@FICOdawg wrote:
It's not just ignorance about FICO scores, but also part laziness in general. Willful ignorance. Willful laziness.
I can give a few examples in my sphere of influence about simple financial awareness.
I think that's 1000% wrong. On the lower income side of the spectrum, credit opportunities aren't available. You obviously have a bias and don't think of the entire sphere of incomes. As a product of aging out of the Foster care system I can assure you during my 20s and getting started in adult life was more about survival than having role models and mentors.
The ironic part of being lower income is those people need every dollar and they endure higher lending costs. As if often said, "it's expensive to be poor".
A pamplet with examples or other means to educate consumers would go a long way. Today if someone is declined it's generic for the reason. They also don't disclose that "if you had this and this to get a higher score you'd have paid a lower rate". The idea of ADDING credit cards to improve a score is absurd but it's actually rewarded for credit mix and eventually account age......
I can acknowledge and appreciate your comment, but I would also respectfully disagree as having walked the path that counters this position.
I have plenty of bias towards an individuals ability to figure things out. If you have the mindset to figure these things out, anyone can open doors for themselves, and I know this from first hand experience having done this multiple times, across multiple different individuals, and across multiple differing incomes. It isn't an income holding one back. It's the individuals financial illiteracy, and a mindset. And at times, ones own intentional self destruction that limits their capability. Sometimes it's the product of an upbringing, sometimes not. I acknowledge what you say about your upbringing. I moved out on my own at 18, living on peanuts per hour and counting pennies. You can imagine all those hardships, if you knew the time period. I owned a hand-me-down matress, a very cheap salvation army chair, a side of the road TV stand, an old TV, and a low grade computer (with internet - for learning). That's it. My vehicle was something else, held together mostly with, well it was barely reliable enough for point A to B travel. Some of us very much understand poor, but that isn't our life today. Your only limitation is yourself, but yes it also helps if you have a mentor or someone that can jumpstart your life. I didn't have any of that, but I educated myself over the years, and now others as to how - and why.
So I say this as someone that has walked this path multiple times among youth, who earn nearly no income while working their first jobs. It doesn't get much more "poor" than this, no matter who you are. Unless you are a stay at home parent with no income, or actually living on the streets, how much less can you earn working as a part time college or out of high school student? There's a reason why in my sig I speak about making numbers dance. It's because it doesn't matter how much you necessarily make, it matters how well you know and can apply proper finance techniques. Numbers are nothing more than numbers on a ledger to someone else. Play the game right, and you can make those numbers appear, or disappear in multiple ways. Some won't get that.
One of our best examples was a youth making less than $20k per year as an intern working part-time. They started off with an annual fee card, and then over the next 2-3 years, added two more non-fee cards to this cycle. Meanwhile, they held only a single vehicle payment in that time, and some structurally sound student loans, while using ideal payment methods. This was an out of the gate 800 FICO candidate, and while the credit profile was thin, we did everything you could do to keep the FICO score as high as possible. Fluxuations were natural due to the young age of the credit profile, but FICO scores jumped up and down of course, to where they now sit mostly flatlined around 800.
In less than three years, this individual secured $40,000 in credit naturally, and is now working on SUB opportunities. $40k is more than enough in credit for most people, so now on to the SUBs, which will offer not only an increased credit line that isn't necessarily needed, but will offer cash back rewards in dollars, or free airline travel, or free hotel stays. Today, they are spammed nonstop with preapproval offers, but that's not the golden ticket. You pick and choose who you do business with. And all of this, was accomplished on a $20,000 income. They did eventually go on to earn a $60K plus income later, so while the credit aspect is all aligned, their next play is the path to pay for a home in cash, or at least most of it, near out of college. That is goal number two. How many of us can actually say they have done this? Few. I know I couldn't. That topic is another topic in and of itself. How are they going to pay cash when housing prices are at record highs? Well, if you can't "sees" whats coming, then you can't "seize" upon the opportunity. This individual will be sitting prime for that time.
Would you like more examples? This was just one of our candidates. I can provide examples for those at the opposite spectrum also, that rose up to nearly 800 FICO, bad past, to be denied for most every loan until acceptance. That one required a bit of work, but now they're going strong. Ignorance in the game of finance is no excuse, you make your own luck in life. Or don't. It matters not to those that are already walking this path. My information is free, but in the end I respect choice. The choice to prosper, and also the choice to do, and to own any consequences from those choices made. It's fair, and unbais. Those choices will not impact my positive push for those I help to move forward.
There is a reason why they don't teach this stuff in school, or provide pamphlets, or educate the public. This is a debt based monetary system, and they only want people just smart enough to turn the bolt on the machine, to consume, and to utilize credit for consumption. Nothing more. I always recommend everyone to educate themselves in monetary history if they haven't, as ignorance can be expensive.
$XXX,XXX in credit lines. First digit isn't a one or two.
4-5 weeks in free credit reward vacations, booked through 2028.
$X,XXX in bank rewards in only 12 months.
I like FREE...
800+ FICO.
Making all numbers dance on a financial ledger.
Abuse that score responsibility for maximum gain.
