Speaker 1: He's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlomagne the God. We are
Speaker 1: the Breakfast Club. We have a special guest in the building.
Speaker 1: We have some guests, I should say, Stacy Tisdale is
Speaker 1: here and you brought some people with you today. Stacey,
Speaker 1: I did bring some people with me today. We are
Speaker 1: very happy to have Marcus and Tina, who are a
Speaker 1: couple that we're going to be taking through an eight
Speaker 1: week process to help them get their finances in order
Speaker 1: to help them get their debt under control, and everybody's
Speaker 1: going to be able to learn about their story from
Speaker 1: a series Angela and I are doing with Wealth Wednesdays
Speaker 1: called Credit Chronicles, which we're doing with an app called
Speaker 1: self that I know a lot of people really wanted
Speaker 1: to learn more about what helps you save money and
Speaker 1: build credit. And we also are very honored to be
Speaker 1: joined by Stacey P. So we got Stacey t and
Speaker 1: Stacy P. And Stacy P is a financial well being
Speaker 1: coach with Operation Hope, and Operation Hope is I think
Speaker 1: the biggest financial empowerment organization in the world. They have
Speaker 1: curriculum for students and they have their Hope centers all
Speaker 1: over the country where people can get free credit and
Speaker 1: financial counseling, So that's why we wanted to bring that
Speaker 1: to your attention. So between Self and Operation Hope, we
Speaker 1: got y'all covered, all right, So let's go over the
Speaker 1: couple here that we have, Marcus and Tina. So clearly
Speaker 1: you guys are working with Operation Hope and with Self
Speaker 1: to rebuild your credit. So there must be some financial
Speaker 1: issues that you have, because I always hear that financial
Speaker 1: reasons are one of the main reasons that couples actually
Speaker 1: end up getting divorced. We do have financial issues. We
Speaker 1: have student loan and we have some credit cards. So
Speaker 1: how did you get so hurt with credit? Was it
Speaker 1: when you went to college they gave you those free
Speaker 1: credit cards and you rock them out and then you
Speaker 1: realize that the interest rates were Actually that was a
Speaker 1: little bit different than that. What it needs. The student
Speaker 1: loans is more of the biggest thing there. You didn't
Speaker 1: go crazy with the credit, but you know it's still
Speaker 1: there where we need to work on it. But it's
Speaker 1: not that way. So how much student loan? How much
Speaker 1: in debt are you guys? Student loan is over one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand. Student loans are about one hundred dollars. The
Speaker 1: credit cards are about ten twelve. Yes, And when couples
Speaker 1: get married, you guys have each other's debt, right is that?
Speaker 1: Is that correct? Even if one of you has good
Speaker 1: credit and the other one doesn't matter, you get you
Speaker 1: received that debt. Rememb when I graduated out of college
Speaker 1: and I paid my my U my school loan off
Speaker 1: and I was getting a refund check and I was
Speaker 1: so excited, and I just got married and they took it.
Speaker 1: And I couldn't understand why they took it. But I
Speaker 1: got married and my wife had had had student loans
Speaker 1: and in credit problems, and they took all andy. That's
Speaker 1: and they took all my money and I was mad.
Speaker 1: But that's why when you get married, that's interesting. Did
Speaker 1: you get into us last year? Yeah? Did you guys
Speaker 1: discuss that before you get married, like what financial situation
Speaker 1: you were in? Yes, I know that he had student loan,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know as he said that they take
Speaker 1: you all. I was looking forward to talk about that.
Speaker 1: I was. I was honest with with that part. Before
Speaker 1: we got married. I was like, I gotta let you
Speaker 1: know something. You know, this is my student, My situation
Speaker 1: with the student loans and credit. So I was honest
Speaker 1: with her. She still decided to marry me even after all.
Speaker 1: That's so important because so many couples aren't honest with
Speaker 1: each other before they get married or even in their marriages.
Speaker 1: I think we were talking about we got thirteen million
Speaker 1: Americans committing something called financial infidelity, where like, you know,
Speaker 1: half the millennial population doesn't even know how much their
Speaker 1: spouse makes. They don't tell each other about different accounts.
