Unlocking the Power of Credit: Building and Managing Credit for Financial Success

Episode Transcript
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(00:50):
Aloha. Welcome Inspired Money Maker. Thank you for tuning in. If this
is your first time with us, welcome. If you're returning, welcome
back to Inspired Money. I don't know about you, but
I never learned about credit in school. There was no class to teach
us about how to use it, build it, or leverage it to create
opportunities. Yet your credit score can determine whether you

(01:12):
get that apartment, qualify for a business loan, or
even land certain jobs. It's become the financial
gatekeeper we never signed up for. Here's a thing.
Most of us stumble into credit backwards. We get that first credit
card in college. You might miss a payment or two. Too many
students learn the hard way that a three digit number, that

(01:35):
credit score, can close doors that we didn't even know
existed. But what if we flip the script? What if
instead of credit controlling us, we could
master it? What if we understood not just the mechanics,
that's payment history, utilization, ratios, credit mix,
but the strategies that turn good credit into financial freedom.

(01:58):
Consider this... A seven year car loan
now makes up about 20% of all new vehicle financing.
If you've shopped for a new car lately, you know why?
There's sticker shock. I was shopping for a
new car last month and every car I looked at, I couldn't believe
where prices are compared to pre pandemic.

(02:21):
The average cost of a new car is $50,000.
So for many people, a seven year loan is the
only way that they can afford the monthly payment. But here's the catch.
That longer loan adds about $4,600
more in interest compared to a traditional five year
loan. So your credit score determines whether

(02:43):
you pay 3%, 4%, 5%
or up to 16% on that seven year loan.
And that difference can can be what
would be manageable or something that's crushing. So today on
Inspired Money, we're unlocking the power of credit with four
incredible experts who have helped thousands of people build

(03:05):
and manage credit strategically. From credit repair to
fintech innovation, from consumer rights to financial
journalism, they're here to share what actually works.
Whether you're starting from scratch, rebuilding after a setback,
or optimizing an already strong profile, this
episode will transform how you think about

(03:26):
credit. Because maintaining
good credit is not about just getting approved. It's about
unlocking opportunities you haven't even imagined yet.
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smarter financial decisions and help you track your portfolio.
Now let's bring in our expert panelists. Our first

(05:02):
guest is one of the most trusted voices in America when it comes to debt
and credit, Howard Dvorkin.
He's a nationally recognized expert, two time author and
chairman of debt.com. He's shaped consumer protection
laws, led national credit counseling groups and his
insights have been featured everywhere from the New York Times to

(05:24):
CNN and Fox News. If you've ever wondered how to escape
debt or master credit, Howard's the man to listen to.
Howard, welcome. Thank you very much Andy. Appreciate
being asked to be here along with
your astute other guests. It's going to be great.
We're also joined by Anthony Davenport, the founder and CEO

(05:47):
of Regal Credit Management. Anthony is the go to expert
for professional athletes, entertainers and high net worth
individuals who want to build, protect and repair their credit.
He's a best selling author of "Your Score,"
he's a certified FICO credit expert and he's been
featured in Forbes, USA Today and Oprah Magazine.

(06:09):
He knows the credit system inside and out and he's here to share what most
people will never learn on their own. Welcome Anthony.
Great to be here Andy. Our
third guest is a fintech innovator who's rewriting the rules of
credit building. Cullen
Canazares is the co founder and CEO of Rental

(06:31):
Karma, a platform that helps renters boost their credit simply
by reporting rent payments to major bureaus. A
Stanford Business School alum and serial entrepreneur, Cullen
has already helped more than 100,000 people improve their credit
scores and move closer toward home ownership.
His mission is financial inclusion and the results speak for

(06:53):
themselves. Cullen, so great to have you. Hi, Andy. Thanks and
hello to everybody else. And rounding out our panel today,
we're joined by Reyna Goble, an award winning journalist,
speaker, and author of seven books, I think. Is that right?
Seven? Yep. Including "Graduation Debt," a Washington
Post book of the month. Her work has been published

(07:15):
in the Atlantic, Scientific American, Money, Reuters,
and she's taught thousands of students and professionals about personal
finance. Reyna brings a unique perspective bridging
finance, education and wellness to help people live
better financially and beyond. Reyna, welcome.
Happy to be here. And one thing that I want to point out for

(07:38):
people that may be a little scared of these topics is I'm going to talk
about the really easy and minimal investment
ways to improve your credit without hurting the rest of
your lifestyle. Great. We hope to cover the full spectrum.
With this esteemed panel of experts. We're going to have a thoughtful and
informative conversation about credit and how we can learn to use

(08:00):
it to our advantage. So let's jump right in
and go to segment one. A credit score is determined by five key

factors (08:08):
payment history (35%), credit utilization (30%), length
of credit history (15%), new credit inquiries
(10%), and credit mix (10%). Payment
history is the most influential as lenders
assess reliability in repaying debt. Credit utilization measures
the percentage of available credit used with a recommended

(08:29):
rate below 30% to avoid negative impact. The length of
credit history reflects account age, favoring long standing accounts. New credit
inquiries, particularly hard inquiries from loan applications,
can temporarily lower scores, so spacing out applications
is advisable. A diverse credit mix of revolving credit and
installment loans demonstrates responsible credit management. Strategies for

(08:53):
improvement include making on time payments, keeping balances
low, maintaining old accounts, and applying for
credit only when necessary. Understanding these components
helps individuals build strong credit profiles for financial opportunities.

(09:16):
Howard, I want to start with you. How has the credit score formula
evolved over the past 20 years and what trends
concern you most today? Well, the
credit score formula, the FICO score, which is Fair
Isaac Company developed this
using math, frankly,

(09:38):
and they turned around and built this
algorithm that can score people because before
probably 25 years ago, maybe even longer,
it was done manually by a
loan manager. And basically it was
not a scientific thing. If you had a good credit history.

(10:01):
Oh, okay. I know John. He's. He's a good guy.
He'll pay us back. And, and what Fair Isaac came up
with was a formula to
take the personal thoughts out of it and
basically have it quantitatively analyzed.
And that has really improved

(10:23):
the chances of
lenders ability to get repaid. And then there's another
large credit
analysis group, Advantage Card or
score or Vantage Score, I'm sorry. And that was
designed by the credit bureaus. But

(10:45):
the reality is they just didn't want to pay Fair
Isaac or FICO as it's better known, any money. So
they use their score. But at the end of the day,
those that, that, that algorithm
has proven that it does work. But
the simple thing is if you take credit out,

(11:08):
pay it off. If you can't pay it off
immediately when the bill comes in, just make sure that you don't
take too much credit off, credit out, and try to keep
the utilization under
10% if you can. Meaning if you, if you have a credit card that
allows you a $20,000 balance, don't

(11:30):
carry more than $2,000 on
that. And that's between the payment industry and the
credit utilization score. That's
65% of your FICA score. And that's a
big number. So if you keep those two things healthy, the rest
is pretty easy. Anthony, I'm a fan of your book.

