Growth & Grace

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group and Chris glow and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and Moore the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education even

Music 0:18
better than I was the last time, baby, we back and

we back and we back and we back and we back and we back, we back, and I was the last you eat. That was the

Leaha Crawford 0:42
last time. Good. Good morning, Las Vegas, Hey, how are you? How you doing? I'm good. How are you? How was your week?

Julian Rosado 0:51
Um, it was pretty. I love the rain. I love you, yeah, yeah. I love the rain. I went to my client's house, and so he said, You want to try cigars. So we went on this patio. We smoke cigars, right? Yeah, yeah. That's, that's what he, he loved to do. And so he had cigars. And then I don't know what kind, because I never, I never, ever smoked. And then he had a red wine. And so I drink red wine, and then I realized that's something I don't like together. So, so, and I don't know how to smoke cigars, so I apparently I was puffing too much. And then so immediately, yeah, I started choking, and then I actually threw up.

Leaha Crawford 1:37
That was too much. Okay, that's TMI, too much information, too much information.

Julian Rosado 1:42
So I think you

Leaha Crawford 1:44
have to learn how to smoke cigars.

Julian Rosado 1:45
Yeah, that's a little warning to people. So if you don't know how to smoke cigars, yeah, if you don't know smoke cigars, uh, be be transparent. Tell them. Listen, I don't know what I'm doing. Okay, can you show me first? Show

Leaha Crawford 1:59
me first. Show me first. No, there's a whole there's a lot of cigar smokers here in the valley, yeah? And men and women, yeah, men and women that smoke cigars. Here's a whole movement. Well, I'm not the rain, yeah? Courtney, you know, I didn't get caught in the rain, but I washed my car the same day it rained. How about that? Oh, yeah. The next day it rained, I should say that. And I was just like, Okay, you wash your car and then it rains. Yeah, didn't look at the weather. Yeah, you know, but I say it's good luck, though, when that happens, it is, yeah, okay, well, I'll take it, I'll take it. I'll take it. Well, y'all today we have a special guest, and we're going to talk about just a whole bunch of different things, budgeting, checking your credit, and just get some tips and tricks. Um, because I'm gonna have Julian get interviewed like he's coming in as a client, so we can get some good questions. Yes, you know, we have frank with Operation Hope here. Frank's first of all, gonna tell us a little bit about Operation Hope and, um, his role, what he does, and then we're going to see, um, we're gonna interview Julian, and we're gonna see if we can help Julian with some budgeting and credit repair. Well, not Credit Repair, but you know how to improve your credit, not repair. So hi, good morning. Good morning.

Frank Ruvalcaba 3:08
Leah, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Great? Is bad? It's great to be back. Thank you for the invite, Julian. It's nice meeting you. And as you mentioned, I'm My name is Frank De Waca. I'm with Operation Hope, as you mentioned, and one my title is a financial well being coach. I like that for the organization. And a little bit about the organization. Operation Hope was founded by John Hope, Brian, and the organization was founded after the 1992 LA riots, John Hope has been improving financial inclusion in economic empowerment in the underserved communities. He's been around for a while. He has been around

Leaha Crawford 3:54
because he does a big event in Atlanta. Yes, I think every year the organization

Frank Ruvalcaba 3:58
based out of Atlanta. So yeah, that's where, you know, everybody takes place by actually, my phone numbers, you know, has an Atlanta number. So when I talk to people, as you know, you know, people think that it's a a telemarketer calling. So sometimes you know my number, they don't answer my call right away. But that's the reason why I have an Atlanta number, because it's, we're based out of Atlanta, out

Leaha Crawford 4:21
of Atlanta, correct? Okay, so what is that Atlanta number? Look at the number first. It's 40440499499490901111

so that's 404-994-9011

so with Operation Hope. Well, I like the well being. I like that because that's something different a well being coach, correct, because it's all encompassing,

