of us wake
up in the morning locked out of the free enterprise
system completely. And if your day's not about God or love,
as I said earlier, days about money, you go to
the club tonight after you listening to this podcast and
do your work and you meet this fine woman. Oh man,

(09:38):
she's fine. It's this handsome dude. Oh girl said, Oh
she's so handsome. What's your name? I don't know what's
your name? Okay, cool, what do you What's what's up?
The next question, what's your credit score? And I'm only
partly kidding, right, because when the when, the when, the
when the looks drop, when the looks fight or fade
away and the body drops, that's your business part for life.

(10:02):
Marriage ultimately came out of business and transitioned into spirituality.
And really, in many cases, simplistically, many people just think
it's about oh my gosh, she's fine, she's sexy, and
it's gonna let it's a temporary decision to make last
you a lifetime. You can't afford to get this one
wrong because in a relationship two plus two, she equals

(10:23):
six eight or ten, not four, not two plus two
equals four, six eight or ten. If you're not better together,
what are you doing? Friendships, partnerships, marriages, all kind of
relationships back to credit, So there's not so some people
somebody said, Okay, John, you've now mentioned that half of
black people have crits grbolo six twenty. What does that mean?

(10:44):
That means you can't get a decent car loan at
six twenty. I mean you can go to an audio dealership,
an auto dealer lot lot in a secondary a used
car auto dealership in an underserved community where I grew up,
and go get try and get get that previously own Mercedes.
But you're not buying that. If your credit is five
eighty five fifty six y ten, six twenty, you're not

(11:07):
getting the Mercedes. You're getting a Mercedes payments. It's a
mobile bomb. It's going to explode on you as you're
driving down the road. And that car dealership makes their
money three ways, and make the money on car sales
to a lesser degree, on finance department and warranties to
a greater degree, and they really make their money on maintenance.

(11:27):
So they hope that the car either breaks down or
you break down. Either the car breaks down you got
to bring it back for maintenance, or you break down
and you got to bring it back because it's a
repossession and they get to resell it to somebody else
in Chiching all over again. You can't get a home loan,
not a prime rate loan at below seven hundred credit

(11:49):
score at six's eighty six fifty, right, you can't get
And by the way, you should never ask what the
payment is when there's an interest rate attach. Black folks,
brown folks, we tend white folks. We tend to be paymentized.
We tend to be paymentized. What's the payment? You never
ask what the payment is when there's an interest rate attached,
and certainly if it's five zeros attached or more, you

(12:12):
never ask what the payment is. When there's an interest
rate attached. You ask what's that interest rate? Because at
five or six zeros is going to eat you alive
over time. During the mortgage crisis, folks didn't pay attention.
Some people signed up to adjustable rate mortgages, which means
that the payments went up and down depending on where
interest rates went and interest rates fluctuated and never never

(12:33):
to your advantage. By the way, it always went up
or worse. You got a negative amortization mortgage, which means
that every payment you made on that mortgage, you owe
more the next payment than you did the last because
it's negative amortization, which means versus positive amortization, which means
the payment's going down a little bit with every mortgage
payment negative amortization. To see, this is why financial literacy

(12:55):
is a civil rights issue this generation. When you know better,
you do better. It's why making smart sexy is real,
because you've got to know what amortization means negative and
positive in this example, Otherwise somebody's going to rob you
in broad daylight and separate you from your wallet. A
negative amortization mortgage over time just grows in balance. How
do you ever get out of it? A lot of

(13:15):
people signed up to them in two thousand and eight,
two thousand and nine economic crisis and just worad mortgage.
You want to fix rate mortgage at prime rates. You
can't get that unless with good credit. Go back to
half of black folks have a credit score below six twenty. Again,
you have a great business idea, you can't get business

(13:36):
loan below seven hundred, it's risky credit. It's the riskiest
form of bank credit. So you think the bank has
financial has discriminated against you. Maybe they did. I think
it's more likely because I know modern day banks. Most
of them are publicly traded or hot and or highly regulated.
And I met these people who run most of these banks,

(13:59):
and they're on backlece, really good people, and they want
to make a good loan because if they don't make
a good loan, they cannot make a good profit. So
they want you to be well qualified and to pay
the loan back. They don't want the property. They can't
do anything with the property that They're not a repo company.
They're a bank. They make money on the spread between

(14:19):
what they're paying depositors for interest on their savings and
what they're and the efficiency of running the management of
an administration of the bank and the interest rate they
charge you on the cost of money. The difference, the
delta they call it. The difference is profit right, and

(14:40):
if you have great credit, you negotiate the best rates.
They get the slim as profit, but they also don't
have to chase you for their money, so it's like
clipping a coupon. It's just rinse and repeat. The bank
loves people with good credit because it's guaranteed income. Ever, again,
everybody wins. I've often said a good negotiation is where

(15:00):
everybody walks away from the table slightly annoyed because nobody
got everything they wanted. The bank didn't get the most
profit and the barer didn't get the lowest rate, but
they both got enough to be satisfied. I just negotiated
the sale of one of my collector cars, and I
wanted a price of X. The buyer was able to

(15:23):
show a legitimate thing that needed to be fixed because
it's a previously owned vehicle, and I wasn't thrilled about that.
But the bar I had prime The buyer had prime
credit pre approved from their bank. They were a doctor,
and so that incentivized me to go ahead and take
the discount on the sale of the car. Because I