(11:51):
"Your Score." In it, you pull back the curtain
on the mystery of credit scoring. What's one insider secret
that consumers almost never realize about these five factors?
You know, piggybacking on Howard's point about the
FICO score and what it's comprised of, one overlooked part is

(12:12):
that 35% of your FICO score, the biggest chunk, comes
down to your payment history, whether you're paying your bills on time,
and 30% comes down to whether you know what your
balances are on those credit cards. So it's almost as much
of a percentage as whether you pay your bills on time as what kind of
balances you have on your credit cards or revolving credit card debt.

(12:35):
But now the most important aspect of that is really
the due date on those cards. Many people come to us and they say,
well, my scores are, they're kind of bouncing around all over the place for month
to month. Why is that? And that's because your credit card balances
only report every 30 to 45 days. So that
means even if you pay your balance off in full each month, if

(12:57):
it's a different date than when they report to the credit
bureaus, your credit score could bounce around wildly. So I
tell everyone that you should find out the reporting dates for each of your credit
cards and set up your auto payment to pay it off a few days in
advance before that date. That way your credit score is going to
stay optimal every month, in and out.

(13:20):
Cullen, how did you first identify rent reporting as an untapped
path to credit building? Ironically, I was living in
Hawaii we talked about earlier and I had moved there
and we had a thin credit profile
because there it's just a different economy. And we were renting and
I was like, well, how do I get my rent added to my credit report?

(13:41):
And I started googling it, and I couldn't find a solution, except
I found a story that says Experian's now going to add rent to credit reports.
And I'm like, oh great, I'm going to go sign up. Turns out that was
a bunch of baloney. They were only collecting data from a few of the big
large property management companies. So about a year later came
back to Colorado and pitched the idea at some startup events. And people are like,

(14:02):
I want my round of my credit report. And everybody kept compiling it. And
it took me about two years working with the first credit bureau to
convince them that this was a good idea. So we were basically the pioneers
of starting this industry.
Is that
something that renters need to opt into or does it happen automatically?

(14:24):
There's no automatic way because if you think about the rental market, 70%
of renters is like me, renting directly from you. And
you don't have a phone number for the bureaus, nor do they have a system
for you to call and say, call and pay this rent. Lectures come
to us. Sign up, you go and verify that information with
the landlord and then report that information on

(14:46):
their behalf to the credit card. That's really cool because
it seems. It sounds obvious on the surface,
right? It does, yeah. Your rent is going to be one of your
biggest things that you're paying for in a regular
schedule. Exactly. Yeah. And what's really beautiful about it is that we get
to go back in time and report back to when somebody moved in.

(15:08):
So your gentleman, Anthony was about payment history. So
we got somebody has a 10 year old rental, they've been there for 10 years.
We just had 120 green check marks to the credit report in
two days. That is amazing. So everybody
check out, check out Rental Kharma.
Reyna, as a journalist, you've covered both personal finance and

(15:31):
consumer behavior. Why do you think so many people know their
GPA from school but never really learn about the
credit score formula? You know, covering both health and
wellness and also being an expert in both. A lot of people
don't know the nutrients they're eating either. And so
one interesting part about what Anthony was saying

(15:53):
with credit score is what happens. From my
experience coming credit cards and award miles and all these
different things that you earn is people use their cards to earn
these rewards and then their credit score will drop because they maxed
out their card or came closed buying airline tickets, hotels,
all these things. So learning the data reporting is

(16:16):
really important and it doesn't matter how much rewards you get
if you're messing up your credit score to do it. But as long as you
pay before it's reported those few days before, I think
it's really important. And then the other part that it comes down to when it
comes to consumer behavior is just fear
and feeling like you don't have a lot of control over

(16:37):
it. But one thing that I wanted to emphasize is kind of
a, which I'll get into more in other questions. A 1, 2, 3
boo approach which is
to look at is to know what's on your credit
report dispute when you can get

(16:58):
focus on paying your bills on time. And then the
third thing that we can also discuss later is start when
you're paying off debt, start with the lowest balance
credit card first because if you have a limit of
500 and you pay off $50, you automatically drop the
utilization rate on that are 10%. So it's an

(17:20):
easy way to make a small dent without having
to pay a fortune.
So I'm taking away from this first segment. Pay attention to the
dates. I mean if you do nothing other than put
some of those due dates in your calendar so that you
don't forget about them, that's going to make a big difference.

(17:42):
Anybody else want to chime in?
We have a lot of people that come to rental karma in their, in that
credit building process. It's not that they have bad credit, it's
just they have very thin credit and a lot of them don't even have a
credit card yet. Literally something like 30 to 35% of Americans don't

(18:03):
even have one yet. And I explained to them, you know, a 30%
of your credit score is based on how to use a credit card. If you
don't have one. It's like skipping 30% of the math test as under questions. You
had to ace the rest of the test just to get a C minus to
70. And they're go, I'm afraid of credit cards going I don't want to use
it. I understand that. And I tell them the simple way of doing is you

(18:24):
get one credit card, I don't care if it's 200. And you put
Netflix or your cell phone bill on that and you put it on autopay and
you stick the card in the sock drawer and that gets you that
30% of the test. This whole thing of 30%
usage, I think a banker made that statement because they wanted to get all that
interest on that 30% usage. I think that's really bad if

(18:45):
I think the number should be zero for your
usage. The one thing I would
say is that people need to be concerned with is
not only how much credit they have now, but also
they need to be very leery of people checking
their credit because every inquiry drops your score

(19:08):
by 4%. I once had a car
dealer call me and they had an
overzealous salesman try to find
credit for or a loan for one
of their customers and hit their
credit and did inquiries like

(19:30):
20 times, 20 times 4 is 80 points.
They lowered the person's credit score by
80 points, which is a tremendous amount. And
especially when they were only in there for an hour. You
spend your life building your credit.

