Financial literacy expert John Hope Bryant joins TheStreet to share some tips about how you can boost your credit score and start building your wealth.
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00:00I always like getting tips. So, is that your first tip on how to bring your credit score up,
00:03is actually look at your credit score? Yes, yes. The first tip is actually look at it,
00:08because most people don't know there's an error sitting there on your credit report. And credit
00:13bureau, credit reporting agencies are passive. They're not going to sit there, hey, there's an
00:17error. They let it sit there, the repositories. You got to say, that's not mine. Now, the law
00:22states again, 30 days. Once you challenge it, they must confirm it or remove it. And most times
00:28they remove it. Again, pop your credit score. Now, your confidence goes up. You say, what else?
00:32Now, we negotiate that charge off from 10 years ago when you divorced for pennies on the dollar.
00:37You owed $1,000 on a phone bill from a divorce. Well, about 10 years later, it's been sold from
00:43AT&T to Pac Bell to Joe's Finance Company, who bought it for five cents on the dollar.
00:48We call them, they want a hundred bucks or a $50 charge. We pay them $200. So, they cooperate.
00:54Keep putting that off your credit report. So, now you got an 80% discount. They got a 200%
00:58profit. Everybody wins. And that comes off your credit report. That's another 25 to 30 points.
01:06Earn income tax credit. You make less than $60,000 a year. And let's be specific. You make
01:11$40,000 a year. You got three kids. Government owes you about $5,000 or $6,000 in cash called
01:17the EITC. If you've never filed, it's retroactive for three years. So, anybody watching this who
01:23knows anybody in their family who made less than $60,000 a year, and you go, what's that again?
01:28Congratulations. You're approved. That's all it takes. It's retroactive for three years. So,
01:33you make $40,000 a year and you get a $15,000 check. That changes your life. Pay off those
01:39credit cards, which is in the trillions now, the national number. Pay down that student loan.
01:45Pay off that car loan, refinance or pay it down. Put a down payment on a house. Get out of that
01:51apartment and get into wealth creation. Number one way you build wealth in America is home
01:56ownership. Go buy your little insurance policy when you're 35 years old, starting a family.
02:00Get a $100,000 policy for $25 a month. That's what it costs. It's nothing. So, now when you
02:06pass away, God forbid, you'll pay for your funeral and you'll create generational wealth.
02:11And if you buy that house and you do that three times in five years, a house for yourself,
02:15equity in three years, take a little home equity loan, you have a million dollar net worth in five
02:20to seven years. Now, just in four minutes from this book, I just told people who are working an
02:27hourly job like my mother how to become a millionaire. Stop arguing with your husband
02:31and your wife over money, which is the number one cause of divorce, by the way. Stop getting
02:35hypertension because number one cause of heart attacks, stress, number one cause for stress
02:39is money. And get your mind out of depression and surviving and into aspiration and prosperity.
02:48And this hits on a big thing on Wall Street. People say, I hate rich people. I hear it all
02:53the time. I hear people say, why do you hate rich people? They don't hate rich people.
02:58They hate rich people until they become rich. What they hate is a gamed system.
03:03And no one is, to your point, is explaining how this thing works.