(15:46):
had a great buyer. What I knew is gonna be
no drama. He's already preapproved. The deal's going to close
very quickly. I have a time value of my money.
I don't want to we can messing around with selling
this car, reselling the car, negotiating with five, eight, ten
different and buyers or even three or two buyers. Here's
one buyer I absolutely know can buy the car. He's
agreed to the purchase price, but he wants a discount

(16:07):
based on a negotiable item that I found legitimate, and
I said yes because he was a prime credit buyer.
When you are a prime credit buyer, you walk in
the room ready to drop the mic. So half of
us have a credit scorer below six twenty, which means
no matter. Again, the people who provide credit want to

(16:29):
provide it to you. I'm not talking about hard money
lenders and these shylocks and all these folks trying to
separate you from your wallet. I'll get to that in
a second, because I've got some, unfortunately some recent examples
of that in my extended world, folks who come to
me trying to get help at the last minute. But
I'm just telling you that these banks, corporations for credit providers,

(16:51):
they love folks with excellent credit for the reasons I've
already mentioned, and I want you to be one of them.
And the great thing about getting your credits grew up
is it's in your control. Like I can't control racism, discrimination, sexism, bias,
whether somebody likes you or not. But what I can
can say is if you go to that computer at
midnight tonight and your credit is above seven hundred and

(17:13):
you're trying to get a loan or a line of
credit below let's say one hundred thousand dollars, and you've
got a job right and you can afford it, the
chances of the bank telling you yes is extremely high.
I know because I've done it. The computer that doesn't
done it what color you are, doesn't know what race
you go are, doesn't know what gender you are. At midnight,

(17:34):
you're hitting that button that application at midnight. The computer,
the analytics, the robotics, and increasingly the AI just goes
through a process, and if you meet the process, the
answers yes in that liberating that means it's a whole
new world. I've actually said this boldly. If you want
to stabilize America, just raise credit scores one hundred points.

(17:58):
I know that sounds crazy. Ever, mayor listening to this.
If you if you're you're mayor and your city, you're
a city council person, your governor is not listening to this,
send it to them, ask them to listen to it.
We had all this trauma and drama and divisionist country,
Republicans and Democrats, and rural and urban and all this
rich and poor. Look, just raise credit score is one

(18:20):
hundred points in your neighborhood, and the entire reality changes.
And I'm going to go through the data in a
minute to prove what I'm saying. So tell your mayor
to start this video at minute eighteen. And as I
unpacked this story, let me tell you real quickly what
happens quickly, what happens when you have horrible credit or

(18:41):
you're financially illiterate. Sorry, so a friend of mine. I
can't get that much detail, otherwise you might figure who
out figure out who this is. And I don't want
to embarrass them. It's not because it's not helpful to them.
But they own prime real estate in an inner city neighborhood.
They had a really successful have a really successful business.
They own the real estate. Now they own one piece

(19:01):
of real estate. They're trying to buy two other pieces
of real estate on the same street this area. I
guarantee you the price is going to do nothing but
go up. In fact, if I had a chance to
buy this property in question. I would have bought it
and just set on it. He went to a hard
money lender, meaning a non prime lender. It is what

(19:22):
it sounds like, hard money, heart expensive. I don't know why.
I don't know why he why. Actually he was having
a problem with with a bank because he didn't. Again,
the difference a great hustler and a bad business person,
or you know, is bad paperwork or or just doing
a hustler and a business person is paperwork. And he didn't.

(19:43):
He had made the payments, so I hear, but he
didn't comply with what's called loan covenants, and the bank
foreclosed on him, supposedly. I don't know the details, but
that's what I was told. Well, covenants in a bank
loan agreement are important as part of the agreement. Again, credibility,
it's financial literacy. Anyway, the bank bops him out of

(20:07):
the bank. He has to now go. He's in foreclosure.
He's trying to put he doesn't want to file bankruptcy.
I don't want to file bankruptcy. He's not trying to.
He goes and finds a hard money lender who tells
him what he wants to hear, gives him a horrible rate.
My dad did this. By the way, my dad would
respect that an underserved neighborhood as as an overly important equation.

(20:30):
My dad did not feel seen. My dad did not
feel respected by mainstream America. So when the mortgage broker
would come down our neighborhood, if you were offering him
two percent interest rate, but you were rude to him,
he would he would kick you out, he wouldn't talk
to you. But if you were offering an eight or
ten or twelve percent interest rate. But you are, mister Smith,
and how are you today? And how's your family? And
oh I brought you a pie, brought you a cake,

(20:51):
and oh I'm so you know, so your pretty house
is so pretty, and oh you dress so well. Oh
there's some nice shoes you have on. Trying to to
really just talk my dad. So we talked my dad
into a horrible deal, which he did, and my dad sign.
Dad signed as what was a payment on that loan,
not what was the interest rate, signed it and the
whole thing imploded and we lost everything. As I mentioned earlier.

(21:26):
So let's get into this because I've said something pretty bold.
Race credit score is one hundred points in your neighborhood,
in your family, and you'll see everything change. So your
credit score isn't just about borrowing money. It's a single
most important number in your financial life and in your
community and in your community's life too. Frankly, I would

(21:48):
argue that seven hundred credit score is at least as
important as a four year education. I know that is,
And I want you to get a four year education,
by the way, or a higher education. I want you
to get this credit score because and somebody's gonna then say,
let me just get this out of the way. Isn't
credit bad? No? No, no, bad credits bad? Right? Bad
debt is bad. There's good debt and it's bad debt.