Speaker 1: They don't tell each other about their debt or if
Speaker 1: you get a bonus, or if you get a bonus
Speaker 1: with all that stuff. And I remember when I was little,
Speaker 1: my mom and I would go shopping and we'd hide
Speaker 1: those bags. I'm sure I did that. But you know,
Speaker 1: these two were really honest with each other. And that's
Speaker 1: a lot of people will ask me, you know, should
Speaker 1: I even date or marry somebody if they have a
Speaker 1: bad credit score? And the real truth is, and they're
Speaker 1: such a great example. Anybody can get into financial difficulties,
Speaker 1: but if someone's honest with you, and if they're willing
Speaker 1: to take a plan, it's even the journey you can
Speaker 1: go on together. That's what's really important. Is that's something
Speaker 1: now those stacy do people look at Like when I
Speaker 1: was dating my wife, we didn't look at each other's
Speaker 1: credit or anything like that. That wasn't an option. We
Speaker 1: just in love. I don't need to Charlemagne, did you
Speaker 1: you and your wife within the yellow at each other credit? No,
Speaker 1: I didn't have no credit with no credit. In fact,
Speaker 1: in fact, she actually, she actually was one of the
Speaker 1: people that told me to get a secure DEMOCRD to
Speaker 1: build credit. Yeah, I didn't. It wasn't a conversation. Is
Speaker 1: that a conversation you suggesting people should have now when they, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know my boyfriend's credit score and everything. Stats are
Speaker 1: saying that half of millent that's important and half of millennials.
Speaker 1: I think, um, and I think one of our most
Speaker 1: popular Wealth Wednesdays was when you and Jia came on
Speaker 1: and you talked about how you kind of were always
Speaker 1: just a team from the get go when it came
Speaker 1: to your finances, you had each other's backs. You did
Speaker 1: different things. Every person sin is different. What's gonna work
Speaker 1: for you, what's gonna work for Charlemagne works for them?
Speaker 1: Some people it just might be their personality. They want
Speaker 1: to know everything. But the most important thing is that
Speaker 1: you want to find someone who's going to be honest
Speaker 1: with you. The one thing that I will say, and
Speaker 1: I can speak to this from personal relationships I've had too.
Speaker 1: I could say every personal little relationship I've had that
Speaker 1: didn't work out, and I have not that I've had
Speaker 1: very many, but I could tell we had such a
Speaker 1: hard time talking about money that it was really a
Speaker 1: sign that there were going to be bigger communication problems, right,
Speaker 1: And that's what it really comes all about. If you
Speaker 1: can have empathetic sex, you should be able to talk
Speaker 1: about your credit, right, But if you have a hard
Speaker 1: time talking to somebody about money, it's a good indication
Speaker 1: that you're going to have a hard time talking to
Speaker 1: them about a lot of things. That's really It doesn't matter,
Speaker 1: you know, your debt level. You guys like Charlemagne and
Speaker 1: they were, you know, you have a good thing going
Speaker 1: with your spouses. It doesn't matter all of those things.
Speaker 1: But it's just an indication. And you know, there's rules
Speaker 1: of engagement now. So with the depth that you guys have,
Speaker 1: is it something that y'all think about a lot? Is
Speaker 1: it stressful? Is it causing any issues at all? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we think about it. A lot. You know, it's always
Speaker 1: right there in our face every month, you know, with
Speaker 1: the bill. But like you were talking about before, me
Speaker 1: and my life are very honest with each other. That's
Speaker 1: one of the biggest things for her, she said. You know,
Speaker 1: before we got into anything, she was letting me know
Speaker 1: about honesty with her. So as far as you know,
Speaker 1: it does create a little bit of stress, you know
Speaker 1: when you know you just have to think, like, man,
Speaker 1: I just got paid, I gotta put this much towards
Speaker 1: this and you barely have anything left over. But it
Speaker 1: does create a not issues between us, but it's stress
Speaker 1: because you know it's there. You know it bothers us. What.
