How I got my 716 credit score

716 

These days I say my credit score with pride but I remain humble because less than 16 months ago I had no credit and didn't truly know what it was. This time last year my credit debt was building up. The truth is that I got a taste of the addiction lifestyle of living on credit. I was 5 credits in and it still didn't seem like enough. Then like an Angel my high school teacher Ms.Daley paid for my first financial class. Every Sunday I went to the one of a class at a church on top of a hill in Bel Air. By the 4th class I was convinced to cut and close every card I had and started my financial education of getting my hands on everything that taught me about how to rebuild credit score.

HOW I PAYED OFF 3/5 credits so far. Debt snow ball. 

Line up all your credits from smallest to largest.. Put all the extra $ you made towards lowest until you pay it off. When you pay off lowest then use that old minimum and add the money that would be used to pay the credit to the next lowest credit.

All the mistakes I have made, have turned into lessons learned.

*im not financial expert but I am a sponge and I'm learning everything I can about financials. Don't take my word study and learn about credit yourself but here are my tips. 

•ALWAYS pay the minimum on time.. But If you can pay more than the minimum, pay more. Creditors make $ off of interest, the longer you take to payoff balance the more interest you will pay on the money.. 

I was paying 19% interest so that means for every $100 dollars I was paying 19 dollars just to borrow it. 

•Don't use more than 30-50% of the credit limit. Example if the creditor gives you $100 don't spend more than $30-$50 of the 100. 

•Don't open to many credits at a time and don't allow businesses to run your credit score. 

-If I could do it all over again knowing what I know now.. below is what I would do (This is also what I will recommend to my little sister if she asks how to build her score or to anyone who has no credit at all.) 

1. First thing I would focus on learning to manage my own money. I came into a problem using credit because I didn't fully grasp how to manage my own money.. So borrowing more money made it worst. 

2. Save enough to get a secured credit card. What a secured credit card allows you to do is to build your credit with your own money. It is not a debit card but a secured credit, the difference is the secured allows you to build you credit score. 

3. Then when I learned how to manage and budget my own money and use my secured credit well I would apply for a credit card.. Either use it for expenses such as gas or emergencies and pay the amount back each month. Or I would only use the borrowed credit to build assets that bring money back into my accounts and not liabilities, things that depreciate in value after you buy them.  In the words of Tom G "invest in something." Use the credit to invest into yourself by getting a new skill or education something that will benefit you and your family. 

SN: the reason the average person gets into debt is because they have no financial education and because they buy things they don't need. I will recommend to anyone who doesn't want to make the same mistakes I made to get a few books and watch a few videos on what a credit score is compile of and learn to use it to your advantage. 

Open Letter

Dear You,

I’ve was a bio-polar lover. One day I’d be planing my life with you, and the next I would be listing the facts that made us all wrong for each other. The list started with the fact that we had nothing in common, from the music we listened to our worldviews...Nothing, but the fact that we loved each other. 

You wanted me to be a rider, but I felt you never gave me anything good to ride for. Then I wanted you to ride for me, but you didn't believe in me like I needed you to. Maybe I wasn't convincing enough, but I was trying. I tried so desperately to bring you up with me, not up in status but up in growth. Every bad thing bad made me better, but slowly and all before 21 you let it make you bitter.

I’ve always wanted you to be at peace. A place where you were satisfied and got everything you wanted in life…including me. See I told you I was a bipolar lover like that. Maybe I’m still not over you, maybe I’ll never be. Maybe 20 years from now, as I sit at the table with my husband and kids, my thoughts will go to you. I'll think about the what ifs, what if you were the man stilling across the table from me and if what if those kids still had my nose, but your freckles.

One day, I’ll tell my daughters about you when I tell them about my first love. I’m going to tell them the joys and cries, and then give them the warnings but still watch them go out into life and make similar mistakes. As Zora Neale Hurston once wrote, "There's two things everybody got to find out for theyselves: they got to find out about love, and they got to find out about living."

Your Me

The Male Version of Me #Volume1

    In all the miles we've traveled to get here, we arrived in the same city, a few feet away from one another...in this foreign city with a billion people surrounding us, I've only ever felt connected to you. We share the growing pains and our unwillingness to let go of the past.

    But everything's okay when I talk you, because every word you say reminds me that all this was destined. That 22 years ago and 24 years ago He'd already known we'd meet and how we were one and the same. 

That you would be the male version of me because we're both selfish and naive. I still think about him but you still think about her too. I'm your mirror, your reflection there to remind you all the good and bad that's in you but what I've noticed is your worst than me.

     You look at me and see your dirt that your even too afraid to tell me about. Never giving me the benefit of doubt. Still I want you to know I prayed for you. I couldn't have survived these last few years without you. You've been a constant player on my team, hiding away in my own personal locker room. Something like a teammate. A life coach too, always here motivating me, and above that putting me in my place. 

I've said all this to say that I miss you...immensely. 