(22:10):
I cover that in another podcast. Go back and listen
to that one. Good debt is tied to something that
tied to an asset that it may appreciate. Bad debts
tied to an asset that or something that will properly
depreciate go down in value. You want assets that appreciate that,
not that depreciate. Can I get an amen? So you
have good debt and bad debt. Right, So there's not

(22:30):
a successful city. It's not as successful. Think about Los Angeles,
New York, Atlanta, right as examples, Seattle or whatever. There's
not a Minneapolis is not a successful state. It's not
a successful government, including ours. It's not a successful.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
A millionaire, multimillionaire cent a millionaire, one hundred millionaire, billionaire,
multi billionaire, successful corporation, fortueen five hundred company that didn't
do it on the back of good debt.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
Please hear me. That's a drop the mic. There's no
successful entity, person, individual, or initiative that didn't do it
on the back of good debt or back of money
and hopefully good debt. I guess you got a got
lucky with bad debt and just hustled enough of god
lucky and then you stumbled into good debt at some point.
But at some point you've got to get the good

(23:19):
debt otherwise the initiative whatever you've writing on has to explode.
And debt is allows you to sort of responsibly leverage
the returns of an investment of getting off into something else.
I may say focused on this credit thing, so credit
scores for communities seven hundred credit scores in particular, I
want to think, by the way, experience for giving us
the data alongs to you as Census and others to

(23:41):
build this Hope Financial Wellness Index. You can go to
your computer right now, type in operation Hope, go on
our website, or just type in Hope Financial Wellness Index
and Hope Credit Score Index or Hope seven undred Credit
Score Index and you can all this will all pull
up the Hope Financial Wellness Index. Type in your zip code,
I'll tell you how you're living. You type in your
zip code and that database, I'll tell you what your
credit score is in your neighborhood. And I'll tell you

(24:02):
how you're living. And as I said before, you hang
around nine bro people, you're going to be the tenth.
So what does the fire under credit score neighborhood look
look like? It's a check casher next to a petty
loan lender, next to a rental owned store, next to
a title lender, next to a liquor store, next to
a pawn shop. Can I get an amen? And a

(24:22):
church down the street trying to make you feel a
little bit better once a week so you don't go
crazy and go postal on Monday. Right, I'm joking, but
I'm serious, Like your church is your neighborhood therapist.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
And.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
We think this is normal. This is not normal. This
is what this is target marketing in a fire under
credit score neighborhood. And just to prove this is not
about race or class or any other stuff, right, and
how this is a great equalizer and the great empowerment
tool if you get it right. Is that same example
of this game you check cash or payday, loan, lender, rental,
own store, title, lender, liquor store, pawn shop. That's also
the same thing you see in a white, real, poor neighborhood.

(24:58):
I was talking about black urban, black and brown urban
neighborhoods as the prime example here, and that's what we
go through in the data I'm about to show you.
But you see the same thing in a poor, white
real neighborhood. Can I get an a man? It's the
same thing around the mouth of a military base because
those military personnel cannot have bad credit and have a
security clearance? Am I going too fast? Like this is

(25:19):
a really powerful episode and I really want you to
get it. So if you got to hit backwards, hit
reverse on this, or play it again and play it
two or three times, then you should do it. So
what is credit really? Right? Credit equals trust plus your
payment history. What a credit score range is three hundred

(25:40):
to eight fifty. My credit score is high seven hundreds,
low eight hundreds. My wife's over eight hundred because she's
got low less drama going on financially than I do.
I've got a lot of stuff that I'm literally financing,
and so it looks like I got a crack at
addiction or something with my dang on AMEX black card
because I've put operation to ope in other things on
my black cards that don't have an expense account have

(26:01):
an expensive report, which means that I just get reimbursed
for proper expenses for my different entities, but I initially
charge all that on my black cart, so I carry
a very large balance as a result of that. The
credit bureaus rightly so, which which pay it put a
higher weight, higher measurement on credit scores on consumer debt,
They rightly so say, well, this guy, even though he
makes a lot of money, he's got a high net worth,

(26:22):
he's you know, I don't like his consumer debt level,
so I'm gonna I'm gonna ing his credit score a
little bit. And by the way, you have different credit
scores or different things, you have a different credit score
for consumer credit credit cards than for auto loans, then
for mortgage loans, then for small business loans. These are
different formulas for credits. Course, I'm giving you the consumer credit,
the basic one right right now again, watch this over,

(26:45):
listen to this over and over again for the parts
that you missed. Here's some myths. So, so why is
seven a credit score a great number? Because it gives
you prime credit access right, lower interest rates and wealth
building opportunities. What is a myth? Credit isn't about being rich,
It's about being responsible. That is a myth buster buster

(27:09):
because it is exactly that. It is not about being rich,
it's about being responsible. But people think that credit somehow
is tied to being rich, and we bought wrongly thought
that in the being taught in our churches and my
neighbor as I grew up in that money was evil. No,
money and debt are not evil. The love of money
is evil, and bad debt should be evil. Bad capitalism

(27:30):
is like slavery, I mean literally, slavery is bad capitalism,
drug dealing, all that stuff, So that should be avoided.
So it's a good stuff you want, and that has
to do with your intentionality your knowledge and your moves.
Your zim code predicts more about your your financial health
than your genetic code. Where zim code you grew up in,

