How Your Credit Score Gets You Freedom

hundred credit score just might change America. And I'm gonna be more practical in this conversation, but I want you to go to the Time magazine and read the piece. It's out this week. Credit scores have never been used to solve a social problem, as best I can tell, in the history of this whole country. And I'm coming at this thing with a movement of common sense. I believe this is the get it done party. I believe the new color is green. I believe the color has

actually always been green as in US currency. Whether we argue about white and black racial issues and racism is real. Make sure that you clear that. I'm clear on that, whether we're talking about political issues red and blue underneath all this, If you're dazed out about God or love your days about money. So somebody's going to say, listening to this with John Bryant, you talk about credit scores

and this sounds silly to me. You know, before I start talking about police brutality and racism and bias and discrimination and bad health and bad outcomes from social justice and all the stuff in communities. John Bryant, by the way, you're telling me that has to do with your credit score. Yes, I'll get to that, John Brian, what about slavery? Well, clearly there was no slave. There was no credit score

in the eighteen hundreds, so I'm not stupid. There was no credit score in the seventeen hundreds or the sixteen hundreds. I'm not silly. But credit score is just simply a trimming indicator for hope, well being, faith, confidence, trust, belief, which I'll get to in a minute. Why that's important to an economy into your pocketbook. But underneath all this is the thing I'm really talking about, which is economics. And we live in a capitalist democracy, right, and there's

good capitalism and there's bad capitalism. Like nothing's wrong with money. It's a love of money that's evil. So good capitalism is where I benefit and you benefit more. Bad capitalist capitalism is where I benefit and you pay a price

for it. So slavery was bad capitalism. Inventing a hair comb that you could run through your hair or you know, or brush your hair with a brush, your hair comb, that solves a problem for you where you're getting real benefit of it and the price is negotiated in such a way that you're comfortable paying five, eight, ten dollars for that hair brush or hair comb because it gives you untold value. Well, that's good capitalism. An example of

good capitalism stopping at a gas station. Maybe this is not a good example right now with gas prices, but typically that's good capitalism. Your automobile, you know, and autocar bill, your car notes like a house note these days. But if you've got a good deal in a car, if you like the car, it gives you, you know, a good feeling, a good emotion, protects you, it gives you tanpitation,

delivers more value than you're paying for it. Again, good capitalism, because in that car are literally thousands of inventions, thousands of patents, hundreds, if not thousands of innovations that make up that audibolebil and autobile is today like a compute more than it is an old school automobile. And that's every piece of that every component of that car, all

the thousands of pieces. Is somebody inventing something and creating something, innovating something, selling it to somebody else who then combined it with another innovation that then created something called mechanism. Call it a transmission, Call it an engine, Call it a wheelbase, call it sockets, call it casings, lubrication, etc. That then air conditioning, safety, security issues, air bags, all

that stuff. Gearshift knobs, seats, cushions. These are all in separate innovations that come together to create what you call an automobile. And you purchase that automobile an accumulative price because you felt it was more valuable than what you're paying for it, or at least as valuables what you were paying for it. But what you pay for that car depends on your credit score. There are other variables,

but it's primarily your credit score. And if you won't go in the hood where I grew up, and you'd buy a Mercedes from a car lot that is a second tier car lot, a B or a C car lot, not an a car lot at a manufacturer's car lot. But you go to a second tier buy here, pay here credit car lot, and I've done a podcast on that, and go back and watch or listen to that podcast, and you buy a Mercedes and the interest rate is eighteen to twenty to twenty five percent interest, which is

common in the buy here, pay here a lot. It's not a Mercedes, it's Mercedes payments. So what I did in this Times piece is I laid out a thesis that, first of all, should get your attention and read the piece, share it with friends, let me know what you think, leave comments, but let's start a conversation. The primary thesis that gets your attention is that this makes you live longer,

