How often do you think about credit?
You know?
You got me? You got me?
Why the how, the pitfalls, the benefits. I'm Troy Millions and together with my partner Rashad Balau, we have been financial educators under the unger Lijia banner and in this series we can partner with Chase Freedom Rise to talk to the next generation about credit confidence and specific steps to building something real. This is Foundation Forward Episode two. What is the time to start your credit journey?
My name is Jaden Wilson. I live in Santa Barbara, California.
It's a really beautiful day today.
I am studying economics. I have my real estate license, I have an IT internship, and I work at a local restaurant. I've seen my parents, you know, they are definitely a big inspiration for me on why I work so hard, you know, seeing my dad like do his job and just see how my mom handles our finances. Like they've had me understand like a different side of
things where it's like saving money on everything. It's every day that extra dollars ten dollars that you save here, it's going to need something And dobli are you talking to a financial expert? I hope to learn the different ways I can improve my credit usage and my credit score, and how I can get loads in the future for my house.
Gen z Express a general aversion to credit cards, describing them as giving them the eye.
Man, how you doing?
It's going on, man, Troy Jaden, pleasure need you man?
How you doing? Man?
I'm doing really good. Thanks for coming and taking time out of your day to come and see me.
Oh man, thank you for joining us. So I hear you a man of many.
Hustles, Do you have any level of financial anxiety or fear or does anything keep you up at night thinking about finances?
Definitely? When I turn around at like twenty five and I look at all these years I worked all like the money, and I realized I only have like a very small fraction of none of it after all those years of working, what was the point of alving every decision I make? Money is probably the first thing then I think about. I mean, like it's like if like everyone wants to go out to eat, you know, it's like thirty dollars, Like do I want to spend that?
Everyone wants to go vacation somewhere, like, you know, do I go do that? Like you can't start in the future, like you don't have all this time. It's like you got to start now. You have to start today, you know. And it's like when you learn about compound interest, you know, and it's like you got to start doing it. You're gonna do it early, you know. It's like the first three years could be millions of dollars in difference down the line. So it's like, that's my mentality always say.
Sixty eight percent of gen z report that credit card bill has caused them stress and anxiety.
Oh have you started to have experiences with credit cards yet?
Yes, yeah, I have.
How's that been.
I got my first card, my first credit card when I first moved to Santa Barbara in my freshman year. It's it's definitely been like a learning curve because it's almost like you're giving like all this power and you don't know really what to do with it. I was always kind of confused on like I don't want to get another one and then like that like affect me on the line when getting another one, or I also don't want to get one and then not have like a use for it. I guess like that's like what
I want to learn. It's just like, how can I make it work for me? You know? How could I make this money throughout?
Without question? Jaden is a hard worker, and he reminds us of another hustler a little further along on his journey, a creator would start to make his credit grow in the city that Never sleeps.
When I came to college, I started major in computer science, major in economics for a little bit political science to do something in politics, and I finally, just like I realized that I wanted to just study history.
And probably just two.
Months before I graduated, I made my first TikTok that blew up, and that's why I made the decision just start social media.
Khalil Green has been nominated for two Emmys, is a Peabody Award winner Forbes Thirty Under Thirty, and the first Black student president at Yale University. He is a gen Z historian blending education and entertainment. We sat down with him to speak about his credit journey and any pearls of wisdom he made.
Have for Jaden.
When I got to college, there were students around me who some of them had credit cards. I realized that making all these purchases and not doing on a credit card was almost wasted potential because I could start building my credit, I could start thinking about how I can better my credit score. I mean, it feels so dumb now, like you need to use the credit card to get a lot of the benefits from it. I didn't know how much it would affect me until much later on
when I was applying for my first apartment. But luckily I listened to that voice in the back of my head saying, Okay, this is something you should start doing. I didn't always understand the difference between debit and credit cards.
Some people think a credit card is like a gift card in a sense, where is if you have a two thousand dollars limit, you're supposed to spend two thousand dollars.
But it's probably even worse because I feel like I knew that, but I still living. Like sometimes it just creeps up on you. Any work, when you're hustling, you have like odd jobs. You have really good months, and you have really like bad months, and you have to be intentional about finding somewhere in the middle that you can just put in your head for like how much you should spend months to month. So I have a good month. I have ten brand deals, five viral videos, got one hundred k new followers.
The money might super fluctuates. Man, there's a moment in every young man's life when you get the credit card, and then there's a moment when that credit limit gets increased. Yeah, exactly. One of the ways to help build it is to be diverse.
Because rent factoring, like, what other things should I be thinking about that I can add in easily?
Yeah, I think credit utilization. That's a big piece of it, over thirty percent. How much debt do you have? The mixture is important, The length of it is important. So they look at your credit from a percentage base point, and fifteen percent of that score is going to be the mixture of credit. Another fifteen is the length of your credit, so yeah, how long have you had the credit?
So really it's a trustworthy system. So if you factor all those things in and you keep a good standing, this is ways to improve your credit card and you're going to see your limits increase. But this is the most important thing. You got to be disciplined.
What advice would you give to somebody that is eighteen that's just enrolling in college.
I would say just start thinking about the long term. The important thing is to almost have faith in it. Faith that these long term, these small things that you do, getting a credit card, using that credit card, making your payments on time, getting a job, choosing a career that you're interested in, that they'll benefit you down the line, because it canna all come back to you and you just want to look back and say I made the right decisions. So just have faith that these small things
will really pay off. I'd say that, Jaden. Number one, I'm proud of you. Many people feel the pressure to choose one thing very early on in life. I didn't do that, and I'm very lucky because I didn't do that. Keep going, keep trying new things, and only settle on something when it feels.
Right for you.
We are totally aligned with Kalil's advice to Jaden. Now we thought we'd add to it with Jaden's own EYL and Chase Freedom Rise Foundation forward checklists.
First, make a plan for your short term.
We're gonna add credit, We're gonna figure out how to leverage it.
Second, apply for a credit card, a specifically designed for someone with no credit distort. Third, limit your credit usage and pay your bill month for.
Credit utilization that you want to keep those things pretty low.
And for actively monitor your credit report.
It was really eye opening talking to them. It really was nice to have someone who like knew what they were talking about, who actually cared and definitely I'm going to implement their plan and like get a new credit card for sure.
The future is bright. Jaden is an oppressive young man. What's what's the biggest takeaway?
Just how discipline he was, especially with the financial prayer parture. That's real, Like, you know, for somebody that young to have that level of self awareness for the delayed gratification and you know, willing to delay what he wants right now for the future. That's that's that's very mature.
And he's not focused on one thing. I think that's what I like the most. He is versatile. At some point he's going to be leading the company and the people that are at this restaurant will be working for him.