(27:53):
born in, or lived in will have an enormous impact
in your life. Again, I'm gonna come back. Uh, I'm
gonna go through it. I'm gonna go to it right now. Like,
let me just let me limit explain exactly what I'm
talking about. Let me take the city of Saint Louis, Missouri.
You can pull these examples up from the Hope the

(28:14):
Financial Willness Index by the way online, so the Hope
Community Credit Index for Saint Louis, Missouri. And I'm I
was born in East Saint Louis, which is even worse.
The numbers are worse than East St. Louis and Saint Louis.
But in fact you may get some of that here. Uh.
The following data are from the neighborhoods of car Square
and Clayton, Saint Louis. These two neighborhoods are less than

(28:34):
nine minutes apart, nine miles apart. So as you as
I go through these these examples, if you see a
snippet of this online type in what if this is
your city right and say, man, if you're listening to
this and you're while you're jogging, whatever, if this, if
I've hit a nerve where you live, Okay, So Car
square C A R R, zip code sixty three one
oh six, average credit score six oh two, Clayton zip

(28:58):
code three six three one five credit score seven forty five.
I get this meeting the household income in Car twenty
one thousand and four to seventy five dollars in Clayton,
nine miles away one hundred and twenty thousand dollars basically
one hundred nineteen thousand, four hundred and forty six. Unemployment
rate eight point three percent in Car in Clayton, two

(29:21):
point four percent, Night and day home ownership rate eleven
point nine percent in Car eleven point nine percent in
Clayton not much not excellent, but it much better fifty
six point four percent. I wonder whether in Clayton, where
there's a lot of rental, multi family rentals and commercial
buildings versus single family homes. I mean look in that

(29:44):
to find that information out. By the way, the average
credit score for African average homeowners rate for African Americans
forty four percent. Average home owners rate in the country
for white Americans seventy five percent. Last time I checked
that delta. That difference of thirty percent is generational wealth
because the number one way you build wealth in America
is home ownership. Meeting the household didn't coome in car Again,

(30:07):
the six oh two area zip code six sixth oh
two credit score neighborhood is one hundred and eighty six thousand,
seven hundred. Not bad but the zip But the average
home value in Clayton seven thirty five thousand, five hundred. Now,
why are these so different? Back in the day redlining,
where'd that come from? Didn't come from banks, that's what
you were told. Banks discriminated against you. No, it came

(30:30):
from the federal government. The FAHA, Federal Housing Authority in
the nineteen were the first part of the twentieth century,
discriminated against black and brown neighborhoods. And it was really
sad because these these folks literally couldn't live anyplace else,
and they came up from the South and they were
forced in these areas. And firstus given the folks opportunity

(30:51):
to gave him grief, and then the federal FHA wouldn't
guarantee a mortgage in that neighborhood because they said it
was crime written and dangerous. Well, what do you expect
when you put a bunch of poor people with no
opportunity and no education and they just came from slavery
and Jim Crow Hello. Anyway, they didn't. They refused to
finance the more and in what's the government's job if

(31:12):
not to offset unintentional society or risk like this for
people who did nothing wrong. But anyway, they refused the
finance a mortgage insure mortgage in that port so called
poor neighborhood, Black and bron neighborhood. But where they insure
it in the suburbs where whites had moved. That meant
that banks again common sense, Where are you going to

(31:33):
put your mortgage at a risky area with no mortgage
insurance from the government where you're guarantee get your money back,
or from a suburban neighborhood where you're guaranteed to get
your money back either through the borrower and the in fact,
they got great credit typically or better credit ratings, but
more so the government is this is said, I'll guarantee
your loan. Of course you're going to go to the suburbs.
So that meant there was more transactions, There was more

(31:57):
capital flows, more fluidity of money flowing in that area,
more economic activity going that area, higher incomes in that area,
more services in that area, and the values popped up
in those areas. People, more people buying and selling in
that area. With the reasons I just mentioned. You can
get a mortgage, you can get mortgage insurance. And where
did economic stall poor struggling black and brown neighborhoods that

(32:23):
were red lined and there were green lined in the
other areas which depressed values. Okay, say, focused again on
this credit thing. But as you see, as you can tell,
I can go in so many different directions at one
time on one podcast, but I got fifteen more minutes.
I want to cover a lot of ground here. Property
crimes the in car square sixty per one thousand, property

(32:48):
crimes sixty two point three compared to fourteen point zero
in Clayton. Violent crimes per thousand residents seventeen point one
sur fateen point seven versus point zero set or zero
point seven zero point seven basically non existing in Clayton
versus almost twenty percent violent crimes for on a thousand
and Car high school graduation rates. Actually, this is not bad.

(33:13):
Number eighty two point one percent in Car, ninety seven
point one percent in Clayton ninety seven percent basically means
it went to college. Just to be clear, life expectancy, again,
this is completely predictable. You're starting to see this as
a trend line. Seventy one years of age in Car,
eighty three years of point five years in Clayton. So
what I found is, and this is the part that

(33:34):
this is not an exact science, but I found this
to be true looking at the data, for every fifty
point gain in credit score above five hundred, you live
five more years. Isn't that crazy, right? So the average
five I found is that in a five hundredit corre
neighborhood you lived to about sixty one years of age.