(19:50):
Unbeknownst to you, you may have somebody damage it. So
you got to be really careful and really stingy of who can
pull your credit. So that's a great point, Howard. I tell
people, we get a lot of people. I see credit reports. I look at them
every day for our members. And that's a very common
thing. It's not very. It's not uncommon at all. It's what happens every time you

(20:12):
go to the car dealer. I tell people, when you go to the grocery store,
do you give the checkout person your Social Security number? No. You should
never go and get a car loan at the car dealer. They are not the
lender. They are your broker. You around to dozens of them behind your back.
The best way to get a car loan is you go to the credit union
and you get a. There's no down payment to get a car loan. And

(20:32):
they give you a piece of paper says you're approved to get up to, you
know, $25,000 or whatever. That's like walking in with cash. Car
dealer and the car dealers don't like it because they want to make money on
the back end from brokering you to some other lender that you don't even know
and get to choose who your lender is. But it's the simple
way to buy a car with no down payment and guaranteeing yourself a good interest

(20:53):
rate and not inquiring, getting 20 inquiries. Reyna, you
had something to add? Yeah. So
annualcreditreport.com is the website you go to to get
free credit reports from all three
bureaus, the main ones and what that will do.
I mean it's estimated that up to half of

(21:15):
people have at least one error on the report.
Those errors can obviously like knock your score
down and it's just because of misreporting. So the
easiest way to fix your score is actually
dispute something and that has nothing to do with
your behavior on anything else. So it just all of this

(21:37):
really starts with awareness and that's a great place to start.
Great advice. Anthony, did you want to add anything?
Yeah, one thing is that they've now started to add what's called a safe
harbor, which means you can apply for up to four different
types of credit and you'll get an unlimited number of inquiries
without impacting your credit score. For example, if you apply for a

(21:59):
mortgage, you could go apply for 10 different mortgages
within a 45 day window. They will lump all of those inquiries into
one. And one inquiry is typically 0 to 2 points
or so depending on your profile, so it's not a huge
deal if you're one of these select categories. Student
loans are another one. You shop around for student loans.

(22:22):
You can also apply for apartment loans. I'm sorry,
not apartment loans, but apartments. If you're applying for a home, those
will get lumped into just one inquiry. A key part to that though
is don't think that you can apply for, you know,
car loan, a student loan, a mortgage and you know,
and those are all going to get lumped into one. It's per

(22:44):
category. Great advice.
We're covering a lot of ground here. Let's move on to segment
two. Credit products serve different financial needs and
using them wisely are key to maintaining financial stability.
Credit cards offer convenience, rewards and credit building potential, but
can lead to high interest debt if balances aren't paid in full.

(23:06):
Personal loans provide fixed payments and lower interest rates than credit cards,
making them useful for debt consolidation or large expenses. Expenses
though origination fees and credit score impact should be considered.
Mortgages allow homeownership and equity building, but require a long term
commitment with significant upfront and ongoing costs.
Responsible use includes paying credit card balances on time,

(23:28):
borrowing only necessary amounts with personal loans, and ensuring
mortgage payments fit within a stable budget. Comparing credit
options and understanding their terms helps avoid unnecessary debt
and maximize financial benefits. Smart credit management
allows borrowing to be a tool rather than a burden.

(23:53):
Cullen how how should renters decide when to pursue
traditional credit versus focusing on building
through rent? Well it's first thing is it's
a bill they've already been paying for a long time. You know, the
traditional status is, you know, to build credit, you
got to go into debt. To do it, you got to get a car loan

(24:14):
or a credit card. And a lot of the younger consumers, you know,
millennials and so forth, they're fearful of that because
they saw what happened to their parents in 2008 and 2010
and they're, they want to stay away from those sort of things. So
just, just getting, just building credit with the things you already pay
is huge. I don't know if you guys have heard that Fannie Mae Freddie

(24:37):
Mac is going through an upgrade right now for the mortgage industry to
where the, they're finally hitting the upgrade
button after 26 years of using your credit score called FICO
4. Think of software, Windows 98, 8, 9,
10, 11. Well, FICO 4 is 26 years old.
There's now FICO 10. That's a big upgrade. In the

(25:00):
new credit score models, FICO 10, as well as all the Vantage
scores include not just rent, but utilities in your
credit score if you have it reported. And the only
way to do that is using a third party verification to make that happen because
utility companies aren't supplying that data to the credit bureaus.
So there's lots of opportunity people to do it without going into

(25:23):
debt. Interesting. Yeah. And if any
Fannie Mae, when they hit that, they're, they just announced it. Literally.
It's been going on for five years. But the, when you go to get a
mortgage here in the next few months, the mortgage
system that all goes through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac will be using
FICO 10 or the Vantage 4.0 score.

(25:44):
The mortgage person doing the paperwork
actually will be able to submit either of those. So, so when they walk in
with their credit karma score on their phone, that's the same score you're going to
get your mortgage on. It'll be interesting to see once that
goes into effect any, you know, surprises that
are positive or negative. It's just like when you upgrade Windows and you

(26:06):
say, now I can't find where the buttons are.
It's estimated that 33 million more Americans are going to be
credit score eligible to go through the underwriting process to get a
mortgage. The VA already completed the process a year ago
and two and a half million more servicemen and women are now credit score

(26:27):
eligible to get a mortgage. That's great news,
Howard. I know that you've warned about the dangers of credit cards. What's a
practical strategy that you share with people to make credit cards work for them
instead of against them? Listen, a credit card is
a dangerous thing. If you don't know how to use it, it
can ruin your life. If you know how to use it. It's like driving a

(26:50):
car. If you don't know how to drive a car, you're going to hit things
and cause some damage. Same thing with a credit credit
card. You need to find a product that matches your
goal. If you know you're going to carry interest
and not pay off the balance over time, you need to
search for a low interest bearing credit

(27:11):
card. If you want rewards, well, pick a reward
that you want. Meaning if you don't travel a lot,
why pick a travel card with benefits?
Go through and certainly look for
lower interest rates. Watch the fees
and go for the terms. When are the payments due?

(27:33):
Do I get harmed using
this credit card in any way? And
more importantly, be
careful. Too many credit cards can certainly hurt you. Going
to the last segment. But having a lot of credit cards
is a terrible thing and it's too easy right now

(27:55):
to get credit cards and it's too much to keep track of.
If you have eight, 10, maybe even 20
credit cards, you have to be very, very careful
of how you use these. But go through and
make sure you pick a credit card that matches
what you want. I like reward cards, but

(28:17):
I pay my bills off every single month and I don't carry
interest balances, interest charging balances. And the
reward cards I like cash back, cash is king.
I like, I like that too. I occasionally get, you know,
a light slap on the wrist by my wife because I used

(28:38):
the wrong credit card for the wrong thing. Just this last,
this last weekend my daughter had about 15
high school, you know, seniors, rising
seniors at the house. So we bought like 10
pizzas and my wife, I came home, my wife said why did you use
that credit card? You're supposed to, supposed to use the Costco credit card. You get

(28:59):
3% back on the food. And you get gas
and. Yeah, I know the story, brother. Which
one? The Anthony credit card is actually a very good
product, Anthony. Well that means your husband credit score was just
dropped. You know, your husband reading took a beating.
I don't know who the reporting agency is. It's a reporting agency of one.

