Investing Daily: Investing in America’s Credit Addiction — Breaking Down FICO

Welcome to Market Mondays! In this thought-provoking clip, Rashad Bilal, Troy Millings, and Ian Dunlap break down the fundamentals of FICO—your adult "transcript"—and explore why understanding your credit score is more important than ever. Whether you’re just starting your financial journey, rebuilding, or leveling up, this segment’s “building block, corner” is packed with essential insights! Rashad Bilal shares how explaining FICO to his son made him realize that your credit score is truly your adult report card, shaping everything from your ability to buy a home, lease an apartment, land a job, or finance a car. Troy Millings calls FICO your “financial trust score,” noting how crucial it’s become even for career opportunities. Ian Dunlap points out that FICO isn’t just a score—it’s a public company (Fair Isaac Corporation), and its stock performance tells a story of monopoly power and skyrocketing growth since its IPO in 1987. Dig into the business side as Ian Dunlap reveals how FICO actually earns its billions by licensing the credit score algorithms, not directly selling scores, and how economic cycles—like low interest rates—can supercharge its profits. You’ll hear about how FICO’s stock price exploded after 2010, paralleling changes in credit reporting’s importance after the Great Recession and new legislation. The trio also ties credit’s cultural impact to music, echoing Wu-Tang’s “Cash Rules Everything Around Me”—but now, as Rashad Bilal says, “Credit rules everything around me.” Learn how the shift to a cashless society has made understanding and managing your credit more vital than ever. They even shout out iconic artists like Clipse and discuss how staying sharp and following trends (even in music!) intersects with financial literacy and generational wealth. Whether you’re curious about why FICO matters, how its monopoly works, what’s changed since the ‘80s, or how credit touches every aspect of modern life, this clip delivers the essentials. Tune in for practical knowledge, cultural connections, and expert takes from Rashad Bilal, Troy Millings, and Ian Dunlap. *Don’t miss:*

• The hidden monopoly behind FICO’s business
• Why your credit score shapes your future, career, and finances
• How shifts in culture and technology made credit king
• FICO’s stock market success story
• Real-world tips on building credit and wealth

*Subscribe for more insights on money, markets, culture, and wealth creation every week!* #MarketMondays #CreditScore #FICO #FinanceTips #Investing #FinancialLiteracy #RashadBilal #TroyMillings #IanDunlap #WealthMindset #StockMarket #CulturalImpact #BuildingBlocks #ClipsNotEpisodes

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (00:43):
So let's start with building block corner. Maybe we could
start that like a new segment of like, you know,
things that you just need to know, whether you're just
starting out on your financial journey rebuilding or just trying
to figure out. And it's something that my son had
asked me a while ago as far as like credit,
like what is fight go? And I thought that, you know,

(01:03):
what I described it a while back was that I
feel like fiko is your transcript as an adult. So
like you know, as a child, you have a transcript
in high school, right, and that transcript is vitally important
because what that transcript says pretty much determines where you're

(01:23):
going to go to college. Right, So they're making decisions
based off of your grades nine times out of ten,
actual curricular activity and stuff like that. But they're making
decisions based off of your grades and your report cards
for four years to determine what type of students you're
going to be. Sometimes they're wrong, sometimes they're right, but
that's what they're going to do. Right. As an adult,

(01:46):
your report card doesn't really matter. But what does matter
is your credit score. Yeah, so your credit score they're making.
A bank is going to make a decision whether you're
worthy enough to get a loan to buy a home,
whether you can live in this apartment some time, whether
you can get a job, whether you can get you
can't get a car, whether you're going to pay an
extra two hundred dollars a month for the car, because
they're seeing if you're a responsible person or not, and

(02:08):
how they're determining your responsibility is based off of your
FIGHTO score.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
The interesting thing about FIGHTCO was, like most people hear
about it. They don't even know. It's a publicly traded company.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
And one of the best in the market, one of
my favorites.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
If you look at this charts over the past five years,
you've seen how crazy it's going. But most people realize
when it's too late, right, they'll figure out, I got
to figure out my credit score? Who is Fightco? And
so the idea of bureaus coming together to give you
a score that are really are pretty much going to determine,
like you said that transcript about trust, whether you're going
to be right, like can we loan to you, whether

(02:45):
that's for a car, whether it's for a home, or
whether that's for trying to get a job. Like that
score is so important, and so when I'm looking at them,
like how do they actually make money?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Right?