(33:55):
In a seven hundred credit cord neighborhood you lived eighty
one years of age, about five year extension of life
for every fifty point increase in your credit score. It's
not about the credit score, by the way, It's about
the trending indicator of hope, well being, believed, faith, confidence,
joy like you know your uplift like whether you believe
you can or whether you believe you can't. You're right.

(34:16):
I can't guarantee you that being positive is going to
make you successful, but I absolutely guarantee you that being
negative is going to make you fail. A disease is
often disease. Right again, my wife Shaser talks about wellness
and health wealth, right, these things go together. Right, let's
talk about Atlanta'm gonna go through this data really quick
so you can see a different cities. Again, it's from

(34:37):
all from the same index, whole financial wellness index, which
I expect you to go to your website and type
in your zip code yourself Forest Park three oh two
ninety seven six twenty nine credit score is not that bad. Actually,
Virginia Highlands three oh three oh six, which has gotten gentrified.
And by the way, gentrification has nothing to do with race.
Gentrification is literally defined as a movement to a middle

(34:59):
class values. So it could be black middle class values,
Latino women white, you know, doesn't really matter, right, It's
just that tends. What tends to happen is that folks
are looking for a value who are Caucasian, young and
well educated. Not racist. See black and brown neighborhoods as
cool and hip and it's the music they listen to
and the food they like, and prices are right cheap,

(35:22):
so they come and buy there, and then they start
bidding up the prices. In the way in which are
described about the suburbs earlier, are we solving a lot
of problems? In one podcast? By the way, I just
debscribed to gentrification, redlining. Okay, you deal with you deal
with my you know, my friend Melody Hobson would say,
you deal with Mathew, you get well. Well, I say,

(35:42):
if you deal with if you deal with the math
and the economics, you get racism for free. Right, you
just zero that stuff out. Do the economics. You get
racism for free. You saw poverty, You saw poverty for free.
But she would say that she likes math because it
doesn't have an opinion, which is what I'm saying here,
Forest Park, uh Median house or income forty five thousand.
I'm gonna start generalizing these numbers so I get through this.

(36:04):
Virginia Highlands one hundred and thirty three thousand, again, this
is these are fifteen miles apart, so less than a
twenty minute drive, fifteen thirty thirty minute maximum drive. These
are these are you know, city you know, urban city miles, right,
not highway miles. Unemployment rate six point seven percent uh
in Forest Park versus four point five. It's actually not bad. Again,

(36:27):
these numbers aren't horrible. I'm gonna tell you horrible in
a minute. Home ownership brek thirty five point five versus
basically sixty percent. Median house home value one hundred and
twenty one thousand versus basically eight hundred thousand. Bioling crimes
per thousand, nine point five versus two point zero. High
school graduation rates seventy six point four versus ninety seven

(36:49):
point one. What did I say? Ninety seven mint? Basically
you went to college? Again, look at these these jumps
based on whether credit score starts at six twenty nine
call at six thirty. You start to see the life
expectancy rise up right, and fding crimes are less, and
you know, all the disparities are less. Still bad. Life
expectancy seventy two point seventy two years versus eighty two years. Okay,

(37:11):
let's give you some really, I'll give you a really
stark example here. Let me see, let's talk about uh,
let's see what Baltimore has to say. So uh, Belair Edison,

(37:31):
which is two one two one three. Baltimore, Maryland Rowland
Park is two one two one Oh. I can't expect
to say, man, when I tell you talk about your area.
These areas are less than six miles apart, uh meeting
household income fifty thousand dollars versus one hundred and eight
thousand dollars, so double unemployment rates six point three versus
four four point seven. Home ownership rate not that bad

(37:55):
of a difference, fifty three percent versus sixty one percent.
Values though one hundred and thirty four thousand versus fire
murdering twenty thousand, filing crimes, perenty twelve point four versus
three point seven. See the consistency here. Graduation rates eighty
three percent versus ninety seven point nine percent. Again at
ninety seven percent is consistent those high credit score areas,

(38:16):
aren't They basically one hundred percent highly educated, went to college.
And I bet two parent households by the way versus
single parent households in the hood d a hyphen hood.
Seventy percent of black households run by women. That's not
a mistake, It's not an accident. That's it's basically, you know,
a community and that's just trying to survive. That includes

(38:36):
my mother, by the way, life expectancy again, sixty six
point four years versus eighty four point three years. Okay.
And in Chicago you have them doing this one by
by memory. Chicago, you had Lincoln Park and then you
had oh, it's blanking on the other community's name, but

(39:00):
it was a low income area. Garfield Park. I think
I think it's Garfield Yeah, Garfield Park in Lincoln Park,
fifteen minutes apart. You'll tell me in the comments. I'm
sure you guys don't let me get away with anything.
I'm doing this from memory. And you know, Lincoln Park
was seven fifty seven seventy credit score or something, and
Garfield Park was tore u from the flow up. Everythink

(39:20):
it was like high five hundred. You lived at sixty
one years of age in Garfield Park, you lived to
eighty one eighty five years of age plus in Lincoln Park,
depending on the area and the numbers. Botent crime was
off the chain. Like it was just a complete dichotomy. Right,
let's look at you know, Dallas is not going to
be that bad. I'll do Dallas because somebody listening wanted

(39:43):
to cover that. Cedar Crest seven five two oh three.
Highland Park seven five to two oh five is Dallas,
Texas six twenty seven versus seven forty five. It's credit
scores median house on income forty six versus one hundred
and eighty eight thousand, Unemployment rate seven and a half
versus four point six. Home ownership rate thirty seven percent
versus sixty percent meeting household income Wow. One hundred and