Like you live twenty years longer life. If you live in a seven hundred credit score neighborhood versus living in a five hundred credit score neighborhood five fifty credit score neighborhood, Yes, that's the drop the mic. I'm going to come back to this and say it again, but those in the back of the room, or say it one more time. If you live in a five hundred or five fifty credit score neighborhood, you live to sixty one years of age, you live in a seven hundred credit score neighborhood, you

live to eighty one years of age on average. That's a twenty year difference right fifteen minutes apart. So this is really transformational for your mindset and then your life because once you understand how this game works, you can master it. But as long as you don't understand you playing a game, it's playing you. I'm want to come back to credit scores and go deeper into this conversation, but I want to talk now and pivot to something

else that's playing you. If you're aspirational and young and trying to look successful, and that is flossing. Now be clear. I've got a nice watch on. People have commented on it before when I've done interviews. I find it fascinating people obsess on and focus on. But this is an insurance policy. If I ever need X dollars, I just take this watch off and can sell it. So it's an insurance policy. It looks nice all that stuff, but it actually either sustains its value or goes up in value.

I have art it will sustain its value, and in many cases it will go up in value. I've got things that you know won't sustain their value. Some autobiles won't sustain their value. But I can afford to have it. And when I when I don't have to think about it, then I can buy it. Right. But if I got to think about and figure out how can I make that payment, and and my outflow seed my overhead. If my outflows hees my inflow, then my overhead is gonna be my downfall. I'm gonna be all stressed out and

I shouldn't. I shouldn't have that car. If I have to ask what the payment is versus what the interest rate is, I shouldn't have that car and I won't. Right, So why am I giving this example? Because A there's a business model that we're not understanding for working class people, working for struggling people, middle class people, upper middle class people, even some who may come who don't come from wealth and uh and who maybe don't have the global exposure

of how this capitalist model actually works. I want to break down why clubs like AO It's it's a club in uh In in Atlanta that just closed down. And maybe I shouldn't say it's name. I was trying to say his name properly, but maybe I shouldn't say his name. I don't want to. I'm not criticizing the club itself, but it's a private club. You can find it yourself.

It's a private club that closed down recently in Atlanta because well, they didn't have any more customers, and they closed down in part because they not In part they shifted their business model from a y'all come business model to a membership business model private club rates, so they twenty five it's beautiful club by the way, rooftop club, pool, private bar, restaurant area, from what I can tell, gorgeous and was doing well. It's best I can tell, but

made a critical mistake at a really bad time. They shifted from a general marketplace club where anybody can come in, pay a fee and then part take in the festivities to a private club of twenty five hundred dollars a year and twenty five hundred dollars initiation fee in the middle of a down economy. It's not a bad economy, it's not a recession, but people are delaying extravagant purchases.

People are watching their dollars. Interest rates have been going up for hello almost two years now, what part of this do you not understand? When interest expense goes up, that people's cash flow tightens up and they start spending less on floss and fluff and start spending more on the basics. And so the mistake number one was mistiming

the market. If he had he or she had done this two or three years ago, maybe they could have gotten away with it, but and locked in a customer base that are willing to pay twenty five hundred dollars a year of the membership feed. But I even think that in this example I'm about to give you probably wouldn't have worked either. They missed time the market, they miss judge their marketplace. Somebody said in the comments in this example that they didn't listen to their customer. No,

they didn't pay attention to the marketplace. The customers might have said, from an ego perspective, I would love to have a private club. But the next question is are you willing to pay for it? And can you give me a credit card in advance to pay for two years of membership the initiation fee plus their first year, and then give me a forward approval to renew you

for another year. Because my business model mustn't last for at least two years to sustain itself, and I think that they would have found that the majority of their customers would not have signed up for that. So based on I guess just a vibe of asking people like people say, do you want to solve poverty? Yes? But are you willing to write a check to solve it? You know? Do you want to help your cousin, you know Jojo, Yes? Sure, are you willing to finance his

whole lifestyle? So in this example, they misjudged the marketplace because people are hurting, which is why credit card and then living off credit cards in order to extend their lifestyle. Because the pandemic hit, all that stimulus money flew into the economy. Literally, the US economy has never used trillions of dollars. So let me prophrase that no government has

