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. 

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. 

Why Beyonce and Jay Z are the greatest!

It's no secret to my close family and friends on how much I love Jay-z and Beyonce. Last week a dream of mine came true when I got to attend their On The Run Tour concert. The show itself was beyond amazing, and I don't want to ruin it for people who plan to watch the show on HBO in the coming months. But I wish to share what I feel was my favorite part of the show, and its not what you would expect to be my favorite because it was a few words not lyrics said by jay-z. Days after the concert his words have been playing over and over in my head over and over.  He said, "dream big and be unrealistic." He also explained that a girl from houston(beyonce) and a boy(him) from Brooklyn being at the stadium performing for all of us was once unrealistic. 

I think that his words touch me so much, because I feel like he is living proof that the sky is really the limit. And even after many people may write you off in life, you still can do it. Overall I think that his small message gave me hope, not just his words but their entire concert because as they played some of their hits that are 10 years old,I realized that it took great time and effort to become the greats that they are. It wasn't overnight that they got to the top level of selling out stadiums. It shows me that I too can become great overtime,  If i do my due diligence, and keep climbing and moving in my career.

@Everlecia 

What Will Smith Confirmed for me

    Sometimes I break my own heart, simply because I'm the type of person that looks at the bigger picture of things when it comes to a lot of my goals. When it instead I should be honing in on the small steps it takes to accomplish those goals. 

    The perfect is example is when I first started writing my book. I had this amazing idea on how my book would turn out once completed. But as I worked towards that idea it wasn't easy at all as I focused way too much on the bigger picture of things.

    As anyone who has ever completed anything before knows that in the beginning and in the middle of that process, often times its not always easy to see your vision, especially when you still have a long way to go. I had to realized that the key to completing anything in life was and is to focus all your energy on completing one step at a time, for me the first step was creating my first sentence, then paragraph then chapter. Until all the pieces and steps completed my first book in it's entirety; This Is Not A Book, This Is A #ThrivingTool.   

    Actor, Will Smith confirmed my new found concept with the way he tackles projects as well. When asked what he learned after building a entire wall for his dad's store, when originally he told his daddy that he couldn't because he thought it was impossible for him and his younger brother, as they were 12 and 9 at the time. After a year and a half they did it, and that is when he learned the the key was laying one brick perfectly, then another and another until he had a wall, and saw how everything was to be approach that way to make accomplishing things easier. We must look it the same, Every small step is a brick that is creating our wall/goal. 

Every small step is a brick that is creating our wall/goal. www.njhorseplayer.com

+everlecia taylor 

@Everlecia 

7 Major Changes that Allow for Self-Improvement

Today, I'm sharing simple but potentially life changing tools that have improved areas in my life and more certainly things that I feel can help improve yours as well if you give them a shot.


#1) Spending Time Alone 

 I have found that I have learned a lot about myself when spending time alone. I got a chance to learn what I enjoyed and didn't enjoyed without factoring in others feelings.  As I learned more about myself it was easier to learn and observe more about others while out.

#2) Daily Reflection

It's the daily goals that we set that allows us to eventually accomplish the major goals. And from personal experience I feel deeply that a little daily reflection is a game changer because when you force yourself to answer 'how can you improve for tomorrow', you come up with answers and you make little improvements that turn into big ones.

#3) Reading

1. It improves your reading skills. 2. Improves your social skills. 3. Because I said so lol.

#4) Writing Down Ideas

The best way I can think to improve yourself, is to simply think of ways to do so.  Example. the idea of cutting bad habits

#5) Working on Passion Projects

When I was working long hours at the mall making what seemed to be a lot of $, I still didn't feel more alive until I'd come home and start working on my book. I think it gave me hope that I was still moving forward to do something I love for a living.

#6) Reward your Progression! 

No matter how old you are, you still have the little kid in you that feels good when your hard work is noticed, so before anyone else starts notices, you reward your own progression and celebrate yourself.


#7) Help me Come with the last Self-improvement Tool.

All you have to do is comment a useful tool below. Please and thank youuu.  Also, if you have found this article helpful please share it with a friend.



@Everlecia

How to Get Closer to Your Dreams?

We all have dreams but why don't we all attempt to follow our dreams?

I think I have the answer and it is certainty. The reason we hesitate to follow our dreams is that we aren't sure if we'll reach them or not. Because think about if we all were 100% certain that chasing our dreams would get us the life that we desire, no one would delay another second. But it's the doubt and fears which keep us right where we are; far from our dreams. 

I believe you have to create a sense of certainty in your head that your dreams will come true. "Fake it until you make it",  which means seeing your dreams come true way before they happen. And as you develop a sense of certainty that it will happen, you also increase your faith. 

You may know where you want to go but no one knows how they'll exactly get there. So you MUST grow faith and realize that everything will fall into place as you move closer to your dreams.

Today, choose to focus on one step that gets you closer to your dreams. 

And it starts with you focusing on the first step it takes to getting closer to your dreams then when the next step comes along give all of your focus to that step and so forth.

- @Everlecia