(40:07):
twenty five thousand versus one point five million. These communities
are what seven miles apart? Crazy violent crimes per top
per thy twelve point three versus two point seven percent.
Here we go again. High school graduation rates sixty six
point seven percent to ninety eight point six percent. Essentially,
you went to college, higher education, life expectancy seventy three

(40:29):
years versus eighty three plus years. You see, I like math.
It doesn't have an opinion like. I'm not cherry picking.
I'm not giving you specialized data. I'm telling you the wait.
It TI is Detroit, Michigan. Jefferson Chalmers. I'm sorry Detroiter's
if I missed that, I missed if I mangled that right,

(40:50):
Jefferson chalmers uh at forty eight two one five zip
code versus gross point for eight to two three oh,
these are neighbors are two two miles apart. Okay, household
income thirty three thousand versus one hundred and thirty one thousand,
credit score six twenty versus seven forty six, two miles apart.

(41:21):
I love this dramatic difference, two miles apart. Unemployment rate
twelve point nine versus three point one, home ownership rates
forty nine percent versus seventy seven point seven. That's black
versus I can guarantee you that's black neighbor versus a
white neighbor. I guarantee you. Somebody tell me in the
comments when you see this clips to this on social media.
I know you can't do that on the podcast itself,
but when you see clips of this on social media

(41:43):
or on YouTube, when we do release it there, we
release it about every episode about a week after it's
released on the podcast. So please comment where you can,
because I do want to get an amen or a correction.
Violent crimes per thousand, twenty seven point eight versus one
point eight right. High school graduation rates eighty four point
two percent versus ninety eight point one percent. Again, ninety

(42:05):
point one. You went to college. You can't make this up.
Coincidence is God's way remitting anonymous. So it's Andrew Young
quote life expectancy against six twenty credit score is seventy
four years of age versus seven forty six credit score
of eighty one years of age. Right, every fifty points
about about give or take five years of life expectancy.

(42:28):
I'm trying to find one of these cities that it
has like a really dramatic, dramatic, dramatic difference. A lot
of these cities I'm going through, they're just going to
repeat what I'm saying. Here's one that's worth it's Oakland,
California Uptown nine four sixty one two compared to rock

(42:52):
Ridge nine four six one eight. That's a six six
ninety eight credit score versus seven sixty five credit score.
You said, Okay, they're pretty close. And this is only
four miles apart. Right, this is pretty close. So let's
see if the data holds up. Seventy seven thousand dollars
income versus two hundred and five thousand household income. That's
everybody in the house, by the way, six point four

(43:14):
unemployment rate versus four point six not night and day right,
but different. Home ownership rate Wow, ten point two percent
versus sixty six percent. Hello, two miles apart. Median home
value eight hundred and fourteen thousand, not bad based compared
to one point eight million violent crimes per thousand. Look
at this twenty six point five percent versus four point

(43:38):
zero percent night and day two miles apart. High school
graduation rates eighty seven point three percent, So it's measuring
up as the credit score goes up. But where's the
seven sixty five credit scored neighborhood? Whe's it? High school
graduation rates ninety seven point nine percent. Can't make this
up exactly the same like the literally ninety six ninety seven,

(43:59):
ninety eight percent, every one of them essentially a college
two print households. Again, probably black people think it'll be
Wasagian people, it's everybody, it's green people. Life expectancy Hello,
eighty years versus eighty four point two years. So there
you go. It's just even though the gap on expectancy
gapped up, mostly some of the other stuff did not

(44:20):
gap because there's still a mindset shift change, right. See
like and by the way, these communities. Operation to Hope's
raising credit score is thirty four to fifty eight points,
lowering debt twenty five hundred to thirty eight hundred dollars,
increasing savings fifteen hundred dollars on average through our whole
financial coaches. So we're moving the needle in all these

(44:40):
neighborhoods that you can go see our whole financial coach
in the neighborhood where you live. You know, Washington, d C.
Foggy Bottom, two zero zero zero six. It's actually not
a good example. We should have been Anacostia Barnaby Woods
two zero zero one five seven to fifty five credit
score and again year life expectancy versus eighty five years

(45:02):
right uh, And you know violent vioting crimes per thousand
and five point zero versus point zero point zero point three.
Home ownership rate two fifty five thousand versus one point
two million. Right, home ownship rate eight point one percent
versus seventy seven percent. Unemployment rate twelve percent versus two
point six percent. And I'm sure it's even more dramatic.

(45:25):
And Anacostia we have Philadelphia again. Our here's this is
one decent one because I want to show you the
life expectancy six twenty six credit score and Brewery Town
one nine one two one versus Old City one nine
to one oh six right six twenty six credit score
versus seven forty three credit score. Median household income in

(45:47):
Brewery Town thirty six thousand, Old Old City one hundred
and twenty nine thousand, unemployment rate fourteen point six percent
versus three point one percent. Say when I talk about
when I talk with confidence about this stuff, now you
know why because this stuff just jumps off the page
to you like it. It's completely obvious. That's why I
love talking about this stuff because it's like a gold

(46:08):
This is like a this like a hidden a hidden
a hidden golden goose or something like. We can solve
our problems economically, and it will solve most of our
social problems, because most of our problems are at at
bottom economic. If you don't have capital, as in equity,
because through an inherent wealth, then access capital through credit,
good credit, and use it for smart stuff like buying