(29:23):
Exactly. She talks to her friends. Don't worry, there's a bigger reporting agency.
Anthony, I know that you work with clients, celebrities,
athletes. I'm assuming that they have access to
premium cards and exclusive lending offers, are there lessons
that everyday consumers can learn from them

(29:43):
about how to choose credit products? Well, you
got to remember that rock stars don't make the best financial decisions. So they need
a lot of help improving their credit as well.
But one thing that people often ask us is how to get this Black
Card. It's this exclusive card from American Express that's
invitation only and it's actually something that's

(30:05):
accessible to a larger percent of the population than you would think. But
you have to have the perfect credit profile to get it,
which is more than just a score. There's a whole kind of profile behind it.
And one of those things is that you, you really want to have a mix
of credit. So if you don't have a mortgage, for example, everyone
should be a client of Cullen's service (Rental Kharma) or one like

(30:28):
it to get their rental history reported because
they like to see that mix of credit. They don't want to see just credit
cards. They don't want to see, you know, you know, something that's
just really one sided. They'd like to see that you can handle a
mortgage, you can handle an installment loan, which is what Cullen's
service has got a report on there. They want to see that you've had

(30:50):
credit for a long time period and that you've been
responsible using it. I like to tell everyone that you
know, your credit cards and your, your other lines of credit that report to the
bureaus, they're like your friends and your friends are going to
report to you, you know, and say that, you know, Andy's a good guy
or I don't know, I don't trust him when it comes to ordering pizza. He

(31:12):
might use the wrong card. They also, you know, they're going to be
looking at it over the length of time that you've had these relationships.
The longer that you've had a relationship, the more reputable
you are and the more history there is to say like, you know what,
Andy's for sure going to pay you back. So that's one of the things I'd

(31:32):
like to say is that if you have the perfect credit profile, you can get
a lot more options than you would if you don't have that sort of,
you know, good mix. Yep. That's why the power
of credit can be very helpful
in you actually building your wealth. That being said, that
being said, Andy, you know the, there's certain clubs that

(31:55):
you want to get into and Black Card is not one of them.
Waste of Money, it gives your ego a little boost.
But you're paying what, $7,000,, $8,000 now a year
for that. Only five, only five.
Only five. It's like,

(32:15):
you know, when you were a kid, oh, I want my family to join this
country club. And then once you get there, why'd we join this country
club? We hate these people. Same thing with the Black Card.
And one thing that I really want to emphasize when we're using words like perfect
is that you can make changes in your credit score
pretty fast. Removing an inaccurate

(32:38):
reporting can boost it by 10, 20 points. I've had it
do it for me. Paying your bills on time, six
months to a year, you can see a 20, 30 point boost. FICO
actually has a simulator
of like when you make certain changes, how it actually affects your
score. So don't worry about perfect, just worry about making changes. And

(33:00):
something fun that I like to do in general is like ghost expenses.
I love to get rid of expenses that you're not really enjoying.
So if you are, you have a subscription
for HBO Max and you only watch a seasonal show,
cancel it the rest of the year. I just recently did an article on cord
cutting and we actually saw people

(33:23):
save when saving between $75
and $150 a month based on
how much they were watching different shows and still doing the exact
same things, they were able to save up to an extra hundred thousand
in ten, twenty years. So I
mean, just really look at that. You're getting rid of the things you don't enjoy.

(33:44):
Spoiled groceries is another fun one because who really enjoys that?
But the average household still, I believe, throws away
25 to 35% every year. So if you
think about what groceries cost, $1,000 a year plus
2,400 maybe is certainly
a big dent in your credit.

(34:06):
That is crazy. Yeah. Let's move on
to segment three. Strengthening a credit
profile requires building credit, managing debt and monitoring
reports for errors and fraud. For those starting from scratch,
secured credit cards, credit builder loans, and becoming an
authorized user on a responsible cardholder's account can help

(34:28):
establish history. Managing debt effectively involves budgeting
using the debt snowball or avalanche method and considering
balance transfers or consolidation. Checking credit reports at least
annually helps catch errors or frozen fraud early. If mistakes
appear, disputing inaccuracies with credit bureaus and freezing credit
when necessary can prevent further damage. Reducing debt,

(34:50):
especially credit card balances, lowers credit utilization and
improves financial stability. A strong credit profile leads
to better loan terms, lower interest rates and increased
financial opportunities. Staying proactive with credit management
ensures long term Financial health and minimizes risks
associated with high debt and identity theft.

(35:17):
Anthony, you've seen credit repair at every level. What's
a foundational move anyone can make to strengthen their
profile, whether they're starting fresh or rebuilding?
That's a great question, Andy. The first thing is to check your credit. As
Reyna has mentioned. You should definitely do with, you know,
annualcreditreport.com because as she mentioned, there are

(35:39):
so many errors and mistakes on the credit report and people will assume just because
they make a lot of money or that they make decent money and they pay
their bills on time, that their credit score might be optimal. And that's
far from the truth. It's really far from the truth. The
second thing you want to do is to make sure that you understand what you're
aiming for. What does a good credit profile look like?

(36:01):
Among those things are having seven to nine trade
lines, which trade lines are anything that report to the credit bureaus.
You know, you want to have a credit card, you want to have a mortgage,
you want to have your rent. You know, something like that that's going to report,
and then you want to have it reported as long as possible. The longer, better.
You know, again, they're like relationships. Someone that's known you for 10

(36:24):
years is going to have a lot more weight when they say
whether you're reliable than someone that you've only known for six months or a
year. So you want to do that. And then
as Howard mentioned early on, you want to keep your credit card
utilization low. You know, if you can keep it below 10%, as
you mentioned, that's the perfect number right there. And then you also want to

(36:46):
make sure that you know those due dates, because it doesn't matter whether you pay
that bill off in full or you keep it below 10% as long as you
are making sure that you're keeping those balances below that number
when they actually report to the credit bureaus. And then the final thing is
that you want to have that right mix of credit. You want to have, you
know, a variety of different types of credit. And then once you have that perfect

(37:08):
credit profile, that's really the best thing that you could,
you could, you could do to strengthen everything. And that way when
something disastrous happens and you get a late payment or you can't pay off that
balance in full each month, it's going to have less of an impact.
It's not going to be quite as devastating as it would be
for someone else. Excellent tactics, Reyna. I

