Steps to help boost your credit score and build your wealth

The Street

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.

Transcript

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.

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