ever used trillions of dollars zero. No government history of America, history of the world, has ever had a stimulus package with tridiands next to it trede ins, T one tree. They have long two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight trillion dollars probably more than that. To say, the biggest economy in the planet, our economy from implosion which happened in two thousand and twenty twenty two. It's almost like people forgot that that we had the worst pandemic since

the Spanish fluid, and it shut down the economy. It could have been as the Great Depression had been managed well. We got through that. But all that that money going into the marketplace went to individuals, which is I think, you know, it has to go someplace, should go to

the folks that are driving the economy. And seventy percent of the economy is driven by you and me consumers buying car you know, buying cars, by buying lunch, buying dinner, buying vacations, you know, by getting on nails done, all that kind of stuff. It's just the majority of economist consumer spending. So I thought that was very smart that that happened in that way, and I helped to design parts of the PPP program that helped small businesses at

that time. But that was a one time event. That money came in, you got it, you spent it right, and people start using spending money on things that they would not normally spend money on, and quitting their jobs and going on fancy vacations and thinking they're rich. No, you're not rich. You just had, you know, a gift from heaven. Right, that was a one time situation, and I hope you use that money to reset your life.

But that money's washed out the system. It's gone, is done, and now you're trying maybe some of us, many of us, are trying to extend that lifestyle situation with increasing interest rates, increasing prices because of the economy is trying to adjust from free money of zero percent plus all the money flowing from the government to the into the commomy from

the pandemic which caused enormous inflation. And we're trying, you know, sort of increasing interest rates, increasing costs of daily living. And if you're trying to continue your lifestyle, I guess what, you have to use credit cards, which is not hello, real money. You got to pay it back. So this is the lesson I'm getting to. People in the comment said they should had a SOHO. There was one comment that was brilliant in one comment that I was actually

could have been brilliant but actually missed the mark. Comment that was brilliant was they should have had a blended model where they had a membership option, private membership option, and that private group could come once a week or once a month, or every Tuesday or every whatever it is. And here's their area, the private area you get to chill at as a private member, And that might have worked. You could have tested the model in that way to make sure that it did work, versus just betting the

whole farm on going to this private model. And I think, I don't know it was for greed, but you know there's potentially a lot of money coming in at one time and doing more with less, making more by doing less work. I just think again, One, the market timing was wrong. Two, the marketplace was wrong. Three the customer base was wrong. What do I say that? Am I saying that black and brown people in Atlanta don't have the money? No, that's not, mister Mark completely the Soho model,

the Soho House model. I'm a member of Soho House. My wife wanted to be a member and I joined with her. And I was recommended to the Soho House by Tony Wrestler, who is the two hundred and eightieth whichest man in the world or something like that, A dear friend of mine in a business partner. So did you hear what I just said? It's a membership model. I was recommended by a billionaire who's a member whose company pays his membership. Get that all right? All right?

I have a business case for it. I pay shakespasts membership personally, but my membership is business based. I only go there when I'm having a meeting or having a business dinner, or need a quiet place to work when I'm traveling to cities and someplace I need to go and quiet myself. Right And by the way, the closing of this place in Atlanta might benefit And again I'm not saying the name because I don't want to cause any negative shade on them in case they decide to

reopen or renew themselves. And I understand it there and talks with friends of mine. But Ryan Wilson of the Gathering Spot actually might benefit from this because he does have a private business membership club in Atlanta all the Gathering Spot that has done reasonably, if not very well.