How I made my first $1,000.00 in one week in 2015

2015 was a great year for me, I accomplished my goal to step up a second stream of income for myself. 
I wanted to create a form of passive of income, a term I was introduced to in Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad. Passive income is "income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it."  
My passive income came in the form of releasing my first book, Thriving Tool, a motivation book for young adults. Below I'm going to break down how I made $1,000.00 in the first week of selling my book. 

The product. I worked for a entire year to build a product worthy of consumers. I studied others books(products), and figured out how I could offer something of value you to a specific audience. Keep in mind that I'm talking about how I sold books, but the break down of how I applied things applies to anything you wish to sell.

Capitial. Every month I tackled a new aspect that would eventually bring the book to life; from paying for an editor, the cover, copyright, ISBN and barcode. I knocked out the expenses one by one, and lastly I put a down payment on the copies of Thriving Tool.

*Master P, Rapper, Business Mogul taught me via one of his interviews where he gave out some advice that I took advantage of and it was this that before you can sell a million copies, you have to sell 10, so I focused on selling one copy at a time. 

Selling. Most of my sells came from social media; Instagram, and Facebook...family and friends, and some people who had saw it on my pages, and thought it looked interesting. In the first week I stole the first 100 copies for $10 a piece. With the help of those around me, I focused on selling one at a time, until I stole every last one of them. And then just invested that money to buy more books. 

If I had to leave some valuable information with someone looking to take control of their life, and accomplish something that they always wanted to do. I would say study, study, and study whatever it is you want to do, whether it book music, writing, or boxing. So that you understand the ins and outs of what your trying to do. Next ask for help, we all want a mentor in arm's reach giving you the game to accomplishing tasks but sometimes you have to seek mentors and ask for help from strangers or take in advice for mentors far away, even if its from a TV interview. 
Lastly believe in whatever you do, we all have to start somewhere. 

When I was 13, I wanted to be Beyoncé

When I was 13, I wanted to be Beyoncé. I watched her documentaries and got a glimpse of this beautiful, ambitious woman who was so sure of what she wanted. Now after 9 more years with myself I can say finally say that for the first time in my life all I want to be is Everlecia; a beautiful, ambitious woman who knows what she wants. 

It took time to figure out who I was, and after I've spent some time alone with myself I have got the chance to fall in love with the reflection in the mirror. The part that you guys can't even see looking right at me. 

The last 3 years all I can remember was never feeling good enough, pretty enough. But these days I'm comfortable in this skin. I had to learn that the inside is mere reflection of the outside. I had to work on the inside first...  

Now I'm happy to be the bookworm,  "Daddy's lady" who thinks crying is a healthy way of life, who believes in the unrealistic, and who's a hopeless romantic above anything else.  

If you're not continuously learning, you will be left behind -Harv T. Eker

For the third time in the last three years I have read Harv T. Eker's book Secrets of the Millionaire mind, and each time I take away something new to apply to my life.

The takeaway this time around is what I want to share with you. If you're ready to grow and move onward in your life, I know that it will be something that you'll find useful.

Here it is....

Wait before I continue I want to share a secret with you on how I was able to read this book in one week..

The secret is that everyday this week I have gotten up an hour earlier than I normally get up in order to read more. I usually get up at 6 to get ready for work but this week I got up at 5, just to read.

Before evening brushing my teeth I went to the table everyday and just read. While highlighting paragraphs and sharing quotes on my snapchat. SC:Everlecia

Now that I share my reading secret here is the takeaway: Act in spite of fear. 

You and me may have this common, we let fear stop us from moving forward with things we want to accomplish in life. Harv made me aware that the key is not to get rid of that fear but to tame it.  We'll never stop having fear, worries, and doubts but we have to act in spite of it.

"We are creatures of habit, we need to practice acting in spite of fear...in spite of uncertainty, in spite of discomfort, and even to practice acting when we're not in the mood to act." -Harv T. Eker

"I'm your comfort." The Sensations of Comfort Volume 3

They think it's you that keeps dragging me back in but no it's me. I'm the one always drawing you back in. I always do this to us. It's an impulsive text sent your way that leaves me anticipating your response.(You always response) Which then always leads into an easy 3 hour conversation that reminds us why we fell in love. In those conversations we avoid talking about reasons we both know we won't work out again for the 15th time. 

Still Like clockwork, like how the sun rises in the morning, there comes the subtle "I love you" that takes our  "friendship" to a new level.  That's unconsciously takes us back into dangerous territory, and all the months I practiced resilience against you fades away. Like how I trained myself to stop checking your Facebook, and Twitter moves where you pretend to be something your not. Still when I fall in love with you again none of that matters but just as quickly as I could throw myself in to you once more, I quickly hate you again. No, I never hate you, I hate the control you have over this mind, body and soul of mine. Your my weakest. 

The truth is that it all starts with me, but you don't stop me. I creep back in but your routine, your habit is to welcome me with open arms. What I now know is that you love comfort just as much as do. I'm your comfort.  And seconds, days, months don't change that, I'm home for you. 

Maybe I'll always be here or maybe I already left and the comfort that you feel is still here is merely an illusion.