(37:31):
know you've written about navigating financial stress. What role does
mindset have in actually helping people to follow
through on credit building strategies? Yeah,
I would say financial behavior
and probably
95% of finance. And so I think

(37:53):
it just starts off with I don't have to do all of this at once
and I don't have to be perfect because everyone worries about
being perfect. If you're at a level where that is something
that you can achieve fairly fast, then you can think about it, think about it
as a goal. But start off with things that are manageable
like comparing your auto insurance and saving money there,

(38:16):
doing little things that make a difference versus
worrying about the big thing. And one thing that I want to touch on with
what Howard was talking about with rewards is
there's also, there are also reward cards that will pay down your student
loans. And so really compare the
interest every month because it's. If you're going to carry a balance, that's the most

(38:39):
important thing above anything else. Who cares if you get 2% back and you're
paying 15 to 20% every month when you could be paying
10, you know, so I think that that's really important.
And then really think about like take a breath. I always say like the
five second rule, which is also me before speaking sometimes as well,
is to at least give yourself the count to five before

(39:02):
picking a credit card and preferably
spend an hour comparing cards before you decide on one.
As I tell people, the same with schools. Always spend more time picking
out a college than you would an outfit.
Good advice, Cullen. I think you've warned against
credit builder loans and apps. Why do you think some of these

(39:25):
products can sometimes do more harm than good?
Great question, Andy. It's actually in the.
We have a thing called the Rental Karma Learning Center, and I tell people
getting a 720 credit score is really easy. It is. It's not hard at
all. But keeping it is 10 times harder. And if you learn the
nine red flags that I have in their learning center,

(39:48):
those will keep you from going backwards. In these credit builder loans and these
credit builder apps, they are really only
useful for a very small percentage of the population. 2% to 3%
people that are brand new to credit young and maybe dad
took them to the credit union to get them a credit builder loan to get
them started before they maybe get their first car loan. But some

(40:10):
of these credit builder apps, they're literally charging someone 18%
interest for me to give you $100 in my money every
month and you hold on to my money and green check
mark on my credit report every month. The
double edged sword here is that after a year the account is
closed and those 12 check marks you just put in my credit report no longer

(40:34):
have an impact in my credit report. All about open accounts,
not the ones that are closed. Just like when you pay off a car loan,
people go, why'd my credit score go down 40 points? Well,
six years of history or seven years of history just went out the window.
So it's, it's
just really not useful. And one thing I see happening most often

(40:56):
with these credit builder apps that are out there now is
people get go and get not
just one of these, they'll go and open two or three or four of them
within a one month period of time. That's like getting four
speeding tickets in a school zone. Your score is going to go way down because
you got four brand new accounts in your credit report. And it's just

(41:17):
they don't know the pros and the cons of it. They only see the marketing
side of it. And sadly these companies are not
transparent about the fine print of what's really going on.
Debt reduction is a huge part of strengthening credit.
Howard, do you have a preference between avalanche
or snowball methods? What do you recommend most often and why?

(41:39):
That's a great question, Andy. Listen, I'm an accountant.
I am a guy who pinches almost every
penny he can because I'm fiscally conservative.
And you know, there's different theories. Take the smallest
account and pay it off just for the psychological benefit.
At the end of the day you should be paying your highest interest

(42:02):
bearing credit card and regardless of the balance and
knock that out. When that's done, move that payment to the
second highest interest bearing credit card and double
up and start to start to work
out a plan that you liquidate all your credit.
Certainly if people need more help than that, go to

(42:24):
debt.com or one of the other credit help
places, credit relief, debt relief places and get
more sophisticated help than that. But certainly
people should be focused, clearly
focused on the highest interest bearing credit cards
and, and focus on that and knock that out. The one thing

(42:46):
that I will say, and it's a common
theme throughout all these questions, are if you want to improve
and strengthen your credit profile, it
starts with you. You need to pay your bills on time.
No matter what happens, you have to pay your bills
on time and that's an incredibly important thing. If

(43:09):
you don't pay your bills on time, don't expect to have good
credit. Anybody else want to add?
Reyna... Yeah, two things... now,
I agree with Howard's strategy. Most of the time.
Where it would differ as far as as paying off that

(43:30):
card first or paying it down first is if you are planning on
taking out credit such as a mortgage in the near future.
You do. How much payments you have also
matters. But it will, it will affect you if you
can get your score up just a little bit. So it's a faster way to
increase your score. But if you're looking at a range, I'm not going to be

(43:51):
doing anything like that that in a year or two, then yes, always highest interest
first. So that's why we change it. The other thing, as far as
another fact that I really love this Rocket Money. And
then you can look at all your bills in one place.
And for me, it is life saving to say, okay, this
is what I'm actually spending and where I'm spending it

(44:14):
on, what cards, from what accounts, and see. I used
Mint for the same thing. And so when Mint disappeared, I
switched to rocket money. But it took me a few
comparisons like you would do with your credit cards to find the one that I
really liked. Great tactics. Let's
go to segment four. Fair lending laws

(44:35):
protect consumers from discrimination ensuring equal access to credit
regardless of background. Regulations like the Equal Credit Opportunity
Act and the Fair Housing Act prohibit lenders for from making biased decisions
based on race, gender or income sources. Predatory
lending remains a risk, with payday loans, hidden fees, and
deceptive terms trapping borrowers in cycles of debt.

(44:57):
Consumers can protect themselves by reviewing contracts, avoiding
high interest loans, and reporting unfair practices.
Credit reporting agencies collect and distribute credit data, giving
consumers the right to access reports, dispute errors, and
freeze accounts to prevent fraud. The power imbalance between
lenders and consumers often favors financial institutions, making

(45:19):
policy discussions on interest rate caps, fair lending
enforcement and financial literacy education essential.
Strengthening protections and increasing transparency in lending
practices are key to promoting financial fairness for all.
Howard, you've called out predatory lenders before. What

(45:42):
are the most dangerous traps you see people falling into again and again?
People don't understand what they're getting into.
You know, sometimes emotion takes over. Oh, I need a loan, I
need money. But they have no idea what they're signing up
for because frankly, people aren't trained
to, to read the disclosures that most

(46:06):
reputable lenders, all reputable lenders, give you,
but they're not reading it thoroughly. They may
take the advertisement at
face value and not understand that
if you make a late payment, this is what will happen if
you don't do what we want you to do

(46:28):
to be a good person
and pay your bills on time. This is what's going to
happen. So people don't read, they don't understand. They
mostly focus on the end goal. I need this
TV, I need this car, I need this
payday loan. But they don't understand the

(46:50):
ramifications. Reyna, you've written
about consumer protection protections. Are there things that you think every
everyday borrowers underestimate about their
rights? Yeah,
especially in the world of student loans that there is a federal (Office of The)
Ombudsman that you can contact if you don't feel you're being treated properly

(47:12):
by your servicer. I think also just
making sure that you really as
said like know what you're getting into. I had a company once told
me, well everybody reads their disclosures. It was like no,
if anyone's watched the South Park
Human Centipede episode,

(47:36):
those disclosures, you never know what you're getting into and
you may end up part of a human Centipede. So like really read that. But
make sure that you are. If you don't feel a credit
card is treating you right, make that one the one that you pay off first.
And you can certainly make federal complaints and
state complaints if you do have issues.