Speaker 1: So you guys are taking charge now to try to
Speaker 1: figure out how can you get things together financially. So
Speaker 1: let's talk about how Stacy and Operation Hope is helping
Speaker 1: in the self app Also, so Operation Hope we through
Speaker 1: a holistic approach when we're counseling individuals because being truthful
Speaker 1: in your marriage, people need to be truthful with themselves first,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people are in denial about their
Speaker 1: financial situations. So Operation Hope and helping people develop business
Speaker 1: not business individual spending plans also known as a budget
Speaker 1: but also a savings plans. So we give people to
Speaker 1: tools to rebuild their financial selves and creating a legacy.
Speaker 1: Operation Hope is one of the premises is to create
Speaker 1: a financial legacy. And in communities with minorities, the conversation
Speaker 1: is just different. And so what we do is we
Speaker 1: give people access to information and to resources. And one
Speaker 1: of the greatest resources that we're finding or through these apps.
Speaker 1: And one app that is beneficial is Self and Self
Speaker 1: has a dual benefit in that it helps you to save,
Speaker 1: but it also helps you to rebuild or build your credit,
Speaker 1: so that's really important. So I just encourage people to
Speaker 1: utilize if you have the ability. Operation Hope. Of course
Speaker 1: we're free all of our services long term, short term,
Speaker 1: our services are free, our workshops are free. But to
Speaker 1: utilize whatever is out there, whatever resources out there that
Speaker 1: makes you comfortable as well as you know the app,
Speaker 1: and I encourage people to journal and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And again, using an app like self that helps you
Speaker 1: track and self is good in that it's confined savings
Speaker 1: in that you are committing to a certain amount of
Speaker 1: money every month and it's done. They would prefer that
Speaker 1: it's automated, so that it's done monthly automatically, right, because
Speaker 1: if you miss one payment, yeah, but they report it
Speaker 1: to that. The most buller loan is they like, they'll
Speaker 1: give you five hundred dollars and they'll put it in
Speaker 1: a CD and you agree to pay twenty five dollars
Speaker 1: back a month. It forces people to save money because
Speaker 1: a lot of us use our savings accounts like checking accounts,
Speaker 1: so it help gives you that support. But it's also
Speaker 1: reporting those payments to the credit bureaus, so you're getting
Speaker 1: you know, those are that's positively reflected on your credit
Speaker 1: profile and your overall eventually your credit score. We had
Speaker 1: someone here who started with that app and they had
Speaker 1: a credit score. Remember Sharita, she was homeless three sixty
Speaker 1: two and it got to the eight hundred level. But
Speaker 1: everything we're talking about here, it's we're talking about money,
Speaker 1: but you know, there's a lot more to money than money.
Speaker 1: And one of the biggest problems couples have is we're
Speaker 1: not really talking about money when they're having fights about money.
Speaker 1: The way we saw things handled growing up have a
Speaker 1: big impression on our financial beliefs. So when you're you
Speaker 1: have to really lose the notion of right and wrong
Speaker 1: when you're talking to your spouse about money, because if
Speaker 1: you're saying something like you're a terrible spender, or you
Speaker 1: do this, you do that, you're essentially saying your mama,
Speaker 1: because that's where they you know, got that coming back.
Speaker 1: That's why money card conversations get so heated. These two
Speaker 1: are also a good example. Our culture plays a lot
Speaker 1: in our financial behavior system. Take for example, I know
Speaker 1: an African American woman who's married to a Caribbean man
Speaker 1: and he came to the United States as an immigrant.
Speaker 1: So he came to the United States wanting to get
Speaker 1: an education. He came to the United States to build
Speaker 1: wealth and was able to do that. African Americans have
Speaker 1: a history a systemic racism discrimination that's prevented them from
Speaker 1: building wealth. So a lot of times, you know, you'll
Speaker 1: see that play out in the relationship. You have to examine, Okay,
Speaker 1: what are those different attitudes, what are those different habits,
Speaker 1: and how do we get past them. The most important
Speaker 1: things for couples to remember, you're not talking about money.
Speaker 1: When you're talking about money, it's a wonderful opportunity to
Speaker 1: open up and take your relationship to a deeper level.