(46:29):
a home, starting a business, buying some stock. If you're
gonna I'm not saying use credit to buy stock, but
I've done it before, but not risky credit risky stock anyway, Uh,
I think you're starting to get why I'm so excited
about the Silver Rights movement. S I l v e R.
From civil rights to SILVI rights, from the streets to

(46:49):
the suites, and solving problems from the shoulders up. Because
this data is unimpeachable and it's completely race, political, emotional neutral.
Just if you do this, you'll win right again. Back
to Philadelphia. Home ownership rate thirty three percent in Brewerytown
Old City forty five point five percent, meeting household income
essentially double two fifty thousand to five hundred and twenty

(47:11):
eight thousand between Brewerytown and the Old City. Filing crimes
per thousand, and make this up nineteen point zero versus
three point nine. I didn't know this before I'm doing this.
You're hearing the data as I'm going through it. Because
I'm so confident in the data. I just told my team,
give me ten examples and don't brief me. In advance.
High school graduation rates eighty seven point three percent to

(47:32):
ninety five point six percent, life expectancy sixty nine point
four percent versus eighty two point nine percent twenty the
six twenty six credit score neighborhood and then seven and
fifty basically credit score neighborhood. Are you starting to get it? Like,
are you starting to understand? Like is your head starting
to nod about wow? Like this is deep right, and
I can do New Orleans. But I think you sort

(47:54):
of get the memo here. If you're not convinced with
the data with this, I mean, you're just not convincible.
So here's what I want you to think about now.
I want you to think about the success stories that

(48:14):
we have an operation to Hope went from being denied
a car loan to buying their first home. That's wealth
creation in real time. And we have countless sucess stories.
I'm gonna bring some of them on on one of
my coming episodes, so you literally hear and see folks,
folks who look like you and have stories like you,

(48:35):
so you don't write it off as well. John Bryant,
that's different for you. You know your life was different somehow,
even though my life was just like anybody struggling listening
to this. I want you to hear from our clients.
So we're going to bring those on incoming episodes and
unimpact their stories. So here's some practical things you can
do the road to seven hundred because that's the new cool.
Seven hundred credit score is a new cool. I go

(48:57):
through airports and TSA agents by the way, scream out
there credit score to me, isn't they cool? And I'm
going through security some practical roads right check your credit
score at least weekly. Know your number. I know mine,
I've got it on my phone and Operation Hope can
pull it for you. If you listening to this, you
go to Hope, go download the Hope and head hand app,

(49:17):
go to the Hope and Opertional website, or call our
one eight hundred number for Operation Hope. I think it's
one eight eight eight three and eight Hope. I think
that's the number one eight eight eight three eight eight Hope.
But check it on the operational website. Call sign up
for coaching and counseling. They'll give you a free scholarship
to start that's worth between five hundred and one thousand dollars.

(49:37):
They'll pull your credit, they'll do an initial assessment with
you and if you're serious you if you meet certain criteria,
then you might qualify for a coaching scholarship for it's
worth as much as five thousand dollars after that, But
that's up to the coaches and whether you meet the
criteria and this will change this stuff will change your life.

(49:58):
So we are basically for the private banker around you.
That's what we do at Operation. We're the private banker
for the underserved. We're economic plumbing for the whole dang
on country. From that, we're boosting the economic GDP from
the middle of economy. Damn well, the federal reserve of
the hood. We're economic plumbing. I'm the economic plumber for
the underserved neighborhoods. By the way, twenty five percent of

(50:19):
our coaches in our communities and our offices are in
rural neighborhoods, which is a lot of white poor poverty.
We're we're on Native American Indian reservations, thank you Wells
Fargo for that. And Bank of America we are in
again South. We're in rural areas, thank you, First Horizon Banking,
the Regions Bank, and so Nova's Bank. We're in. We're
in you know major of course, most of ours are

(50:42):
in major msas that you're probably in the areas we
are in Latino communities with twenty percent of our coaches
speak Latino to their clients. We're for everybody, right, this
is everybody's problem. In fact, shoot this we're getting a
lot of middle class folks calling us because they got
too much month at the end of their money. Also, right,

(51:05):
half of those making one hundred thousand dollar a year
a living from paycheck to patrick. By the way, okay,
so check your credit score on a regular basis. Pay
your bills on time. Payment history is you know, it
really matters, and it's thirty five percent of your score.
Keep balance is low relative to your total to your limits.
So if you have one thousand dollars credit card, you

(51:27):
don't want to spend more than three hundred dollars on
as it relates that on charges. If you have one
hundred thousand dollars credit card, you don't want to spend more
than thirty thousand. You have a ten thousand dollar credit card,
you want to spend more than three thousand, right now,
get it to five thousand, that's still fine, probably, but
you will see some degradation in your credit score. You
get it to eighty percent of your limit, you're gonna

(51:47):
start saying compression and your credit score for sure, meaning
it's going to lower so credit balance is low with
regard to credit utilization. And by the way, if you
if you need to get two three credit cards, that
spread it out. I'm not telling you to do it,
but I did it right, uh and just but you
got to manage it well, right, And at some whenever

(52:09):
I could, I consolidated those credit cards and got one
credit card. Let me see here, don't I use credit
credit unions also as well as banks to access credit
and credit card companies. I've got a MasterCard, I've got
a visa, I've got America Express, I've got you know,
So I'm an equal opportunity utilizer. Right, don't fear credit,