Frank Ruvalcaba 4:48
yes. And basically what I do is that I teach people how to, first of all, understand their credit. Most people don't know about their credit. They just. Or that, oh, I got a quick score. I have I open up an account. But basically they don't, they don't understand the purpose of credit. They don't understand how credit works. And that's when a lot of times people start calling into having credit issues or credit managing their credit, because they don't know any better about, you know, what is consist of? What is it that you need to do with your credit? How to work with your credit to help you, you know, financially in the long run? Yeah, maybe

Julian Rosado 5:31
you could start off like with the basis. So what is the difference between Equifax, Experian and then, what's the TransUnion? TransUnion? Well, these

Frank Ruvalcaba 5:42
are three different agencies that the creditors use to report on someone's ability to pay back a an account, so not every creditor. And the reason why there is three different scores in all three agencies, because not every creditor reports to all three credit bureaus. Some creditor might report to just one, another one maybe to two. So that's why there's a variance as to why there's different credit scores when you ever whenever you apply for credit, or even if you try to purchase at home. That's why lenders use the middle of the three scores to give you a leverage as to, okay, so you have a high score, you have a low score, they'll take the middle of the three to kind of leverage out your your overall credit. But the reason why is, like I said, you know the that not everybody reports all three credit bureaus. So that is why there's, you know, the score is a little different on all three of them.

Leaha Crawford 6:47
And that's interesting, because they take the median and not the average correct. They take the median, so they take the one, and they always take the one in the middle, nice. I used to hear that a lot. They take the one in the middle. So

Julian Rosado 6:57
it's a bit the middle score. We call the middle score, yeah, so that's a bit of hands up. Yeah. Well, that's

Leaha Crawford 7:03
good in a way, because you could have a wide range, because one could be 651 is 720 but the one in the middle is 700 and if they took an average, your average would be around in the 670 range, right? But by taking the median there, even though the difference between the for the difference between the first two is 20 points, but between the second and the third is 50, yeah, so they're taking that middle score because that's like, yeah. So it's not an average, it's a median. I like that, right?

Frank Ruvalcaba 7:31
And 35% of that credit score is composed of how you make your your it's a payment history. So whenever a person has a credit card, you know, and credit varies between a credit card which is revolving, you have an auto loan, which is an installment loan. And so as a person makes their monthly payment, 35% of that score becomes as to how, how your payments were made on time. And when a person misses a payment, that is big impact on their score, because of the fact that that's the majority of the of the score being based on their on their monthly payment. And don't miss a mortgage payment, oh my goodness, yeah, exactly. Mortgage

Leaha Crawford 8:14
payments are the worst. Yeah, car payments, maybe not so much. Mortgage payments are they can drop your score drastically.

Julian Rosado 8:23
Well, immediately. Drops your score immediately. Wow. But with

Leaha Crawford 8:26
mortgage payments, it is because you have until the 15th. It doesn't become late until after the end of the month. So if you become a month behind, it can drastically drop your score,

Frank Ruvalcaba 8:40
yeah, because that's what it's called a 30 day lead on your on your credit 30 Dave, you have, whenever you do a mortgage, they usually the payment is on the first, right. That is exactly what it says on the payment is one the first they give you until the 15th with a grace period. And after the 15th, they will charge you like, 5% late fee, late fee. But it's not actually late until you have until you pass the 30 days, yeah, and that's when it hits on your credit report and it hits

hard, yeah? What

Julian Rosado 9:10
is a complex financial answer that you have to give to somebody with very, very little literacy of their credit, yeah, yeah, of, basically, of of their finances.

Frank Ruvalcaba 9:32
Well, one of the things that that we, pretty much,

Julian Rosado 9:35
I don't know if I worded that right.

Leaha Crawford 9:36
Well, okay, so, so let's let Okay, so what, what do you what do you want to know?

Julian Rosado 9:41
So let's say, if I know nothing about nothing, right? And I have, but I have a very complex question. So, so let's say, I want to, I want to buy a house, right? That's

Leaha Crawford 9:59
complex. No? Yeah,

Julian Rosado 10:02
but I want to use my business credit, and I also want to add my work and I want to add my, my business finance, and also want to add my, my work finance. So

Leaha Crawford 10:13
you've been watching YouTube videos? No, I'm just saying because that's where that will come from. You've been watching YouTube videos because most people don't come with that complex, yeah, most people don't come most people. So when you're talking about your average consumer, they're not business owners. So business owners are, well, no, but business owners are subset, and LLCs can buy houses. They can buy houses, yeah, but LLCs don't qualify for the first time homebuyer programs. No, no, they don't. They don't qualify for the first time homebuyer programs. I'm sorry, I'm taking over this part. What is not told is, when you buy something with the LLC, in order for you to sell it, the LLC needs to be active. Yeah, right. So if you hold a property, the LLC needs to remain active, yeah? Because when the title company looks up to LLC, it needs to be in good standing. It needs to be active. So it's a very interesting concept, because I hear a lot of people talking about it now, and I just Yeah, only because they want to get by the personal credit. They don't want to use their personal credit, yeah,

Frank Ruvalcaba 11:20
so just to start with basics, as you mentioned about somebody that knowing about credit or anything like that, there's, there's several components of credit. You know that what the credit report they have they provide, like their personal information, that's what the credit report has. It has your name, your address, phone number, date of birth, your current and previous addresses. That's what the you know the report contains. Now it also contains account information. The account information can be a credit card, could be a loan, uh, increase, and that increase meaning, like, if you have actually solicited, uh, requested credit. That's what any previous so when a person starting to build credit, they need to know that the basics as to what is it that they're going to be reporting, you know, Lana, as I mentioned, it's also, it accounts 35% of the credit scores based on their monthly payment. It also has, you know, how much you own a credit card. So if you're starting out, if you knew into credit and you get a credit card, say, for example, from a bank that it's $1,000 credit card, just because you have $1,000 doesn't mean that you need to spend $1,000 to start building credit. Yeah.

Julian Rosado 12:36
I was always told that. Well, I was told about you just been 30%

Frank Ruvalcaba 12:42
Yeah, keep that under 30. Yeah. About 30. 35% of the credit limit. Yeah? Because what happens is this, is that when you have, when you start in credit, and you get a credit card, and then you max it out, now they're gonna look at one, you're new to credit, the count is new, and two, you already maxed it out. So

Leaha Crawford 13:00
let me ask you, so that's a high risk. I do have a question for you, yeah, what about the cards when I'm limited?

Frank Ruvalcaba 13:06
Oh, yeah, student, unlimited. Card, unlimited? Well, that's when somebody already has established credit and stuff like that. But somebody that is beginning with credit, say, say somebody just had a high school or college or whatever they want to start they're gonna, they're not gonna give them an unlimited credit because they have no credit established.

Leaha Crawford 13:24
So let me because what I've seen too is someone will put an a parent will put a child on their credit card, right, and they now have unlimited credit.

Frank Ruvalcaba 13:39
Yeah, that's considered, that's, that's what it's called, an authorized user, authorized, Oh, yeah. Now the authorized user does have its limitations, though. You can, you as a parent, can say, Okay, well, I'm gonna give it my client, my son, a a in a credit card or a card access to the to my account. In some cases, they can limit, okay, for this particular because they have it for this card, make it $2 Exactly. Make it a, say, for example, only a they can only use, like, say, $500 Oh, uh, whatever the amount may be. So that's something that the parent will have to contact the creditor and put a limit to that spending card.

Leaha Crawford 14:18
Got it because I but I've seen people. I mean, I've seen, you know, people do that. They actually, the parents have amazing credit, and they give the child so now the child has a profile, but they also get on bank accounts and different things like that to build their credit profile, right? I know those chime cards. Think it's chime cash. I mean, just cash, app cards, it's all these different things. And

Frank Ruvalcaba 14:41
I think some of the banks are actually now, actually now allowing a minor, per se, to have a card right for that, for that purpose to start. And the thing is that we got to teach our children how to start managing credit. And you know, that's something that is going to be you need to teach them, because that's basics. I mean. Know, if they don't know how to manage their finances, they got to learn, you know, at some point. So, but having the proper information you know helps, you know, goes a long way. So that's why one of the things that we do is that we teach, you know, this financial you know, literacy to you know, teach them about basic credit basics. What does it entail? You know, why the do's and don'ts of having a credit card or over spending? You know, budgeting, that's another thing that we also do. We help with budgeting. So my, as I mentioned on my my introduction, I'm a financial well being coach, so I, that's my my role in the organization is for me to come to the community and but provide this basic information financial literacy. You know, what is it? How we can improve your credit? How can you establish credit? Now, for those people that already have credit, but they actually have issues with their credit, that's because they didn't know all this information of how to manage it, what, entails, you know, not to overextend your credit and things like that. Now we do, are we going to be putting out workshops where we, you know, we show them, you know, from start to finish, and what is it? It is so they can better understand and better manage their finances. Now, for those, those clients that they already have credit, but they have challenges with the credit. We're not a repair and we're not a credit repair agency, but we can, we can provide them the tools to improve their credit, like if they have a collection, why was the account sent into collection? So one example, yeah, we help them how to either negotiate with the collection agency to get that account paid off and improve the credit. Or if it's something that they had where they had a identity theft that account when somebody else used your credit. So all these tools that we have, we provide to the to the community so they can, you know, improve your credit. We had clients that had 500 credit scores, and now they're in the, you know, 600 700 FICO scores, as they, you know, as long as they work with us, they do their part of it. Me as a coach, I gotta, you know, my responsibility is to teach this, the responsibility of the individuals, for them to be able to participate in the program, learn the program, you know, learn the basics of it, and then it take, take charge of using the tools to bet to improve their credit. So it's a, it's a win, win. You know, we provide them information, and they, you know, they take it, and then they, you know, we can improve their credit. Okay, all right,

Leaha Crawford 17:31
so you're listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford, this is Julian Rosado, and we have Frank. I can't pronounce his last name, y'all, that's why I don't say it. But I say Frank, with Operation Hope here in the studio with us, I want to delve deeper into the budgeting, because let's give a quick a quick lesson. How would you start to teach someone how to budget? Well,

Frank Ruvalcaba 17:53
one of the things that we do on that is that I don't know what the person's income is, or I don't know what the person's expenses is. So one of the things that we do is that we provide them a worksheet for them to fill out. Okay, now you tell me, you know, what is your monthly income or your hourly rate? They're gonna have to provide documentation so we can better understand how much is their total income. We'll also tell them, Okay, on the worksheet is gonna show how much they're going to have to write down how much to pay rent, how much they pay in utilities, what expenses they have, and based on that, now we can see, okay, so we look, we look at their bank statements to see how what their spending habits are. So once we have the basics as to how much money they earn and what is their their fixed expenses like, you know, rent, utilities, credit cards. And the other thing that we also look at is that, once we look at their their bank statement, we look at how what they're spending on, like, they're going to Starbucks a lot, or they're going to, you know, whatever other other expenses they have. Okay, now we look at that, it's like, what, this is your base, this is your income. This is your basic expenses. How we can cut down on your additional expenses that are, you know, you're spending like, say, for example, Starbucks, and not to, you know, go, you know, against them. But anything, you know, a lot of people like, you know, spending money on on coffee. So once we see that, okay, you spending, you know, too much on this. You might want to cut it. Yeah, surprise, they add up. They start adding up. So one of the things that I don't tell you how to spend your money, but I can pinpoint, okay, you're spending too much on this. So how we gonna how we're gonna help you. Budget is like, Okay, you need to cut down this expenses now, if you have too much credit card debt, if you make cuts on this now you can use that money that you're saving on on that particular item and apply it to your credit card so you can start lowering your balances. I. Or maybe you don't have credit card debt, but you have you want to build a emergency fund, then you can use that, the money that you're cutting from that particular unnecessary expense, and you can start putting it aside to start building a an emergency fund. So that's how we tell I

Leaha Crawford 20:17
use a little bit of some different people's teachings with emerge, because I do emergency because I do emergency fund first, right? Emergency funds is first. And emergency funds is depending on where you are, where you live. So if you are a homeowner, your emergency fund is X amount of dollars, and let's call it maybe 2000 if you live in an apartment, less expenses, maybe it's $500 and what I encourage when our clients first come in is build that emergency fund. I don't care what you do for the first month, build that emergency fund. You got 30 days, and that emergency fund sits there. You only use it for emergencies. I can tell you, it's a lifesaver, because when you have that money sitting there, when something happens, you're not using the high credit cards, right? You're using the emergency fund, and that mindset has helped a few of my I mean, and different friends have different amounts, and we giggle, because when something happens, we just use the emergency fund, and then you replenish the emergency fund and go back to your plan, right?

Frank Ruvalcaba 21:15
And that's how, pretty much the the budgeting part of it, that's where it comes into play knowing exactly what is your your fixed expenses, so you can cut down. I was like, oh, you know what? And most people, most of us, don't realize that we're spending too much on McDonald's or whatever the situation is. So when you sit down and look at, oh, my God, I already spent like $500 on this, you know, I'm gonna cut it down. I'm gonna, instead of spending $500 I'll spend, you know, 200 now they now you have an additional $300 that you can use to, oh, my credit card now it's, you know, the balance on this credit card is higher than I expected. So let me just start paying down that credit card so I can, you know, reduce my debt to income ratio, and I have more more money that I can use to put aside, like Leah said, for an emergency, for an emergency situation. So that's how we teach people how to, you know, budget, and make sure that they are aware of their finances. Because if you are aware of how much you're, you're you're spending, you're not going to know you're not going to be able to accomplish, like, all of saving up an emergency fund, or paying down your credit or anything like that, or maybe just save for a annual trip with your family to, you know, to get out of the chaos that we live in on the daily basis.

Julian Rosado 22:31
So let's say if you had a Amex card, and then you max it out due to certain situations, and then you feel like you ruined that relationship. Is it possible for you, for one to, like, build that relationship back up? Or no, they they already marked you as a as a high risk client.

Frank Ruvalcaba 22:52
Well, as long as a credit card doesn't go into non payment and then into collection, you're fine. I mean, you can have a credit card like, as long as you make the payment, the creditor is not going to care that you maxed out. I mean, for them, it's better because now they're paying higher interest. Because you're making your your minimum payment is higher, therefore they're collecting more, more interest out of you. So as long as a credit card is in good standing, as far as payment goes for to them, they don't care, you know, because they're still receiving their funds, but

Julian Rosado 23:21
no, if it's not in good standing, or if it's not in good standing,

Leaha Crawford 23:24
but you didn't add that on to that. That's not what you said. You said that the car was maxed out, because being maxed out is different from, yeah, not being in good standing, right? And and be and, just to be clear, and you want to make sure that you differentiate between that, right? So a lot of credit card companies, after you pay that bill, not all of them, in some years, they have Second Chance accounts. A lot of them have Second Chance accounts. But again, when you get cards, you got to be responsible. You have to be responsible because most cards charge an annual fee. And depending on the level of the card or the type of card it is, your annual fee can be anywhere from $50 to hundreds of dollars. And you want to be mindful that credit you got to be it's responsible with credit. You know, some people are against credit. They're like, you don't need any credit at all. Just get out of debt and stay out of debt. And some are, you use credit strategically. You use it strategically because it's the use of money. And you pay for the use of money, because sometimes when you add up the interest that you're paying on credit cards, you're like, Oh my God. I mean, I'm paying so much money and interest on credit cards that I really need that item.

Frank Ruvalcaba 24:39
Yeah. So one of the you know, and again, it goes back to knowing how to manage your finances. And so with with a credit card, you know, going back to your original question, you know, as long as you're making the monthly payment, you know, they're fine with it. But as Leah mentioned, you know, the high the. Higher the amount that you have as on the balance on the card you're the higher the interest you're paying. So that's what we teach them, like, okay, so if you can cut down expenses, try to pay down the credit card with the highest interest rate, and then when you work your way down the line with the other credit cards that you're making as you're you're paying off that you're, you know, applying that payment that you're applying for that particular card to the that is paid off now you can apply to the other one so you can get out of debt faster. So what would

Leaha Crawford 25:27
you do? So if someone came to you with a bunch of credit card debt, they already they have credit. What advice would you give to them to start paying down the debt? How would you tell them to organize it, to pay down the debt?

Frank Ruvalcaba 25:37
Well, as we mentioned, we need to start with the budget first. So how much money they have, where they're spending their money, okay? And depending where they're spending their money are, is being spent. Then we start Okay, now we have to focus on certain cards. Now, one of the things I will look at is like, okay, so how much do you owe, as far as, like, the the balance of your credit cards? Um, it's much easier sometimes to start with at once with a lower balance, because it's much easier to get out of a pay off a, say, a $500 credit card than to go in directly into the the credit card that you owe $5,000 so pay down the one with a smaller the smaller balance. Then once you're done with that. Now if you were sending, say, say, $50 payment or $100 payment to that card, now that you have an extra $100 that you can send to the to the next card. So now, instead of sending a minimum payment, or say that you were sending $100 now you can send 200 and eventually, now becomes what is called a snowball,

Leaha Crawford 26:32
that snowball, that snowball. So that's how we you know, but it works. Yeah, it actually works. But biggest thing, when you charge it off, don't use it Yeah, I'm sorry not knowing charge when you pay it off, not charge it off. When you pay it off, just be conscious and give yourself a reward when you pay stuff off on that

Frank Ruvalcaba 26:51
one of the things that that Leah just said is, like it works, but you got to stick to the plan, because if you pay that extra payment to bring down the balance, like, for one month, and then you stop paying it for for two or three months, and you only make the minimum payment that extra, you know. So it's not gonna it's not gonna be if you're not consistent with trying to pay down your balances, it's not gonna help. It's gonna take you longer to pay off a credit card. But if you're consistent, if you're consistent, yeah, eventually you get to the goal of paying, paying down the debt.

Leaha Crawford 27:24
But, well, I can tell you this, though, but if you don't reward yourself in the process, this is what I've seen, people will pay it down and get back into debt. So you have to enjoy life

Julian Rosado 27:34
too, yeah, like you said, already built build that muscle.

Leaha Crawford 27:37
Yeah, you gotta. You gotta build the muscle. But you also have to enjoy life, you know. And maybe you'll be creative. Find some creative things to do that don't cost as much money, yeah, you know, find some creative things to do. Well, this is coming to the end of our show for today. You know, Frank, we still have some more to talk about, so we have to bring you back on. I look forward to working with you, maybe sending some clients over to you to talk about it again. The number that he can be contacted at is 404-994-9011 again, 404-994-9011 Do you have any closing words for us?

Frank Ruvalcaba 28:13
Well, I want to thank you for inviting me to your show and making the community aware that we're here locally to assist clients that have the need of getting financially, financially educated, helping them with, you know, improving their credit, or, you know, or their finances and stuff like that. So my as you mean you already provided my number, so I'm here locally. Thank you again for for giving me the opportunity to reach your audience about you know what we do while we focus on and hopefully we can make a difference in the community.

Leaha Crawford 28:50
Hope, huge impact. Well, thank you. That's a wrap for growth and grace. Remember, growth is a journey, and grace makes it worthwhile. Keep pushing forward, keep showing up, and, most importantly, keep giving yourself grace. You know, budgeting and finance is huge, because financial well being is a life changer. I'm Leah Crawford, this is Julian Rosado, and we will see you next week. Bye. You.