Speaker 1: You got to talk about you know, what are those
Speaker 1: things you saw about spending and invest in growing up?
Speaker 1: Here's what I think. Here's what's different, Stacy. I mean,
Speaker 1: Tina and Marcus are parents. One thing I tell all
Speaker 1: parents to get on the same page. Ask yourself, what
Speaker 1: are the five most important things that we want to
Speaker 1: teach our kid about money? And what do we have
Speaker 1: to do to change our own behavior to walk the
Speaker 1: walk and be that example, and those things help you
Speaker 1: get on track. So money can really help you deepen
Speaker 1: your relationship and every level. Or again, it can show
Speaker 1: you where things might not work out, because if you
Speaker 1: can't talk to somebody about that, and if they're not
Speaker 1: being honest to you about that, then you might have
Speaker 1: some bigger issues down the line. And while you talk
Speaker 1: about cultural differences accordance statatistics, they also say that black
Speaker 1: immigrants end up being economically better than black African Americans
Speaker 1: here in the United States. Absolutely. Charlotte Magne and I
Speaker 1: talked about that a lot when we've had Roger Ferguson
Speaker 1: here a couple weeks ago. Black immigrants. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of what's interesting is the black immigrant communities in
Speaker 1: the United States, they keep their money in their communities
Speaker 1: like they're creating business. They're very entrepreneurial and they do
Speaker 1: business with each other. African Americans, we've just had this
Speaker 1: history of having things stolen from us, you know, financial
Speaker 1: services industry, ripping us off, things like redlining, all these
Speaker 1: different things, and it's left a psychological toll where it's
Speaker 1: affected that our belief about ourselves. It's affected, you know,
Speaker 1: our trust in the financial services industry. So if I'm
Speaker 1: not mistaken, when you two got married, you had debt.
Speaker 1: She didn't correct, right, correct? It is those different attitudes.
Speaker 1: A lot of immigrants, you know, they have different attitudes
Speaker 1: about you know, debt and savings and investing and all
Speaker 1: that plays out in our financial experience. But again, what
Speaker 1: our message here is always to African Americans to remember
Speaker 1: about themselves. At the wealth that we've created in face
Speaker 1: of all of this stuff just shows what we're really
Speaker 1: made of and what our resilience. And if we take
Speaker 1: these deeper dives into money where we I so appreciate
Speaker 1: you all given us the opportunity to do, you can
Speaker 1: learn what you're really made of and that self worth
Speaker 1: has got nothing to do with network. So can anybody
Speaker 1: sign up like how we got how we're doing credit chronicles? Right?
Speaker 1: Can any couple sign up to get this counseling and
Speaker 1: get their finances back on track? Right? So if they
Speaker 1: go to Operation Hope's website and we have coaches again
Speaker 1: throughout the country and it's free and Puerto Rico, right,
Speaker 1: And it's free, and so you can go on and
Speaker 1: you can find a coach in your area. And the
Speaker 1: individual's commitment, the couple's commitment is the coach's commitment. And
Speaker 1: again and it's free, and it's based on the drive
Speaker 1: of the client. I call my clients my client family
Speaker 1: because it is like Stacey t said, it is more.
Speaker 1: There's your talking about more than just their finances. So
Speaker 1: you're talking about what's going on in the home, what's
Speaker 1: driving it. You're talking about how the family, how they
Speaker 1: grew up in that kind of thing. So it's really
Speaker 1: a holistic approach to being financially well. All right, So, Tina,
Speaker 1: let's say you go out and you want to make
Speaker 1: a big purchase. Maybe you want to buy yourself, let's
Speaker 1: say a new purse. Just right now, Hey, I'm just
Speaker 1: asking the question. I was speaking for him. We can't
Speaker 1: handle that right now. Let's just say you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I want to purchase something, it's two thousand dollars? Do
Speaker 1: you check with Marcus before you make a purchase. I
Speaker 1: normally don't make big purchases because try to coop on
Speaker 1: that probably, but normally I talk to if it's something
Speaker 1: that major, Yes, Marcus, And what's your response if she
Speaker 1: wants to do something, are you ever like, no, that's
Speaker 1: not a good idea or do you guys splurge sometimes
Speaker 1: and say okay, get it. You deserve it. You deserve
Speaker 1: of it. Man, it's Valentine's Day. You want to get
Speaker 1: to sell something? Like. She definitely communicates with me everything,
Speaker 1: Like I be at work, she'll call me three, four
Speaker 1: or five times in a road to let me know, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm catching this sale, I'm catching this coupon. And it's
Speaker 1: like she said, nothing really too crazy. And most of
Speaker 1: the time I kind of understand, like she's what she
Speaker 1: tries to get as things that we really need, like hey,
Speaker 1: i'm getting food for the baby, I'm getting this, you know.
