Financial Education

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These are steps anyone can start on today. First get your credit report and see what's there. Then work on getting your debt down. Then start saving for a down. There's no magic shortcut but buying a home IS possible.

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What goes into a credit score?

Data from your credit report goes into five major categories that make up a FICO score. The scoring model weighs some factors more heavily, such as payment history and debt owed.

Payment history: (35 percent) -- Your account payment information, including any delinquencies and public records.

Amounts owed: (30 percent) -- How much you owe on your accounts. The amount of available credit you're using on revolving accounts is heavily weighted.

Length of credit history: (15 percent) -- How long ago you opened accounts and time since account activity.

Types of credit used: (10 percent) -- The mix of accounts you have, such as revolving and installment.

New credit: (10 percent) -- Your pursuit of new credit, including credit inquiries and number of recently opened accounts.

What is a Credit Score?

A credit score is a numerical expression based on a level analysis of a person's credit files, to represent the creditworthiness of an individual.

STATISTICAL DATA SHOWS

1 in 4 Americans admit they do not pay their bills on time. 29% of Americans are saving more now than a year ago (particularly Millennials) 61% have had credit card debt in the last year, and 38% carry debt month-to-month. 55% of Americans give themselves a grade of A or B on their personal finance knowledge. Ask yourself these questions.

WHAT STEPS AM I TAKING TO BECOMING DEBT FREE?

DO I HAVE A CLEAR PLAN?

HAVE I SET GOALS TO EXECUTE MY PLAN?

WHAT IS MY WHY?

AM I PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION TO SUCCEED FINANCIALLY?

“The average student leaves college with about $25,000 in student loan debt. The monthly payment on a $25,000 student loan is approximately $280 (assuming 6.8% interest and a 10-year repayment plan), which can cause financial strain if you’re not prepared for it. If you’ve borrowed more than $25,000, your payments will be even higher. There are different repayment options that can change your monthly payment amount. If you don’t feel that you’ll be able to make the standard 10-year term payments, you can contact your lender to ask about other payment plans.”

-Cicmoney101

Action Steps

1. Establish a Budget to allow room to start paying off the loan
2. Determine what plan you qualify for and what the monthly payment will be
3. Refigure Budget if you are in the red after student loan payments are added. Increase income or apply for plan such as IDR which has significantly lower monthly payments.
4. If you have a spouse, create a budget and tackle the debts together. (Teamwork makes the dream work.

These tips will help you manage student loan debt and work to become debt free.

There are two ways you can attack debt. One method is called the DEBT SNOWBALL and the other method is called the DEBT AVALANCHE method.

There are ongoing debate’s on which method is better for the consumer but they have both been proven to work.

With the debt avalanche method, you pay extra money toward the one debt with the highest interest rate. This method is based on the premise and makes more since from a mathematical standpoint.

With the debt snowball method, you pay down the smallest debt first and work your way up, regardless of the interest rate. This method makes more sense from a behavioral standpoint giving more momentum and motivation to the consumer by paying off the smaller debts first.

Whatever you decide, prepare to be aggressive and stick to the plan so that you can become debt free!

🚨Class is in Session‼️📓✏️ This week we will dive into DEBT MANAGEMENT.

Can you imagine a life without debt? How much extra money would you have monthly with no debt payments? Why eliminating debt should be top priority? Is there a difference between GOOD debt and BAD debt?

Mortgage 🏠
Auto Loan 🚗
Student Loan 👨‍🎓
Credit Card 💳
Personal Loan 💵

Stay tuned to as we discuss debt and unravel the key to becoming DEBT FREE‼️

According to statistics, researchers found that 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. How can we stop the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck?

Answer:
Make a zero-based budget before the month begins. A zero based budget simply means that you’ve given every dollar an assignment. A budget is all about being intentional. It helps you create a plan so you can see where your money is going and find out how much you can actually save each month.

“Your income is your most powerful wealth building tool.” - Dave Ramsey

As a HUD certified counselor, I’m specially trained to assess financial situations, but that’s not what qualifies me to counsel individuals. What qualifies me is the fact that I know what it’s like to be flat broke. I know what it’s like to go without. I know what it feels like not to have a financial game-plan. The fact of the matter is that we are all human and when you know better, you do better. You must be honest with your self first. It took a long time for me to keep bumping my head for me to realize that I have to make a conscious decision to live a better quality of life. When I sit down with members to help them qualify for America’s best mortgage, I put myself in their shoes and think about how I used to think before I began to educate myself and become trained. I began to seek knowledge daily. I had to understand that finance has a broad number of concepts and while the school system does teach us the basics, they don’t require us to be financially literate. You must seek the knowledge for yourself because most of our parents and their parents did not have full access to resources that we have today. No matter how broke you are now, how much debt is hanging over your head, or even how much money you make, you must be willing to take control of your financial situation and get motivated about elevating your financial future. Remember that it’s not always about how much money you make but how you manage the money you make!