(47:58):
And there are also groups that can help you out there, nonprofits,
etc. And you should look at who are the financial protection
kind of groups in your area that can help you as well as to contact
the state. And the banking commissions of every state
are available and they can also help you with resources. So you're not

(48:18):
alone in this. But try to read your actual disclosure so you
don't get to that point. Anthony, where do you
see the systemic biases most
embedded in the current credit system? Well, I
mean I'll answer that with a joke. There are two
different types of lending institutions that can lend you money and then change the

(48:40):
terms at will. Only two of them. One is the
mafia and credit card companies where they could
say, you know, this is how much we're going to lend you. Actually we had
a dream and it's going to be less and then this is the interest rate.
So one thing I'll really point out to people is that if you
were to ask people what what their, their credit card interest rate is, they're

(49:01):
generally going to state what it might have been when they first got
it. But they have no idea what, what the interest rate is right now
because it shifts. Those rates that they quote are teaser rates,
which means that they're only good for a little bit
of time and then after that they're going to change. And if you're the type
of person that just says I can't pay off my credit cards,

(49:24):
you know, in full each month, then you should absolutely know what the
interest rate is at that given moment in time as well
as what the interest rate is if you transfer that money to a different
credit card where you might be able to get a better interest rate or
even 0% for a certain period of time and give you more
of an ability to knock that balance down over time.

(49:46):
Kudos, Anthony.
I want to go back to the predatory lender thing because I'm ridiculously passionate about
this. To me, it's
not even about the fine print and reading that. People actually just need to know
where and tell you not go in the the front door in the first place.
Because these predatory lenders are legitimized in

(50:08):
our society. Because the rental furniture store is
right next to the grocery, right next to Kroger, and right next
to that is a store that says need cash for Christmas? It doesn't say
in the window 85% interest loans
out here for 70 year old grandmas with a 700 credit score
that don't know what they're doing. You got the payday loan stores,

(50:30):
the check cashing stores, the title loan stores in some states are absolutely,
they are the mafia. Like Anthony
was saying, the "buy here, pay here" car lots which are absolutely horrible. One
out of three cars that "buy here, pay here" a lot is repossessed
within six months.
Your credit cards. That's actually kind of predatory too when you think about it.

(50:53):
You actually put in your own money and you're paying interest if you have a
balance on your own deposit. You got stores like
Fingerhut and cons that are these online merchants
that pretend to, they, they advertise. I saw an advertisement for
Fingerhut. It had seven on one page that said the word
build credit seven times. And they're literally

(51:14):
selling toasters for $50 that you would pay
$20 for at Target and charging exorbitant
amounts of interest. So you got to, you just need to know what these things
look like so you can just stay away from them, period. That simple.
Buyer beware. Reyna.
You know I was, I'm trying. One

(51:37):
of the things is, is to really think about like before you get out
a short term loan, am I going to be able to pay it back? I
think there are times when the rental furniture places may
be great. But before you do that, look at Facebook Marketplace. I think
really look at your options for where you're able to buy
things and then get wait until you can get

(51:58):
a non secured credit card and just
keep that balance low if you can. And when you see the offers,
if you're subscribed to Experian, if you subscribe to FICO,
they're monitoring your credit card score for you and
they'll be able to tell you if you're likely to get approved. So you don't
have to get that credit ding to figure

(52:20):
out if that's going to be a good credit card for you. But
yeah, so the payday loans, it can be hard, title loans, I mean if it's
title, your car, if it's the title to different things, I mean
there's times when you're just desperate for money and then what are you going to
do? But really look at all other options that you might have, including workplace loans,
including if you have a credit union that may be able to lend you money.

(52:41):
Do a quick online search, see what other options you
have before you start to think about that as your choice.
Take the time so that you can strategize and make
wise choices. Let's bring it home and go to the last segment.
Technology is reshaping credit and lending through fintech,

(53:01):
AI and decentralized finance. Fintech companies
streamline loan applications, expand credit access and
use alternative data for credit assessments. AI driven
credit scoring analyzes vast data sets for faster decisions
but carries risks of bias and lack of transparency.
Decentralized lending platforms leverage blockchain to connect borrowers

(53:24):
and lenders directly, reducing costs but increasing risks due to
minimal regulation. Blockchain enhances security,
transparency and efficiency in lending while supporting DeFi (decentralized finance) platforms
and alternative credit models. As digital credit evolves, consumers
must stay informed, understand their rights and evaluate new
credit products carefully. Responsible digital habits, including

(53:46):
protecting personal information and verifying financial platforms,
are essential in this changing landscape. The
future of credit will be shaped by technology, but informed decision making
remains key to financial security.

(54:07):
Cullen, what's your vision for how technology can continue
to expand financial inclusion over the next decade?
Well, I think the best part is they're looking at the world we
live in today, not what we did 30 years ago. And they're working against
a system that has pretty much been stuck and how
things were 30 years ago. Like I was saying earlier, they were using

(54:29):
FICO 4 for underwriting of a mortgage. I mean, it's just
we don't live in that world and you shouldn't have to get a credit card
just to prove that you can have a, that you're
credit worthy and be held to 30% interest. You
know, and there's a lot of companies that are making big impacts
out of there. One of my favorites are the Neo banks which is

(54:51):
like Chime, Dave and Varo and these guys. They
have really disrupted brick and mortar banks with a couple
simple functions. One, no expensive brick and
mortar stores. Two, no overdraft
fees, which is where the big banks have been making. You know, it was only
a couple years ago the big banks were making $10 billion a year on

(55:13):
overdraft fees. Well, Chime comes around and says no
overdraft fees and you can get up to $500 access to your
paycheck early if you have direct deposit, deposit -- bye bye payday loan stores. And
those are closing in quite a bit of communities because of that. Over 25
million Americans have gone to the online Neo banks
where they're not getting feeʻd to death and they have

(55:35):
better consumer protection. I mean, it's really great.
Anthony, do you see decentralized finance and blockchain
playing a legitimate role in mainstream credit or is it still too
risky? I'll tell you, I believe that it will in
Howard's world of debt that eventually they're going to have to
use something like blockchain to keep track of who owns what debt.

(55:58):
It's a wild wild west world when it comes to collecting and selling
debt. It's sometimes they're done on thumb drive, sometimes they're done
on just the whim, sometimes they're sold to multiple people. But
I'll tell you that I believe that it will have a,
a hand in debt management eventually.
What are your thoughts, Howard? There are so many new fintech tools popping up daily.

(56:22):
How do you advise people to tell the difference between what's really
helpful, what's a great innovation and what's just another
shiny trap? Listen, it's all traps.
Unfortunately it is. I mean it's meant to
make you take out money, take out loans that for money
that you don't have, the money to repay.

(56:44):
The challenge with using some of these
new fangled services such as Chime
and Neo banks is that a lot of lenders won't deal with them
because their default rate is so high. If they
see a Chime bank they're like we're not going to lend to you because
you have Chime. The other thing that I will tell you

(57:07):
is that these buy now pay
later (BNPL) situations that are
being offered and they're growing rapidly and they weren't being
reported on. The credit bureaus now are being reported
because early on the defaults were
so big and they were losing so much money. That

(57:30):
being said, consumers in general
are up to their neck in credit and they've
basically worn out all their used
up all their available balances. So now they're going to
find more credit to get themselves even deeper in debt.
And eventually it's like quicksand. You keep sinking, sinking,

(57:52):
sinking until you're under the quick sand. And
certainly the buy now, pay later debts are
just another trap to get you in debt, keep you
in debt. And at the end of the day, I tell my clients,
the lender is not your friend. They aren't there because
they like you. They want to extract as much money

(58:15):
out of you as they possibly can and they will.
They're smarter than us. They have sat there and they have
studied this and they have done the homework that
they make you offers that make you want to do business
with them, but they're not in your best interest. At the end of the day,
pay your bills, don't use your credit cards. Pay cash if you

(58:39):
can. If you can't, pay your bills when the bill comes in or when
the credit card statement comes in. But be very
leery of all this new technology that's
supposed to be good for you because it chances or it's
not. Based on what Howard
said, I'm holding onto my wallet just a little bit tighter.

(59:01):
Reyna, what role do you think financial education
needs to play as technology makes borrowing easier
but maybe still more complex?
Yeah. So I want to say a couple of things to piggyback on
both what Cullen and Howard said about Chime. I actually
have Chime and Citibank because some things

(59:24):
they won't work with Chime and they'll work with Citibank. But my deposits get in
a day earlier on Chime, so I think there's a
place for both. And I do like that Chime does payday
lending without a fee, which is really wonderful compared to the
predatory lenders. So it's really knowing how to use these products.
And it may be that you're able to pay your credit card on time because

(59:46):
you used this in an emergency situation. It just shouldn't
be every paycheck you're having to borrow because it will catch up with
you. So I think that that's one thing and I
think the more you know, the better off you are.
So definitely read up
as much as you can. I have wallets and waistlines to

(01:00:09):
learn about both nutrition and finance. Andy and
I and Cullen are part of the Financial Influencers
Network, FIN, which is working with brands now
to get financial education out there to as many people as possible.
And we have 10 million people following among us
so we just got to get it out there as much as possible. And one

(01:00:32):
thing that I found in dealing with student
loans for a long time is, is that with
the public service loan forgiveness, whether someone had their
student loans forgiven or often because of making
one or two mistakes, they had to choose certain payment
plans, et cetera. And if they saw articles that were more

(01:00:54):
clickbaity where they just saw a headline or they saw a couple
of key points that didn't really emphasize those things that you
shouldn't do. It's why at one point I believe
it's about 90% of people were getting denied that really thought they were going to
get approved. So don't lose tens of thousands of dollars because you
don't have the information and brands help us get the word out

(01:01:16):
there as much as possible. Yeah, I want to add one last thing
about this. We're talking about Chime and the big banks and the
overdraft fees. Is everybody here heard of the
blacklist called ChexSystems?
Raise your hand. Okay. ChexSystems is a company that was
created by the big banks years ago and it was to basically create a

(01:01:38):
database of anybody who ever had a checking account closed on them on the
negative balance. And I would wager that
probably 90% of these accounts that were closed with negative balances were people that
were NSF overdraft feeʻd to death and they
could not cover the next month's rent because if the direct deposit
went in to that old checking account the first person who gets paid

(01:02:00):
is the bank for their overdraft fees. That what was caused
people to run away from the banks because they couldn't even make the
rent because of it. Then they end up going out the check cashing store with
their paycheck to get the money to go and pay the rent etc.
The one thing that has made these neobanks so successful and popular is
that they ignore the blacklist because they see it as

(01:02:21):
evil. It's mafia like. I'm sorry, it
is just pure evil. And the good that they
are doing to help those people have the basic function of a
checking account without overdrafting the death. Keep in mind you'd get those
overdraft fees. You go to the grocery store, swipe Your debit card, it would
let you go and make that charge. It wouldn't decline the charge. It would just

(01:02:43):
go ahead and say, well, we're going to get that 35 overdraft fee. Right.
And if you think about it, if your credit card is maxed out,
it gets declined. The banks have had that technology for years. They
could have been doing that and they chose not to. So now the
fintech of Chime and these others have said, well that's wrong.
So we're going to come and go around that and not overdraft

(01:03:05):
people to death. We're going to ignore the blacklist. That's why the big banks have
been losing. They've lost over 25 million consumers to
these neobanks in just the last six, seven years.
Do Howard or Anthony want to answer
Eduardo's question? He was asking,

(01:03:28):
let's see, he was asking when you have a good
FICO score or lower FICO score.
Oh, he wants to know the pros and cons of whether having a good FICO
score or having a lower FICO and lower debt.
I don't think you really have to choose between one or the other. If you

(01:03:48):
lower your debt, especially your debt utilization percentage, then your
FICO score is going to go up. And with a stronger FICO score,
you can often negotiate to have a better interest rate on your credit cards
that can also in turn end up paying your credit card debt
faster. So, so you want to pay your credit card,
your credit cards down in order to increase your

(01:04:11):
FICO score. It's like being
at a high school dance
and you're the star athlete and then there's the
guy who nobody knows and everybody wants to dance
with a star athlete. In this case, the star
athlete has good credit and everybody wants to dance.

