Here’s a shocking fact: It’s estimated that some 53 million Americans, or a fourth of the entire US adult population, don’t have FICO scores and about 90 percent of all lending decisions – credit cards, new car loans, home loans and others – are based on that score. Your FICO score is them number that sits on a credit report. In many ways it determines what you can and can’t do as an adult. There has been a lot of talk in recent years about a wealth gap in our country and honestly, as long as there are that many people who have no FICO scores – or who have...
A couple of headlines in the financial news recently made me look twice. One shouted that there are “15 big companies hurtling into a world of hurt.” The other declared that Saudi Arabia was going to start borrowing money for the first time in ages. Had I suddenly followed Alice down the rabbit hole into Wonderland where conventional wisdom and logic are tossed out the window? All the companies that were getting ready to announce significant losses were from the S&P 500 and included a wide range of industry sectors: Hess (oil), Amazon.com (online retail and...
I was reading an article in USA Today recently about the difficulties faced by people investing for their eventual retirement. The writer commented, “…you know that you should spend your days tracking your portfolio, trading frequently and, well, tracking your portfolio.” He went on to point out the undeniable truth that many of us would prefer to be doing other things, such as enjoying a good book, traveling or pursuing our hobbies. However, when your retirement funds are tied up in stocks, bonds, commodities and other market-based securities, the price...
If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs. I would love to have been the first to say that, but it’s a quote from a very wise businessman from India named Dhirubhai Ambani. He wrote that in his book, “Against All Odds: A Story Of Courage, Perseverance And Hope.” Ambani was speaking a simple truth that is extraordinarily relevant today because if you are always merely working for the wages someone else pays you, your financial dreams will never become a reality. The key to creating wealth today is to recognize that we...