Speaker 1: Uh So she did call anything she spend and she
Speaker 1: kind of lets me know though that's that's kind of
Speaker 1: what if she told you want to spend two thousand
Speaker 1: dollars on the first how would you reactly? Like? Where
Speaker 1: we got two thousand dollars? But now do you guys
Speaker 1: have it? So? Do you have a joint bank account
Speaker 1: and you guys make all your payments for everything out
Speaker 1: of that account? Or do you and do you also
Speaker 1: have separate accounts? How does that work? We have a
Speaker 1: joint bank account and we do have separate but we
Speaker 1: know about it. Um. I'm right now, I'm working, so
Speaker 1: I kind of just pay what the bills are. Um,
Speaker 1: I just try to as soon as the check comes in. Hey,
Speaker 1: this is rant, this is hard payment. Whatever we have
Speaker 1: to do, I kind of just send it out there,
Speaker 1: try to get it done immediately. So there's not much
Speaker 1: left that to So what are the goals for you guys?
Speaker 1: I know part of it is to get out of debt,
Speaker 1: but what are the other goals that you have financially?
Speaker 1: For sure, one is just to get more knowledge and education.
Speaker 1: I feel like the more you know then the better
Speaker 1: you'll be able to take care of yourself. So that's
Speaker 1: why I tend to grasp from it, or I want
Speaker 1: to get from it, and you know, honestly to also
Speaker 1: take a vacation in that worry financially, that would be nice,
Speaker 1: you know, have a family vacation and help take care
Speaker 1: for our families, you know, that would be nice and
Speaker 1: learn things that our parents doesn't know so we could
Speaker 1: impart it on our kids and our siblings and things
Speaker 1: like that. So that's that's something that I would definitely like. Man,
Speaker 1: I wish this was the kind of show we gave
Speaker 1: away prizes like vacations, but it's not all we wish now.
Speaker 1: So you guys are I mean, they're very good communication
Speaker 1: and all that other stuff, but it was really the
Speaker 1: student loans. And I know you were telling me you
Speaker 1: were the first generation and your family to go to
Speaker 1: college and you didn't understand private student loan. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm the I'm the eldest of my you know, in
Speaker 1: my family, I'm the first for my parents and both
Speaker 1: of them you know, from not from America, so they
Speaker 1: didn't get like, you know, this type of education. So
Speaker 1: I'm the first person to go to school. And originally
Speaker 1: I wasn't even going to go to school. I wanted
Speaker 1: to do the military. And then I spoke with people
Speaker 1: and they were encouraging me, no, you know, you should
Speaker 1: go to school, you know, And I'm like, am I
Speaker 1: gonna take care of And they're like, yeah, you could
Speaker 1: get loans you get and I didn't know anything about
Speaker 1: that stuff, and they encouraged me to do it. And
Speaker 1: you know, I got a NJ Class loan I think
Speaker 1: it was, which was a private loan, and I didn't
Speaker 1: know what the difference between a private loan and like
Speaker 1: the the federal one. And that's a whole another story
Speaker 1: in itself. But yeah, so that put me in a
Speaker 1: little situation there, Tina. Was there any hesitation on your
Speaker 1: part being that you didn't have any debt at all?