(01:04:33):
So. Right. Raising your FICO score is
very important because you're going to get better
opportunities, better rates and
frankly more opportunities to expand your
credit horizons and it'll save you money in the long run.
So pay your bills on time, make sure your utilization

(01:04:54):
is in good shape. Your mix of credit is about very important
thing as well. But go through and
do everything you can to, to eliminate
as much debt as you can. That's outstanding. You
don't need to carry balances on those credit
cards and just doing that and, but plan, go

(01:05:17):
out and sit down and do a budget and figure out how you're going
to chart your path out of debt and, and that will
enhance your FICO score and your vantage score.
So the psychology behind it that I was reading into it is
the idea that sometimes people think you need a bunch of credit

(01:05:37):
cards to increase your score. If you get
one card that you paid down, and especially if it's one that you've had for
a long time, you don't have to just charge, charge, charge, think about
that 10% if you can, then you can have both the low
debt and the score. If you have
no debt at all, that may not be great for you.

(01:05:59):
And you want to make sure that it does report something each month, even if
it's like $10 of debt that you have.
Well, I think we will leave it there. This has been an incredible
conversation. One of my favorite takeaways from today is that
credit is... it's not just a score, it can be leveraged.
It's a tool that can either hold you back or open

(01:06:22):
doors to financial freedom, depending on how you use it.
So here's my challenge to you, the Inspired Money
Maker this week, pull your credit report. Go to
annualcreditreport.com, get your free credit report,
review it, and it's the first step in taking
control. Look for errors, as our panelists have

(01:06:44):
mentioned. Understand what's driving your score and make
one small improvement, whether that's paying down a balance,
setting up an auto pay, or reporting your rent.
Because as we heard from our guests today, even small actions
can have a huge impact over time. If you enjoyed this episode,
be sure to share it with a friend who's working on their financial

(01:07:06):
journey and subscribe so you do not miss future conversations
like this one. A few more things before you leave and go on with your
day. Let's connect on LinkedIn Find me by Searching for "Advisor
Andy." Inspired Money is created and produced by
me and Bradley Jon Eaglefeather. Bradley is behind the scenes
during the live stream and edited segments. Chad Lawrence

(01:07:28):
does our graphics, animations and editing. And
last but not least, most certainly not least, I want to give
a big shout out to our amazing guests today. Go
follow their work and keep learning from the best.
Many of our guests have books, so make sure that you check those out.

Howard Dvorkin, check out his books (01:07:48):
"Power

Up (01:07:52):
Taking Charge of your Financial Destiny" and "Credit Hell
to Dig out of Debt." You can follow his mission and
his work at howarddvorkin.com and debt.com.
Anthony Davenport is author of "Your Score:
An Insider Secret to Understanding, Controlling and Protecting your
Credit Score." He's founder of Regal Credit Management. Learn more

(01:08:15):
at anthonymdavenport.com. Cullen Canazares,
he helps renters build credit
with Rental Kharma. You can find out more at rentalkharma.com
and he referenced the learning center,
which I think is rentalkharma.com/learning.

(01:08:35):
And Reyna Goble, journalist, speaker, and author of "Graduation
Debt." Her nutrition course is available at bestnutritionclassever.com
and you can find her content at
walletsandwaistlines.com Sometimes
I could hear Reyna and her famous dog, Woof Woof.
We haven't really seen him yet, but her

(01:08:58):
dog is a famous influencer.
Yes, he is. And really funny. I have been using
his conditioner lately, his leave in conditioner. It's a great
product, DOG, and it is the best because as you
can tell, we have the same hair texture.

(01:09:18):
It's true that. You know what they say, that you and your dog
over time start looking like one another. I hope someday I do.
Do any of the guests want to plug anything in particular or
specific?
Anthony? Yeah. I should also mention that my

(01:09:40):
quote unquote day job primarily consists of protecting people's
credit. Now, so we block access
to the major credit bureaus,
sometimes including check systems, so that if a thief knows
your name, address, social, date of birth, they got into one of the thousands of
breaches just this year. We're going to prevent them from being able to

(01:10:02):
utilize that information and attack you. So once
you get this great, perfect credit profile and credit score, you'll
want to protect it. That's what we do. Yeah, how to keep your
guard up. Anybody else?
Listen, credit is very difficult. The more
you educate yourself, the better you are. There's fine

(01:10:25):
representatives that know a whole lot of stuff about credit,
but you got to take it by step. If you go to
debt.com you will learn a
tremendous amount of information and,
and follow the advice. It's been developed over
the last 30 years and even some of

(01:10:48):
it I actually wrote. But more importantly,
the reality is educate yourself.
This, we're talking a big part of your money
that's going towards this. It's a real thing. But
certainly follow
the advice of experts. Don't worry about what it says on

(01:11:10):
TikTok or Instagram. Go to the
websites, go to the source and find one you like
and certainly educate
yourself because it is tricky out there. Well, we got a lot
of valuable advice today and. Oh, Reyna, go ahead.
Oh, I just wanted to add to what Howard just said because, because it is

(01:11:32):
like this trend, I have very smart friends. They'll tell me, well, I hear
this on Instagram and I'm like, from who are they qualified? So
sometimes what's good about Instagram is
it may be the thing that inspired you to go find
the real research. So think of TikTok as
inspiration for TikTok or Instagram.

(01:11:55):
It's like, oh, I really want to learn about this. I don't know if it's
accurate. The relationship experts may have never even been in
a therapist's office. So you do want to, like, then go and
find real sources, both online and in
person if you need. The other thing I want to emphasize, because I'm all about,
like, resources that you can just get a hold of is credit

(01:12:16):
unions. If you belong to one, they do have financial advisors
there, credit counselors that are free to use.
So. And at schools, there are student money management offices. It's one of
the things that I really advocated for on campuses
and that's growing. So really know what your resources are and
know that you're not alone. There's plenty of people that can help you. And

(01:12:40):
the video on TikTok is just inspiration. The video on
Instagram is to find the real stuff.
Great. Well, thank you, Reyna. Thank you, Cullen. Thank you, Howard. Thank you,
Anthony, for really helping to demystify credit
today and give us great advice and the
tools to go back and take some time to

(01:13:02):
think about and analyze our credit and then take
steps that are actually going to make a difference. So thank you, our
guests, panelists, for joining us today. Thank you for being a
viewer and listener of Inspired Money. Inspired Money
returns next week. I think we're looking at Wednesday, September
3rd, if not Thursday, September 4th. Gonna see how

(01:13:24):
the scheduling falls finally. And our

topic is going to be "The Future of Cryptocurrencies (01:13:28):
Exploring Blockchain
and Digital Assets." Should be a timely
conversation. I look forward to seeing you then. Until next
time, do something that scares you, because that's where the magic happens.
Thanks, everybody.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Unlocking the Power of Credit: Building and Managing Credit for Financial Success