Media Musings: Financially Clean
Shuan Lynda, KEREN MARGOLIS, Matthew Smith - FINANCIALLY CLEAN
Credit, Learn to live without, Education, Attention to detail and No shame in your game. These are the five key principles to living financially clean. Financially clean is a non-profit organization that aims to develop financial discipline and drive responsible decision making in youth and young adults using a relatable and practical approach.
The organization aims to help youth and young adults in underserved communities build a financial knowledge foundation to create generational wealth for themselves, their families, and their communities. They have hosted over 230 workshops across the New York area and Canada. The knowledge provided includes how to leverage credit, graduate college with minimal debt, how to become a supplier and not just a consumer, and how to make your dollar work many times over, to name a few.
The organization also owns and produces a podcast called ‘Two Black Guys with Good Credit,’ which is a show that provides education about finance in an informative, entertaining, and fun way. With weekly episodes ranging from how to make your old cellphone into money, discussions about student loans, and how to cut fat from your budget just to name a few. Usually around a certain point in every season, co-host Shaun Lynda will host a special edition of the show, called the Financially Clean Financial Literacy series where he deep dives into topics like investing, credit and creating wealth. This column will highlight the series.
The first in this series is Special Edition - Financially CLEAN Spring 2022 Financial Literacy Series Class 1. In the webinar series, everything about financial literacy is taught in a digestible and understandable way. The first episode revolves around everything around credit cards, credit, and what they mean. Our host Shaun Lynda introduces us to a wealth mindset, one where you are making other money to make you money. He explains the two different types of credit, being credit cards and loans, but this episode primarily focuses on credit cards. He preaches the importance of using your credit card to build up your credit. He argues that the use of credit cards expands your reach and resources as opposed to just using your own money.
He also offers a look into the potential negative effects of not paying off your credit cards. The importance of a good credit history when it comes to applying for loans, cars,and mortgages.
He compares and contrasts and goes over the pros and cons of credit and debit cards. Even though they look the same way they are different, with your debit card being linked directly to your bank, whereas a credit card is usually a 30-day interest free loan. He is a firm believer in the credit card being a better tool for you to use. He believes it can give you more resources and more access to money, while also building out relationships and the added benefits of earning credit card rewards and points.
He goes through the numerous benefits of having good credit. He talks about the added security making purchases through credit cards can give you and argues that the benefits of credit cards will always outweigh the benefits of simply using only debit cards.
He also goes over how to find the right bank for you. The key differences are between mega banks and community banks, and how to work the bank. He explains that at the end of the day the bank is also a business, one that looks to consolidate all the money of a certain area and loan it out with interest to make a profit. He ends the episode with an explanation of credit scores and credit bureaus, explaining what they do and a basic overview of how credit scores work.
The latest edition of the show, Special Edition - Financially CLEAN Spring 2022 Financial Literacy Series Class 3, offers another review of credit and dives deeper into the concept of the wealth mindset. Shaun Lynda says that those that have the wealth mindset, one where you use someone else's money to make money for yourself and stretching out your dollar to your full potential, will separate you from the pack.
He goes on to explain how credit can help you manage your expenses. He gives the example of a business owner, starting out it is going to be a struggle to pay all of the starting expenses, but with credit it can ease the transition. By the time you start making money, you can use that money to pay off your credit on time to further build your credit. He advises that you should never dig into your own pocket to become wealthy.
He explains his perspective as a philanthropist, as what he looks into when people pitch him business ideas. He prefers to know his exposure, or risk, when putting in his own money and always preaches to never spend more than you can lose. Risk management is essential to becoming financially clean. He ends the episode off by explaining what factors impact your credit score including length of history, mixing, and payment history.He advocates for stretching out your payments to make the best use of your resources in that timeframe.
You can learn more about financially cleans mission by visiting their website. You can listen to ‘Two black guys with Good Credit’ and all special editions of the Financially Clean web series on Apple podcasts, player.fm and wherever you may listen to your podcasts.