Speaker 1 (02:56):
So they don't actually sell credit scores. They actually license
out rhythm for the credit scores, And if you're in
any financial institution, people are going to track your credit scores,
so they get to sell that over and over again.
When do they make the most money, Well, when you
see people actually trying to buy homes, and so when
interestas are low, when people are redfindancing, you just watch

(03:17):
Fight those shark. That's one of those tips that most
people don't think about, but everybody has to use, especially
if you're in America. Right if you're trying to invest,
especially in real estate or like I said, trying to
get a vehicle, you're going to need that score. And
once they know you needed an interest rates drop and
money becomes more affordable to people. They're like, all right, well,
this is the time that we should be watching this
company and actually reported last week. So these are those

(03:40):
little tippits that people don't talk about in finance that
you should know one.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Of the best performing stocks in the last ten years.
And on top of that, they have required monopoly that
most people don't think of. I've always been told to
think of your fight goal scores your financial trust for
and I think you can guys both touch on it.
But it's a lot of people who have been turned
away from amazing careers because that score wasn't high. So

(04:05):
it's really important, includos Tolwen thatlwin broadcasting all the time.
So about it. It is eight fifty, So kudos to my brother. Yeah,
MVP in all areas of life, yo.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
And I think the last thing that it's interesting about
this is like you know, Fiko, as you said, is
a is a traded stock on the stock market, right,
So what happened is that when it it iPod in nineteen,

(04:39):
iPod in nineteen eighty seven at one dollar and forty
nineteen forty seven one dollar forty cents. It's currently trading
at seventeen hundred cent. But if you really look at
the chart, it really started to go crazy. It really

(05:02):
started to go crazy around twenty fourteen, twenty twelve, twenty,
let's just say twenty ten. After twenty ten, it started
to take off tremendously, right if you look at the
financial markets right, especially after the Great Recession, DoD Frank

(05:23):
oh this and it says a lot about the economy
that we're in right now, the importance of credit scores.
If you look at how the world was shape in
nineteen eighty eight, your credit score was a completely different
metric of meaning as far as your life importance than
it is in twenty twenty five. You can't even really
live without credit score right now. It says a lot

(05:44):
about the times when that we're in. But to put
it in perspective, the stock is up eighty five thousand percent.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
Since power of long term holding.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yep, it's up eighty five thousand percent.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
And importance of intellectual property that I just cannot easily recreate.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, I mean you're talking about us DOT that was
up at twenty four hundred dollars. And so if you
look at that TEA, look at that pandemic run right
from like twenty nineteen where it's traded under six thirty
to that twenty four hundred dollars run. That's an incredible run.
And that was pulled back a little bit.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Right.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
There's some uncertainty, right, We've seen it over the past
three years. We saw the market pulled back in twenty
twenty three, and so there's still some uncertainty. But here's
one thing that's gonna until America changes the credit system. Right,
this is a company that's not going anywhere, and this
is one of those companies and you're gonna need. Yeah,
You're absolutely gonna need.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
I mean it's like you know, once again, Wu Tang
when they said in ninety six, cash rules everything around me,
and then we actually made that t shirt when we
first started that cream. Yeah, credit rules everything around me.
You've seen it happen in real time, right, now how
the monetary system has changed to become a pretty much
cashless society at this point in time, and everything is

(06:56):
run on credit, so understanding the credit credit credit rules.
It's like the clip song fight. Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Shout out to them, Shout out to them. Man, Grammy nominated.
I know that they talked about how important the Grammys
were to them in Gwyna one that got nominated for
five Granmys. I see them winning at least three or
four of them.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
I definitely got it.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
And honestly one of the greatest campaigns of the last
ten years, just like one long rollout of quality and video,
music and fashion.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
It's been a mass marketing standpoint. They had the best
rollout that I've seen in years to the nation, their
whole team, because I've never seen somebody that man they
was on they would think that there was Michael Jackson
as far as how many articles that they had written
about them. And then you know interview Vatican. They've performed
the Vatican. That's one hundred percent and just good people

(07:50):
man like you know mal As, somebody that's been highly
respected for a very long period of time. See him
step away and then step back like he never left
push a Tea, somebody that we've run into a few
times at our spoting Harris, we interviewed them reliability, you
know what I mean. He's a super smart dude as
far as getting money from on the medical side with
medical transportation companies, and he got a bunch of stuff

(08:11):
from the McDonald's licensing deal. He talked about that before.
So you know, these guys are not just successful for
no reason, Like they're really smart, Like I think hustling
because they are. The last thing I say about this
is I think the clips they solidified hustling, right, But
hustling is not just a matter of you know, just
hustling on the street corner, Like you really got to
stay up to the times. You gotta be in tune

(08:33):
what's going on, and you gotta actually have a sharp mind.
So even for them to like, you know that fight go,
You're don't about to stock fight go. Like that's like,
you know, you got to be understanding what's going on
right now because the world is moving so quickly that
if you pay attention to trends, you could you could
make money.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, and the best teacher has always been music, especially
for us, like we grew up just listening to music
and trying to learn things. So when I looked at
the track list, I said fight. I said, all right,
this is something we got to tap into. Man, Ernest,
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