Episode number three. Today we are lighting up credit. Right now with the U.S at a stand- still because of the Coronavirus. We are worried about our health, our jobs, our bank accounts, and these bills that must be paid. Well my guest today, Nick Anton, is going to share strategies you can apply and start today to grow your credit, protect your credit, and even use your credit to build wealth while you're sitting at home. Before you hear our conversation, let me share Nick's background.
Nick Antoine is a certified credit expert and owner of HTP enterprises, a company working with people establishing and wanting to grow their business by using credit. He's also a business owner of a trucking company in Atlanta, Georgia and has been a real estate investor for 15 years. He learned firsthand how to build passive income simply by using his credit. Here's Nick Antoine. Hey Nick. How are you today?
I'm fine.
Good. Well, I thank you for being on the show today and I know the topic. We were discussing our , putting our ideas together that we were going to share with our audience how to be, use our credit to be wealthy or become wealthy. But now since things have changed with this coronavirus I really want to change it to a keeping our credit together during a crisis. Okay. So , so how are you managing this right now? Like what are your clients saying?
What are you telling people, your friends and family reaching out about how we're sitting still not working and still trying to protect our credit.
See , most people at this point, they're just worried. They're scared. They're not sure if they even have a job next week. You know, so most people are concerned , but like I tell 'em I have a few clients that call and want to know what , what can they do in the meantime? And I tell them just, you know, you can pull your credit reports, monitor your credit, make sure everything is accurate and you know, just be prepared for , um, for anything that may come.
Okay, so let's go all the way back to the beginning. Why should we be looking at our credit, being prepared, taking this credit seriously, especially at this time right now. Like why is credit important?
Oh , credit , this is important. Period is the ability to use somebody else's money to acquire the things that you need. Now with the particular, with this Coronavirus and the climate, you know, real estate could potentially go down in value and you could leverage, use your credit to purchase property at a bargain if that does happen. So it is important to, you know, to have all your ducks in a row and be ready for any potential market crash where you could capitalize on it using your credit.
Okay. So how did you get into credit? Like how did you make this like something that you wanted to master and then you turned it around and started teaching others how to do this?
Well with me, it started in 2008, I believe, 2009 when the market crashed. I had , um, two properties that , that time I was trying to , um, to um , refinance with the bank. And I, you know, I, I got it , I got some bad , um , advice and I had stopped paying the mortgages and I was trying to , um, you know, get the bank to refinance the loan so I could pay less monthly so I could make more money on the rent. Okay . That didn't work out.
And I ended up having to file bankruptcy and during the whole bankruptcy process as I had that bankruptcy on my credit report. That's how I started learning about, you know, credit and the importance of credit and trying to, in the result of me trying to get that bankruptcy off my credit report, that's how I ended up starting to learn about credit. Okay . So go ahead.
Then I got, you know, I got deeper into it and I studied , uh, I took a few classes and I learned even more and that's when I like , okay, now I started helping family members and that I decided, you know what? I can do this. I could do this full-time. I can turn this into a career. And that's what, that's how I decided to start my company.
Okay. So comparing that market crash back in 2008 to now, like what are you seeing or like some of the similarities.
I guess the similarities are maybe , uh, the panic. People are scared not knowing what's going to happen. A lot of people are speculating that um, unemployment is going rise. Um, we know when stuff like that happening, you know, people tend to lose their homes. There'll be more homes available on the market at , at bargain rates.
And if that do happen, you know, just try to put yourself in a position where you could, you know, capitalize on a nice piece of property that could potentially turn out to be a good deal in the future.
Right, right. Cause I think for me, I've been waking up every morning trying to remember what it was like when that crash hit and I had so much regret , um, looking back on it now, like Candle, "you shoulda, woulda, coulda." But I was around people that were scared of family members that were scared and I just didn't do anything or didn't take any risks .
And then now look at those people that have made thousands and pretty much millions off of that market crash and I was on the sidelines and it's like, no, we're not going to do it this time. We're going to be in the game this time. So I'm just constantly trying to just coach myself. Like, no, we're not going to be scared. We're going to focus on this credit. We're going to start learning how to leverage. We're going to start looking at properties again.
We're not gonna do the mistakes that we did before.
So Alvarado, I actually bought that house during that time.
Wow. Okay. So we know about that because I was the listing agent for it. But let's tell the audience about that deal. Cause that was one of the best deals I still tell everybody about.
Yeah. Well , around that time of , I bought that house on South Alvarado, I paid $25,000 for that house. I didn't even have the money at that time to , um, fix it up. So I bought it up and I sat on it for several years and then , um, I fixed it up. Then my mom moved in and she stayed there for a while and then when she moved out I did even more upgrades and renovation and then I , and then of course we sold it.
Right. And we sold it at a nice price too.
I sold at a lot more than 25, 000.
Yeah, we're not going to go the whole detail, but it was over $300,000 that he was able to sell it for. So that was a great answer and that's a great reason right there. Why in a reminder of what can happen, like I could get these properties dirt cheap and then later on just hold onto them and then I could make profits like that as well. So yeah. I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah,
Like I tell my friends that you don't have to have the money to fix it up, buy it. If you could afford it. Board it up, pay your property tax and just sit on it. And eventually, you know, when you do have the funds you could work on it. Or once again, like the house on Oakland, I didn't do much to that house at all and somebody came and bought that for a lot more than what I paid for it.
Right, right. Okay. So hopefully through this conversation that we have inspired and galvanized some people to just take a property, just buy it. But of course we're going to need credit because we may not have, we don't want to use up all of our liquid right now, especially as a time. So this is why credit is important. Exactly.
No, I was going to say, like years ago I listened to a Russell Simmons interview and he was talking about don't use your money. You know, use somebody else's money to make money. And at the time I didn't understand what he was saying. I was like, I was young too . And "I was like , man, I thought Russell was smart." I have no idea what he's talking about. How are you going, who is going to give you money? Like what is he talking about? I didn't know.
He was telling me he was even referring to credit and I know what he was talking about, you know. No one had at that time h ad told me or taught me anything about credit. I had no idea what, what Russell Simmons was talking until years later. And I was like, okay, I get it. It is not smart to use your liquid cash for certain types of i nvestments and if you can, if you have the credit, yeah, use their money by all means a nd keep yours.
I agree. I agree. It's, it's, it's definitely something that you could use as leverage. I mean, why spend your money use theirs? Yeah, exactly. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
I was gonna say, cause when it all turns, if it all turns bad, okay, at least you still have your money. You may have a ding on your credit, but at least you ain't broke.
Exactly. So let's say we're , we have someone out there that has zero credit whatsoever. They have no credit history. What is, what do we need to do to establish some credit right now?
Okay? They are, they're um, they are companies that specialize in um, helping you establish your credit. Um, their primary accounts, which is , uh , accounts that will be in your name, that appear on your credit report. These companies like My Jewler's Club is 100% , guaranteed approval. You apply, they approve you that that account will appear on your credit report.
And at that point, you know, when you start making your payments and stuff , you start building credit, you start establishing credit and then from there you go onto your, your secured credit cards or your secured loans or your traditional credit cards. You start applying for your traditional credit cards and start building your credit. Make it, make sure you make your payments on time cause you don't want to lay payment that will hurt you.
Very one late payment can drop your score by a hundred points. So you want to make sure that you pay all your bills on time. What I like to do, I like to sit all my credit cards to the minimum payment. So if you forget for some reason at least it's covered.
Okay. Okay. And you said "My Julius Club"?
"My Jewler's Club". It's an online jewelry store. They'll approve anybody for $5,000 in credit. Yes, but it's online, you c ould only use it on their website, but they will approve you for $5,000. You go to my website under primary tradeline there is a link for My Jewler's Club and a couple other companies that f ollow i n that same business model. They'll approve you for that credit and i t, and it will appear on your credit report a s a $5,000 credit card to all three major credit bureaus.
Nice. Nice. So how many credit cards should we have?
To me, I feel like as long as you're not going over 30% and I'm maxing them out and you can handle it, get as many as you can because you can , you can use it like, okay. Like , um , I have a friend who for instance , um, he had a few credit cards and he bought a property and was able to use his credit cards to do the renovations on their property, sold the property , paid off his cards. If he didn't have those cards, he wouldn't have been able to make that happen.
Okay. So you mentioned a number that I hear a lot, especially talking about credit. You said that 30%. The 30% is what the credit utilization. Exactly. You don't want to go with 30%. You know, they give you a $10,000 credit card and they use it . You know, they expect you not to go over $3,000. You go over $3,000 is going to your credit scores. They will take a significant hit.
So you don't want to go over that 30%, but sometimes I tell people it's okay to go with 30% if especially if you're not making any purchases anytime soon. Okay. So you have a credit card. You sign up, they give you a year interest free. But I all means use it. If you got , if you want to use that, then that max that entire card out to make a purchase. But I would say don't use it to go on vacation or anything like that. Use it on something that is going to help pay that bill off.
You know and that's what I like to tell my clients. You know, you don't want to use your credit on something that's not going to help establish income. At least that's what I try not to do. You know. So you gotta, you have a $10,000 or $20,000 credit card that you was approved for with a year free, interest-free. You can use that to purchase a piece of property, fixed up a piece of property, buy you a box truck, start a delivery service.
You know some that's going to help pay that off and then... Yeah, I got it. So pretty much you're creating assets.
Exactly.
Okay. Instead of some liabilities.
Cause if you take that and you just go on a vacation you didn't, you didn't do anything but create a bill that you have to pay .
So smart. Oh wow. I got that.
And at the end of the day, let's say worst case scenario the company that you started doing is not doing too well or anything like that , you still, you still have that, you still have that car, you still have that snow cone cart . You still have that hot dog stand , you know , um, as opposed to doing it on a , like a , once again a trip or somewhere , all you have is memories that w will never be profitable.
So how do we shop for the best card? So, cause I mean, you get so many offers in the mail everyday, like , the cash back or the rewards. Like what, what is the best cards to have?
Well, it really depends on what you're into. If you, if you , uh , if you want, if you'd like to travel, then you would want some, some travel cards like the American express or that Delta card or , um , Southwest have a, have a, have a great travel card, Southwest airlines. Um, if you want cash back , you may want to do the Capital One , Navy Federal, have a , have a , uh , a really good cash back card. So it really just depends on what you want or what you like.
Okay. Okay. So if we're using all these cards and we have children at home, I've heard, and this is like a, a myth that I hear all the time, I don't know how this is possible, but we always get, especially in our community that white people have always had high credit scores when they come out of college to coming out with 800 scores because their parents have started , building their credit since they were babies.
That is true.
How do they do that? Share the secret.
It's quite simple. Like when you get a credit card or for the most part you get emails, they'll send you letters, an email, be like: add an authorized user, add authorized user. And that's it. And that's all they did. They contacted their card and added their child as an authorized user. So now what happens when you add somebody as an authorized user, that credit card or that line of credit appears on that person's credit report?
So if you add me to your credit card, that line of credit would also appear on my credit report and as long as you pay your , your bills on time, it'll help build my credit as well.
So let's say we , we take a chance and we want to get an investment property and we are going through a hard money lender or through our banks to get a loan . And they said, okay, we've got to pull your credit first. What are they looking at? Are they looking at our credit score or credit report?
And they're looking at both . They're looking at your credit report. They want to see all who you owe, how much do you owe. They want to look at your scores, they will look at your payment history. They want to know, okay, you're this amount of money in debt. How much do you make weekly, monthly, yearly? You know , um, they just want to make sure that the risk that they're taking is not a huge risk because anytime anybody loan you money, it's a risk.
And I tell people to look at credit as if you're the bank, you know, if you know your cousin Bob, he's borrowing money from your mom. He's borrowing money from your daddy , borrowing money from your little brother and he come asking you for money to borrow you're not going to give it to him . You know? And that's, and that's how the bank look at it.
They use the same formula you would choose , basically if you're going to loan somebody money and the only information they have on you is your credit report. So you need to make sure that it looks very favorable. It's don't have any negative or derogatory items on there and make sure that you're not, you're not , it's not strained is you're not, you're not. Um, there's not a whole lot of debt being reflected upon your credit report before you go apply for something.
And some people believe , uh, when you apply and you get denied, just keep on trying and they have 50, 100 inquiries like, you know, and they feel like, okay, this person didn't give it to me, this person. And they just keep trying and they just making it worse for themselves cause it's not, it's not good to have more than five inquiries in a six month period.
..five inquiries . I'm writing this down in a six month period. So even when I deal with clients, well I work with clients and they say, Hey, I don't want to get another approval from another lender because I don't want it to hit my credit, but it's kind of like a catch-22 because I want them to know all options that they have on the table to choose the best loan for them but at the same time they're afraid because it's going to take a to their credit, which is actually true.
Anytime you apply and you get a hard inquiry on your credit, it's going to take a ding. It's gonna take a couple off points off your credit report. But I, but that's the really, the only way you can get approved. They have to, they have to pull your credit report. So you know, my thing, I would, what I would recommend is do your homework. See which lender you think you want to do business with. Make sure that your credit is an order that you don't have to apply to multiple people.
And when you do apply, make sure...Sorry, my mind went blank my phone is ringing...make sure when you know, when you , when you apply, the lender or the bank or whoever that, that you plan on applying with, try to get, get a pre-approval and you know , try to make sure that you know your chances of getting the loan or getting the interest rate or whatever you want is, I would say it's high before you go all the way in and fill out, fill out the application and get the inquiry and then are you
got to go somewhere else? Just do your homework, pull your own credit and make sure that, that everything is reflected upon the credit is accurate. Get any , get all the inquiries that may not have been approved. Try to get those removed from your credit report you can come to my company, we go to any company that, that you've , that you feel comfortable with and ask them to help you remove those inquiries so that your chances of being approved are higher.
How do we know when our credit is so bad to where we can't fix it ourselves that we need a third party to intervene? Cause I've always been curious like what I know I can do and what I know I can't do.
Okay. If you have collections you have in , in um, inquiries on the , especially inquiries you did not authorize late payments on there and you need and you need help getting these things taken care of, then it's time to reach out to t he company. Your credit score start with a four or five or six, maybe s tart to reach out for some professional help.
There's a lot that you could do on your own but sometimes you know, if it gets overwhelming or you just can't, you're not getting the results that you want, then it may be time for professional h elp.
So, I guess to having to avoid having to use a third party, like what should we be doing so wouldn't get to that point. Cause I think, you know, of course we have to reach out to a third party. It's like as you said it , it's time to, reach out for help because it's a bad situation. And then you wait until the last minute cause you need a car, you need a house. You know you might need a credit card but then you've got to reach out.
So what are we supposed to be already be doing before we have to use a third party?
Like okay, some of these things are quite simple. What people don't understand is when you call Capital One or whoever it is a human on the other end, you know, so you just have to, you know, tell them on their heartstrings a little bit like okay this one I'm going to be like, rather than wait and get hit with a late payment, call them and let them know like okay I'm going through a crisis right now. I can't make this payment. I know he's doing this in a , in a few days.
Is there any way you could push it back, you know, talk to them before it's too late cause you rather talk to them, get that date pushed back or get them to make ma get them to push the , the, the , the payment date back or get them to a remove the payment for that month or whatever the requirement for that paper for that month.
So give you time because once you get, it's easier to ask them ahead of time that you're going to be late or you can't make the payment on time and work it out before it happens than after it happens. Cause you don't want to get hit with the late payment and then call them and try to work cause they're not going to take it off. They're not going , they're not, they're not going to do it, you know.
So the best option is to get ahead of the, ahead of the game or ahead of the ball and reach out to them and say, look man, my car note , um, I'm having a problem. I had to put a new engine in it. I won't be able to make my payment on time this month rather than, you know, hit me with delay payment or whatever. Can we push that date back? Okay , we skip this month . Go to the next one and just talk to them and you'd be surprised how they'll be willing to help.
Okay. So let's talk about the situation, the big 'ole elephant in the room that has everybody sitting at home right now and we're not going about our daily lives and not working. So during this , uh, this virus outbreak and we're at home, should we be calling all of our bill collectors or creditors and saying what you just said, talking to the human behind that phone and explaining, Hey, I can't work today. I'm confined to my house. What should we be doing?
Definitely do that. And I would also do that, but there are also federal guidelines that you can't , that you can't have like late payments and stuff like that during a natural disaster. They didn't use the , you're not, you know, they give you that , that, that grace period. Um , but I would still definitely call out to my creditors and make sure, let them know like, Oh man, this disaster going on.
Are you going to be putting late payments on my credit report and get that , you know, get that clarified before it happens.
Okay, so reach out to them and then we need to get it in writing through an email or something. Hey, we will waive you making this payment for this month and we won't add any late payments to your credit account. We need to have that in writing.
Yeah. I prefer everything in writing because yeah, this was not in writing. It didn't happen.
Right. Cause I'm torn and on the fence about this. I like that we're talking about it because in a way I would love to just call them right now saying, Hey, I can't do it. But at the same time I don't want to be surprised or be pissed off with the okie-doke coming up next month or the month after where I've been paying usually maybe $50 a month for a credit card. All of a sudden they want $300 they want all that money that they had been that I haven't paid these couple of months all at one time.
And then it's really going to make me mad. So I'm just trying to figure out like what is the best solution? Should I go ahead and make the payments now that I have the money or just hold as much liquid as I can and just have them wait to get their money later? If there I would hold my money.
If they're not, if they're willing to push the payment dates back and because they understand that everybody having financial issues right now with the coronavirus, certain people can't work, you can't get to work, you can't travel. Public transportation is being shut down. So they , they should understand and I would definitely hold onto my money. Nothing beats liquid. I agree. I agree with you on that one. Okay. Okay. So you're giving me some things I need to do today.
Okay. I will, I'll definitely look into that. So right now, besides our credit and monitoring our credit, like what else should we be doing while we're at home?
Well, what I've been doing, I've been looking at the stock market. I've been looking at other ways that I can use my credit to build some financial wealth I've been looking at at this, at the stock market , um , looking at , um , trying to gage on which stocks are down that potentially would go back up. But I'm not a stock, I'm not a trader. I can't give stock tips and advice. So I'm just saying what I'm doing at the moment.
So right now I guess you could say we're looking for opportunities to where credit can make us wealthy.
Exactly, yes. Okay. B ecause y ou c ould, you c ould f ind your a ccount w ith your debit or credit card.
You can, you absolutely can. And like you just said earlier, like we could be using this opportunity to make more assets by using our credit. No, I said that wrong. I mean, use our credit to make more assets.
Yeah. And then they , they're giving good deals now. 0% interest rate, 5% interest rate. All these points to sign up. Like you can use that leverage that. I have , you could sign for a card. Get your 60,000 points or whatever, transfer it and close that card.
Wait, okay. Say that again .
Okay. You sign up for a particular credit card. They offer 60,000 points. You know when you sign up where you make $3,000 in purchases within the first month or two or whatever, you can do that and get your points, transfer it to your another card or to your airline or, or however you would prefer to do that. And then you can just close that card.
So let me ask you, are you penalized when you start closing accounts? Cause I've heard this , you should always leave them open. What is the truth or the myth?
You will. Your credit score w ill take a little ding, but it'll go right back up. Y ou d idn't h ave for once. If you had the car for two, three months, you didn't, you didn't establish that lengthy period of payment history. So once you close it, you're g onna, you lose your payment history but you didn't get much to begin with in the first place. Got it, got it. Like if you had a car for a year, two years, I wouldn't, you definitely don't want to close that.
But if you just sign up, got the bonus points or whatever and you c losed the c ard, it's like you didn't have it that long.
Got it. Because you got to show that you're using your credit for an extended period of time and that you're looking for history. That's pretty much what you're saying, right?
Yeah, exactly. And that's what the benefits of adding your kids as authorized user, cause they get the, you get the history. 35% of your credit score is based on your payment history. So if you're coming out of the gate, you're 18 but you've been on your mom and dad's card for 10 years, you already have 10 years of payment, history of good payment history on your credit report.
Yeah. Yeah. That makes so much sense. I remember when I was, I think out of right out of college, my mom gave me a credit card and I didn't know what to do with it. She didn't educate me on how I should be spending it. And I just lost my mind I think in Lenox mall one time and she took that car back and I'm so glad she did, but she, but she really established my credit and I didn't even realize what she was doing but I'm glad she took the card back and didn't take me off of it.
But yeah, I definitely, I could see how just being an authorized user can definitely increase your credit.
Uh , maybe even as a, as adults. The , like my company, we sell authorized users . You can , you can purchase them. There'll be, it'll be added to your credit report it to help boost your scores and you'll be able to apply for your loan or your purchase that house or whatever you're trying to accomplish. And I'm like, I was, and I , nothing I tell my clients too , like we sell them. But if you have a family member or a relative that could add, you, by all means go that route.
So, Nick, have you ever seen someone with an 800 credit score?
My wife. Just years, she has two credit cards that she's had for over 15 years. You know, she pay all her bills on time. She has properties her car note and she's never had a late payment and no collections or what of whatsoever. She's on top of her credit. She takes good care of it and she has a 800 credit score. I, myself never had an 800 credit score.
Wow. So, I mean, is it possible to go from like a 400, I mean realistically to maybe a four or 500, two and 800?
It is possible. I've seen people go for four or 500 to 750, 780, you know , I've seen in a few months.It's quite simple. Like , I take a guy like I like to tell my clients, I will remove the negative. It's your job to add the positive. I remove the negative accounts off your credit report, but you h ad to have new positive accounts and you add these positive accounts, you add authorized user trade lines and your score will increase significantly.
Okay. So you mentioned the word tradelines. What exactly is trade line ?
Well, everything on your credit report is considered a trade line. What our primary trade line will be an account that's in your name. An authorized user trade line would be somebody, you know, like we spoke before, adding you to their card and that card appearing on your credit report. But all accounts are considered trade lines.
Okay. I'm learning so much about credit. I thought I knew a lot, but I know it a lot now.
Yes.
So you've mentioned we could build , of course, using our credit cards to build wealth through buying stocks and real estate, what about debt consolidation? Cause like right now that's what I'm thinking about doing as a possible option. Um , what are your , what do you think about that?
That's a good idea. Like most of the times, you know, on your credit card, the interest rate is too high. So you get a debt consolidation loan with a much favorable interest rate that will pay off your credit cards and then you have one bill to pay in as opposed to having to pay all these different bills. But the thing, the thing with this consolidation loans and just credit on on a whole, people tend to make the same mistakes.
Like, you know, you get this debt consolidation loan and they paid off your credit card, now you start back using the credit card again. So you're back in the same situation you was in the first time. But I just like to stick to using credit is not a bad thing, but try to use it on something that's going to bring income is something that's gonna produce income. Like, you know, try not to use your credit on things that are not going to be beneficial to you or your family in the long run.
I'm so glad we're having discussion right now because I think that's one of the biggest problems is should everybody be having credit. Cause sometimes we may not be mature enough to handle, we pay off a card or we pay you to fix our credit and we go right back to Lenox doing the exact same things we were doing before.
Like what are the rules to this cause it's got or let's let's go through financial literacy right now cause there's gotta be a way we could can change this conversation to yeah we got our credit up to 800 and this is how we're maintaining it. Like what do you tell your clients , once you work so hard to get into a 700 score, like don't go back and mess this up again. Don't, don't fuck this shit up. Like how are we going to fix this?
That's what I tell him . I said , I said man don't use this on nothing that's not going to pay for itself. And then the same thing we spoke about before. It's like, don't get this credit card and go to Saks and blow it. You know, don't, don't, I get a, I got a lot of repeat clients that they come to me, we fix their credit. Then they get, they get, especially with a lot of the young women, they want CareCredit and we help.
We help them get their CareCredit card and then they go max it back out and then now they have $15,000 in debt right after they just repaired the credit and then it's like, don't do that. You know what I'm saying? Don't, don't, don't don't that $50,000 you owe you pay it back. That could've been a fixer upper. That could've been a 18-wheeler.
That could've been something that would've, could've produced money and help build wealth for you and your family as opposed to, you know, surgery, that you look good, you look beautiful, but you know, it really didn't do anything for you or your family in the long term . I get it. I get it. Yeah .
I'm all about like , I'm all about like owning something like you just buy a hot dog stand, you know, a snow cone cart, a popcorn machine , uh, buy a cargo van and do and start a Amazon delivery company.
Anything is better than just blowing it, you know, and at the end of the day, even if you can't afford to pay the note, the payment on the credit card or the loan or whatever, you know, you may get bad credit but you still own that, you still own the hot dog stand, you still own the truck, you still own that business and eventually, hopefully it becomes profitable and then you could pay off that loans or pay off the collection or however it may be. And you know, get, get things rolling.
But don't I, I'm either way you , you, you're taking a risk. So I'd rather take a risk on something that could potentially be be profitable.
Right, right. Because you use credit and I , I remember you telling me this one time, this is how you started your trucking company was through credit.
Exactly. Got a loan and got my first truck let the truck pay that loan off and bought my second truck and then did the same thing and got a third truck. And , um, I also got, you know, my trucking and my trucks, my trailer, I do the credit repair, I do real estate investments. I just like to have more than one source of income in case cause you never know what's going to happen.
And so you're using credit to fund all of these income .
So yes, you can. And there , and I did like, you know, I have , uh , now the interest rate isn't the best. I have a Lowe's credit card that it, okay , it's a $30,000 Lowe's credit card with that credit card, it's enough to do repairs or getting the material to do renovations on a property. It depends on how severe the damage is to that property.
So just having that ability to, own access to $30,000 worth of material, you know, you may be able to come across a deal where, okay, you don't need that much work or whatever, and you have that card, you got , um, your contractors that could do the work and you get a loan from a hard money lender. You get a loan from your bank and you bought a property, 30 or $40,000, or whatever.
And you get in there, you use your card and flip it, pay the card off, and then you're walking away with, you know, hopefully with some profit and I know you pay your card off and then just look for the next one. There's nothing wrong with, like I said before, with maxing out a credit card. You know, you just gotta use it in the right way.
Like if you're gonna especially if you're not, you're not making any large purchases , you're not , you know, you're not going to be buying a car anytime soon and not try to buy a house anytime soon. It's nothing wrong with using the card. You just got to pay it off or pay it down, get it back down below 30% your credit score will take a ding. It will take a hit, but to me it's worth the risk is worth the reward if you use it, if you do it in the right way.
Now everybody n ot g oing to say what I say. Nobody. A lot of people won't agree with how I use my credit or some of the things that I'm saying. T hen y ou w ill be like, w here I w ould never go. I would never go with i t c ause I would never use a card. U m, you know, to flip a property like that, you know, but i t's, to me it's all a gamble and you're going to have to pay it back either way. So it's better than I already do it.
Use it like that then on a vacation or anything that that's not going to pay me any profit whatsoever.
I definitely understand that. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Wow. Nick, you've came and dropped some knowledge today.
Yeah. Thanks for having me.
Okay. So before you go, I got to ask you some questions. It's like a , a quick, quick round of questions and you gotta think fast right. Okay. All right. What financial book changed your life? What changed the game for you?
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Hmm, why?
Um, I was, I was sitting around one of my friends recommended it to me and I read the book and it made sense because I , I never wanted to, to work, you know, physical hard work or anything like that. I , I just wanted to make passive income. That was something because at that time I would had a recording studio. Uh , and I was in the studio.
My friend recommended the book and I was, I was, I owned the studio , but I was doing the engineering, I was doing all the work and I was just tired of just working. And I was like, man, I wanted some way that I could make money without having to be, you know, physically present or you know, or required my undivided attention. And that's when I, that's when I was like, okay, I wanted to buy and, get some houses and rent them out, some passive income.
And he introduced me to the book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I read it and I was like, okay, this is what I want. This is what I w ant t o do. I e ven bought the board game, The Rat Race board game. I even bought the board game.
I wish I had it right now. I saw, I was looking at him on YouTube and he was introducing the board game and he was, I think someone did a special on, of course the Coronavirus and he was giving his input and he pulled out that game. Like, man, I need that game right now. I still might get it. I mean, we might be in here. I have my eye on it right now. As long as Amazon can ship it to me, I'm, I might be getting it. Yeah.
And they , they also got a , um, a version on , that you can play on your computer, your desktop?
Okay. Okay. I'm going to look into that. Okay. So Nick , what are your three keys to success?
That's a good question. I would say , dedication, my kids because that's my motivation, I guess. Ambition. Like one thing I have , I'm like people may have heard my accent. I'm from Trinidad and now I was born very poor and I was, and I made up my mind at a young age that I didn't want my kids to grow up, like how I grew up. So , that was like my motivation to, you know, to succeed because I've never wanted to. Um , I didn't want my kids to have to go through what I did.
Like, you know, we had the , we had to carry water. It was no running water in the house. We had outhouses, you know, so I never, I never wanted that. I never wanted to go back to that. And , and that was my motivation, my driving force. I wanted to be the last Antoine born into poverty. And that's what I wanted. That was been my motivation and my driving force my whole life.
Nice. Nice. Okay. So let's say Donald Trump decides that he's putting 25,000 as an economic stimulus package into your bank account, what would you do with it?
I would either go and buy and look for another piece of property or buy another , uh , tractor trailer.
Okay. Nice. Yeah . Yeah. I just saw an article I might send to you too this morning about right now while everybody's sitting, steel trucks are the, like the main hub.
I just got, I just got an email with, they just, the federal government just suspended the , the federal regulations on truck drivers because they need us now more than ever.
Exactly.
Because they know they have rules and regulations where you can only drive certain amount of hours a day and you have the certain amount of hours rest but not as suspended that because they need these goods delivered.
Nick, what is your ultimate goal?
My ultimate goal is an apartment complex. I want an apartment complex and tha's one of my goals for this year. I wanted , or I wanted to leverage my single family houses into an apartment complex.
I remember we've talked about that. Yeah, that's what your best affirmation
Hmmm, I don't know if I have one.
I figured you have tons of them. I don't know why.
Yeah, I don't, I don't know . I don't know . Oh, okay. You stumped me with that one.
You just, you just, you're just one of those people that just, you just go, I mean, you're just driven. But for me, I got to have tons of them cause I gotta motivate myself sometimes. Convince myself like, okay, yeah, we gotta get this done and why? Cause I could do anything but fail!
I , I, yeah, I just, I just, yeah, just keep going. I just, I have , um, goals that out and I have set for myself and I can't stop until they are accomplished.
Nice. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You are that walking testimony. That is for sure. Yeah. Well, Nick, thank you for being on the show and sharing your knowledge.
Thanks for having me.
If you want to get in contact with Nick and learn more about his business, just go to candlelockett.com/podcast. You can also leave a question or comment on his page and Nic will respond, please stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy and STAY LIT!