He's got several locations now. It is reasonably priced. I'm a member there, and I know my team uses it to hold events, and politicians go there, and hip hop stars go there, and business people go there and hold events for a business purpose. So that actually might work in the consolidation in Atlanta of private business clubs for people of color. Actually is probably a good thing. But

back to the story. The reason this doesn't work is that black people are using private personal money now mostly on credit cards, to finance a social lifestyle, to meet somebody, to look good for somebody, trying to impress people you don't know, money you don't have about to talk about things that don't matter. And the place is optional in your life. It's not necessary for you to live. It's an ad it's a bonus. When things get tight in

your life, Guess what goes first? Hello? This does? And if your credit cards get tight, guess what goes first? Which expense goes first? Hello? This does. So people who are or who are not financially literate, who doesn't understand how wealth works, uses cash, uses money their own money to finance and floss to finance their floss. Right, business leaders who have hopes again example, SOHO house memberships are

using This is a business expense, a proper legitimate business expense. Again, you might pay for your spouse as I pay for mine personally, but the core spence is a business expense, and we use it for business purposes, and we write it off so it's not on our personal balance sheet. I hope this is really becoming clear to you. So I'm about to give another example tied to this. But these private social clubs, once you meet a mate, meet the girl you're looking for, the guy you're looking for,

are you still going to the club? Not as often? If you're going with area, it's probably more date night. But you're not going there every night like you used to. And you're not going to use your limited credit card money or your free cash flow to keep doing that when you don't have to. It's again an option. It's not businesses social and social is not sustainable. And also people are flaky. They've got short tension spans. They're like, oh, it was cool today, not cool tomorrow. Oh I don't

like those people anymore. I'm not going there anymore. You've detied your whole business plan on somebody who's flaky. Number two jets people who don't have money, who just who just fall in the money rolling the money. Think about the latest rap star or whatever image comes to your head, who's not been taught financial literacy goes and rents a private jet. They just pay for it or worse by private jet. But they rent or least charter a private jet out of their own cash realty, just pay for

it like here, here's the money. It's just just burning the money up. Or they rent two or three like I heard this. One professional athlete did. A boxer did for one for him and his family, one for his crew number one, one for crew number two. Crazy stuff. He's gonna be broken just a matter of time, because my billionaire friends don't do that. Who rents their jets their companies. It's a business expense and they can't write

it off. They're not doing it. If you see somebody renting a mansion or a beach house someplace for two or three months, then I pay for that personally, that's a business expense. You've got that situated? Is there is? There is their remote offices, there, retreat offices, their you know, satellite office location. So and these are all legitimate as long as the legitimate activities are happening there, all right. So, uh, one is sustainable. One is not all right? So the

flaws has to have a purpose to it. I mean it doesn't my I mean again, the purpose is you can either you can afford it and you to think about it, or that floss is somehow making you money. If you're an entertainer and your flossing that may support your brand. You may you may be you may need to hang out in clubs because that's where people are playing your music. Right, But if you hang out in the club, I suggest you own it. And if you're gonna own it, uh, you know, make sure your your

inflow exees your outflowed flow. Otherwise you're overhead. It will be your downfall, which means you need to make sure you've got a proper business model. Back to credit scores, all right, So, in addition to the fact that folks who live in a seven hundred credit score neighborhood live longer, twenty years longer, one thing I've said is if your day's not about God or love, your days about money. Let's now get specific on that you live in a

five hundred credit score neighborhood. I grew up in one. Whether you're black and brown urban or your white, poor rural. Here's what you see. You see a check casher next to a payday alone lender, next to a rent to owned store, next to a title linender, as in a car title lender. Next to a liquor store. I've already said that. Next to a pawn shop, and I'm getting an a man yet, are you nodding your head up and down yet in an agreement? Next to what I

said a liquor store, pawn shop? I'm sure I miss something added in to the comments wherever you are responding on social added into your comments so the other others can be educated. Next to a church, whether you're black and a brown, urban or white rule, it's a church out down the street trying to make you feel a little less stressed out once a week so you don't go postal on somebody on Monday. It's this is your

neighborhood psychologist. And I often would joke, if you don't think you need a psychologist, you probably need a psychologist if you if you black and brown in America, certainly, I say, if you're black in America and you don't think you're crazy, you're probably crazy. So if you're not seeing a psychologist or or somebody, or or your church minister is talking to somebody, it's all the psychologists is a paid friend. If you don't have to be talking

to somebody, about your stress. You're not going to church, then you're going to find some other way to relieve your pressure, maybe going to the club. I just talked about that. That you're you're using your credit cards, then your credit card is going to stress you out. Then you're going to have a problem at some point. So these neighborhoods are managing problems, their problem management, and that

it's not even management, it's problem abatement. It's problem deferral. Right, it's it's it's it's a surviving mindset in these neighborhoods. That's what I did. I covered this in my book