Speaker 1: Was there any hesitation where you're like, well, maybe we
Speaker 1: should clear this up before we get married, Like, what
Speaker 1: were your thoughts beforehand? I'm definitely, I'm sorry, sorry, Um,
Speaker 1: definitely there was because as I'm not used to that.
Speaker 1: I'm from the Caribbean jammakn so I'm used to just
Speaker 1: you know, working pain, working pain, and so I'm not
Speaker 1: used to When he told me how much it was,
Speaker 1: I had to think about it. But you know, I
Speaker 1: love him, so I figured something that would be able
Speaker 1: to tackle together. So and when you guys planning for
Speaker 1: your wedding, then how does that happen when you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I know we're taking on this debt, but we are
Speaker 1: getting married. How did the wedding happen? Because I know
Speaker 1: some people are hesitant knowing that they have financial responsibilities
Speaker 1: to spend money on something like a wedding. I had
Speaker 1: a good Okay, I had a good saving and he helped.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I have a good saving and he
Speaker 1: didn't help, but I was. I had a good saving.
Speaker 1: We diffend. That's a good woman right there. Many but
Speaker 1: you guys got married well for you and because you
Speaker 1: got married a lot younger financially, were you guys in
Speaker 1: a good space when you had to play on your wedding? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: I was in a good space. I was djan so
Speaker 1: I had mixtape money and everything was was good. I
Speaker 1: I you know, the hardest for me was just paying
Speaker 1: off the loans. I just really didn't care about the
Speaker 1: most loans at the time. I didn't. I was I
Speaker 1: just graduated from college. I didn't care about loans. I
Speaker 1: didn't care about credit cards, I didn't care about anything.
Speaker 1: I just thought they'd go away. When you graduate, right,
Speaker 1: and then when you try to buy something finally, be like,
Speaker 1: well your credit scores are two hundred and eighty and
Speaker 1: be like why and they like, you have all this
Speaker 1: debt and then you gotta go back and fix it.
Speaker 1: But that's why, you know, I'm really focused and pushing
Speaker 1: my kids to do things now that they don't have
Speaker 1: those problems. Like that's why my daughter she owns her
Speaker 1: own property at this age, so that property can pay
Speaker 1: for her school loans and do things like that. Like
Speaker 1: she said that I didn't know about you know, my
Speaker 1: parents ever taught me because they didn't know. So the
Speaker 1: fact that I have, you know, the knowledge, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to teach them early so they know. And I really,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want her to go to the
Speaker 1: college that she was to go to. I want her
Speaker 1: to go to another college with they want to give
Speaker 1: for a free ride, but she wants to go to
Speaker 1: other college. But yeah, sorry, that's just personal. But I just,
Speaker 1: you know, you just try to teach you your kids
Speaker 1: early so they know and they get the knowledge that
Speaker 1: we gain. All right, Well, when you know better, you
Speaker 1: do better. Good luck, guys. Yeah, We'll be watching And
Speaker 1: where can we watch these credit chronicles again. We're gonna
Speaker 1: credit chronicles are going to be on every wealth Wednesday.
Speaker 1: You can watch them on the Breakfast Club YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: and we're going to be following them for eight weeks.
Speaker 1: And we want everybody to be part of this process
Speaker 1: and go to um power one oh five dot com
Speaker 1: yeah website and look for self and one of one
Speaker 1: winner out there is going to get five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: towards their own debt load, which they're going to use
Speaker 1: that money towards their debt loads. So we want to
Speaker 1: build a family, will want to build a community over
Speaker 1: the next eight weeks and as they get better, we're
Speaker 1: going to get better. And we're also going to give
Speaker 1: one of you in the audience five thousand dollars to
Speaker 1: help you get better. Yeah, that's great, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: everybody can use the lessons that you guys will be
Speaker 1: learning along the way for themselves too, So that would
Speaker 1: be really helpful to people as we're all trying to
Speaker 1: get better economically, financially savvy and get out of debt
Speaker 1: and get those credit scores up. Give yourself some threadit
Speaker 1: absolutely all right. Well, thank you guys for joining us.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it. Thank you, thanks so much for having us.
Speaker 1: It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning,