All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

and.......?

hehehe, I like it.  First build your credit as there are lenders out there that are just credit based.  

Is this a traditional lender?  I'm only asking because I connected with a lender today who is strictly score based.  This works for my business owner clients who are interested in investment money.   

Traditional lenders have underwriting requirements that you must meet.  A whole other type of ball game.

Depending on your credit you may be able to consolidate your loans - try a lender like Sofi or Earnest.  Typically they can bundle everything, lower interest rate and no prepayment penalty.  One of my clients, an Anesthesiologist had 300K of student loan debts, we worked to improve the credit a bit, then a consolidation via Sofi and her payment was reduced by $1100 a month.  She loves me now.  I am a credit nerd, lol.  :)  I hope this helps.

I work with credit challenged clients all day, every day and the five things you can control are your payment history, your debt load or amounts owed (which should be no higher than 30% of your available line of credit - do this for your revolving debt), length of history so keep your cards open, new inquiries can really ding your score so first find out what are the underwriting guidelines before you let anyone pull your credit.  You may find out beforehand that you won't qualify so do your homework first and types of credit lines you have.  All of this is the basics but then the devil is in the details....which would require a much longer post.  I hope this helps.

Once again, great advice from Josh.

You know you can improve your credit yourself and if all you need is a few points it should not be that difficult.  Keep in mind that the score you see as a consumer can be as much as 30-40 points higher than what a lender sees due to risk of loss.  With that being said try to drive your score up higher than what the lender requires is my best advice.

Good luck!  

It sounds like you received the help that you need.  My humble opinion is that you really need to develop budgeting muscles.  I am curious about this and I ask my clients this question all of the time:  Do you look forward to a hefty income tax return every year?  If so, this is an interest free loan that you are providing the government.  I would suggest you sit with a CPA to evaluate this part of your payroll.  It's possible that you can increase your income by opting out of receiving that yearly windfall.  The key is to make sure that you use this additional money for debt and not for fun & games.  Delayed gratification is key, give up the latte ($4 a day x 5 days x 50 weeks = $1000 - ouch, do you really want that latte now?) and finally develop a real relationship with your money.  Become cash focused and use cash instead of swiping your debit or credit card.  The energy of money is far more intense than the energy of plastic.  Trust me, buying a latte with a $100 bill is not something you really want to do.  You'll probably start making your coffee at home. :)  Good luck, you are motivated and that is the key.