The Memo I think I did that. That was my fourth book, How the Poor and Save Capitalism, the memo up from Nothing, not the mindset and up from Nothing and that My last book is Financial Literacy for All, which I want you all to get and to donate to a local library or title I school in your neighborhood and you're near where you live, so you can teach financial literacy and show up as a role model, which I also cover in the time piece, to mentor other people so they can be like you, watch you

living your life. Maybe the only Bible anybody else reads. So this is what happens in a five under credit corre neighborhood. They're target marketing you, not because you're black, not because you're brown, not because you're a woman, not because you're poor, white, but because you're financially illiterate. Because they can't, because this is behavioral economics, and this is

bad capitalism. Because I covered earlier and in that same neighborhood you lived in sixty years of age, you typically go to high school sixty five sixty sixty sixty five percent of people graduate from high school in that same neighborhood. In a seven hundred credit score neighborhood, ninety ninety five, ninety six percent of people go to finish high school, which means at that rate of high school equivalent of completion,

that means they're going to college. So essentially, the vast overwhelming majority of people in a seven hundred credit cord neighborhood are going to college. And that means that their aspiration is informed by the latest technology, the latest offerings, which means artificial intelligence may not put them out of a job. They might get they might understand how to do the new job of AI. They will understand finance will understand technology, you know understand market economy. So you know,

more education is just more good. I mean, you cannot you need as much education. You can shut down your throat. If you live in a five hundred credit cord neighborhood, violent crime per thousand is off the chain. The majority of households are single family households, single parent households, so typically the mother. Did you know that seventy percent of black households, by the way, as an example, or run

by women, women need a Nobel Peace Prize. I wrote a piece in Time magazine about the power of women, by the way, should read that piece, very thought provoking piece. But my mother, my mother, Wendya Smith, ran our household, single mother, divorced. So these these households have single parents. They have high levels of violent crime, high levels of substance abuse, drug abuse, high levels of police engagement versus police protection, low tax basis, which means low levels of homeownership.

But I'm going to get into covering a couple of cities, specifically side by side. Comparisons couldn't get this in their Time article because it's you know, eight hundred one thousand words. But I going to cover now the literally the difference between a five hundred and a seven credit score neighborhood. And I want you to think about your neighborhood and where you grew up at. I want you to go to the Operation Hope Whole Financial Wellness Index. Type in year,

zip code. You tell me your zip code. I'm gonna tell you how you live in again, show you how the color actually is green. I can't change how somebody feels about you. I can't change when somebody likes you or not, and whether they like black people or brown people, or whether they have racism in their heart. But what I can change help you change is your credit score. And I'm going to tell you before we finish how you best change your credit score, whether the steps you

can take to empower yourself. And by the way, Number one calls divorce America money. Number one calls for the messic abuse in households. Money Number one reasons why police get hurt the mesic abuse calls. Number one calls for that money. Number one calls for heart attacks in America. Stress. Number one calls for stress money. So am I saying the seven hundred cditcored neighborhoods are perfect. No, I'm not.

But you've never seen a riot in a seven hundred credit score neighborhood in all of American's history because seven hundred credit score neighbors don't riot, they go shopping. So so, nothing changes your life more than God or love than moving your credit score one hundred and twenty points. That's a mic drop right there. Nothing changes your life more than God or love than moving your credit score one

hundred twenty points. You go to the club tonight, and maybe it's the club that gets reopened in Atlanta, or maybe it's right you know, Ryan Wilson's club, the gathering spot, the business club that opened for an evening soiree. You go to a club right and you say, man, she's fine, Bruther, It's like she's fine, sis, It's like, oh, he's so handsome. Asks a name. Get acquainted as soon as you think this is a quasi serious conversation before anybody's had too