(52:34):
build responsibly ask for help again. Hoping Side coaches are
no cost to you because we scholarshiped you in through
Hope Scholarship. So you use this benefit that we've raised
tens of millions of dollars a year for just for you.
This isn't about the one percent, It's about the one

(52:55):
If we get to if we get to seven hundred
credit scores, all of them, America rises, it solves all
kinds of problems, right, including political problems. So credit is
just a number. It's a passport to opportunity. I'm going
to you know once again, tell you to download the
Hope in Hand app on your Android or Apple phone

(53:15):
and go get you or go to our website and
or call our number and get yourself a Hope financial coach.
Today where we have fifteen hundred offices physical and virtual
in forty two states. We're in half of all truest branches.
As an example, Wells Fargo has ordered one hundred locations.
I think that's right. Ba A has matched them, whatever
the number is, BAA has matched them. US Bank. I mean,

(53:37):
you name the bank Flax our bank just signed up,
Soova's bank. You name the bank as an eighty percent
chance that we have some BMO Harris, We've got some
relationship P and C Bank, we got d black owned
banks also, we have We've cost We've raised money. So
what doesn't cost a black owned institution to have a
Hope inside inside of their institution, which I'm very proud of.

(54:01):
So I want you to go find out your credit
score today and if it's not seven hundred, I want
you to make a plan to get it there. Because
if you when you rise, your community rises with you.
And the opposite is also true. And tell your friends
to subscribe to this podcast and check out the next episode.
Our episodes which will include, as I mentioned, testimonials of

(54:24):
civil rights to seal rights. Okay, so I was going
to let you go, and I'm going to let you go,
but I want to tell you about a couple of testimonials.
I'll do this real quick. So this is my financial coach,
Christine la Voulo. She's a whole financial wellness coach in

(54:49):
Hope inside Delta Airlines in Salt Lake City. We coach
all one hundred thousand Delta Airline employees. By the way,
love my partnership with Delta, which is, by the way,
the first airline to get to one hundred years, the
biggest most profitable airline in the world. So here's what
they have to say about her about their client. Their
client already had a great credit score of seven oh three. However,

(55:10):
he wanted to set himself up to be a best
position possible to reach his goal of home ownership. As
we worked together created budgets and spending plans, he saved
fifty three hundred dollars and paid down three hundred and
forty dollars in revolving debt. This progress boosted his credit
score to seven eighty six, which positioned him well to
apply for a loan, which we helped him with. By

(55:33):
the way, although he was well in his way, we
stayed in touch throughout the purchasing process so I could
ease his concerns and give him a greater understanding of
what was going on behind the scenes. Now that he
has reached his goal of on ownership, he has asked
to continue to work together so I can help I
meaning Christine, the coach for Operation to Hope. This is
from our website of Operation Hope and our testimonials, so

(55:55):
I can help him manage the additional expenses from becoming
a homeowner and make sure he stays on track with
his budget. Recently gave us this feedback. It was a
great experience working with Operation Hope and Christine becoming a homeowner.
She helped me bring my credit score up to substantially
and walk me through the process. She answered my questions
as they came up and put me in my mind

(56:17):
at ease. When I started getting stressed, the heck out,
the heck out, I put that part in. I'm so
glad I listened to her advice to keep going and
didn't give up on the process. I love my new home.
So this Delta employees is a homeowner because of Operation
Hope and their sponsor, Delta Airlines, which was their employer

(56:42):
in this example. Some of these stories are just really long,
so I don't want to take up valuable time describing
them here, but just go to the operation website and
check out these testimonials. If these folks look like you,
sound like you, have stories like you, and it makes
it hard really to say that it can't be you

(57:03):
and that somehow you can be locked out of the
system because their stories are not so different from yours.
So whether it was somebody with this person that was
seven her credit score you want to go to seven
eighty six, or somebody with five hundred want to go
to six twenty five, same same, same journey. Here's somebody

(57:26):
who I love this story because it's somebody that metthew
Bishop td Jakes. She heard this is Jamie ray Wright
heard me at Bishop td Jakes International Leadership Conference. She
had no idea that moment would become the catalyst of
transforming her vision into a multi million dollar reality that

(57:47):
would change countless lives she's a domestic violent survivor. Domestic
violent survivor. Again, I'm not going to get read the
details of her story, but she had a coach, which
was Pamela Sandford, a whole financial coach, and she became
a strategic really advisor in to move her from sort

(58:07):
of small thinking the big thinking. And she helped her
get some grant funding and changed her whole mindset. And
get this, she got a four point one million dollar
grant from the state of Oklahoma to build thirteen homes
for domestic violence survivors. Rainbows after Storms got an additional

(58:30):
tw hudred and fifty thousan dollar grant to provide financial literacy.
I love this home ownership coaching and other key supportive
services for survivors and their children. Rainbows after Storms and
became a sustainable model that addresses I don't just housing,
but the holistic needs of families rebuilding their lives. And
couldn't have done all that, she says without her coach,

(58:52):
Pamela at Operation Hope, and now she's helping others help themselves.
So look, you can do this right, Let's get busy
and let's get cracking and let me know the results
of your dreaming with your eyes wide open, John O'Brien,
This is Money and Wealth and the Black Effect Network
and iHeartRadio and this is the Silver Riots Movement. Money

(59:29):
and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.