many drinks. But that overpriced liquor by the way, that costs a fraction of what you're paying for it, and that VIP club area that you would not stand in during the day because it's probably all kind of stuff running around that were scared but was out of you. But it's night and it's dark and there's a velvet rope on it and they've up charged you, and you

think it's cool anyway. Okay, So when you go to that club tonight and after you, before you get drunk, I'm sorry, intoxicated, I want you to ask the other person what's your credit score? And I'm only partly partly kidding. Because part of marriage, Yes, romance is important, and spirituality and religion is the core of it. And make sure that it's endowed by God. The institutional marriage, but that I covered the breakfast club. Marriage came from business thousands

of years before ever. God endowed it with special features and meetings. So that you know you are rooted in a spiritual purpose for your marriage. But at the end of the day, you will make sure you're not married marrying a dunce, marrying an idiot, marrying a bonehead, marrying somebody who can't raise your children, marry can't somebody who can't add two plus two. This is where I love and I say math. I like math. It doesn't have

an opinion. That's a melody hops in quote. I've co opted it and The math of a marriage and a relationship is that it needs to be multiplication, not just addition. So two plus two is compounding. Two plus two has to equal more than four. One plus one has to equal more than two. In a relationship, it is at it means four, six, eight, or ten. Otherwise, why are you doing it? You're not better together? Why are you

doing it? And it just so happens that financial stress causes the in a surviving mindset relationship, domestic abuse arguments people to do start to do all kind of crazy stuff to try to meet their needs, like stealing, theft, hurting your own neighborhood. That's where black on black I think crime comes from. You know, nobody wakes up the mornings, who let me be a bum, Let me be an idiot, let me be a you know a ways to my

own community and society. And people know they trying to do they're trying to get by, and they look around their neighborhoods to figure out how they can get buy and unfortunately they end up praying on somebody who looks like them. That business model, that eating yourself business model, crabbing the barrel business model is not sustainable. It's not

going to work, it's going to fail. I'm trying to give you a path forward to stability and centerer credit score neighborhoods represent that and it's something you can control. I can help you get your credit score right right,

and that may help you get your life right. And we live in a society, a free enterprise, capitalist democracy society where from the time you go to bed at night to the time you wake up in the morning, you're actually having a financial transaction because you're putting your head on a pillow government didn't issue to you, using an alarm clock to wake you up that the government

didn't issue to you. You bought it. You're paying for utilities and rent and air conditioning and heating that you pay for, and we geup in the morning at nine o'clock. From nine until you go to bed at you're once again dealing with capitalism and free enterprise. It's just a series of facial transactions all day that you're not paying attention to. And if you're paying the high rates for that, then you are living in an unsustainable situation. You're paying

then those who make the least pay the most. Let me get now into details. You live in Chicago. All right, and I did a video on this. You used to look it up. Check it out on my social media page at John O'Brien or at Operation Hope. You'll find it in both places. So if if anybody listening to this from Chicago, you know where West Garfield Park is, that's six oh six two four zip code. You're living in Lincoln Park, or you know Lincoln Park, that's fifteen

minutes away by car from Garfield Park. I know, we got drove it. That's six six one four zip code. Okay, now you can go again. You go to the Whole Financial Wellness Index and put your ZIP code in. It'll tell you which your credit score is in that neighborhood. By the way, lowest credit score state in America Mississippi. Again, I cover this in the Time piece. Highest credit score state in America Minnesota, and so Minnesota has a seven

hundred and fifty or seven sixty average credit score. In Mississippi has a six hundred and sixty six average credit score. Now you may say six six sixty six average credit score is not so bad. No, I said average and or median, which means that you had people above that credit score. So you have people who are wealthy at seven hundred, seven fifty eight hundred. You have people who are poor at six hundred, five fifty five hundred, four hundred.

And what that says in Mississippi is you had many, many, many, many many more people who are poor pulling that number down than you had other people pulling that number up. And men a place like Minnesota at more people who are wealthy or doing well or at least aspirational and succeeding pulling that number up, so the average is higher. Right, I have a credit score with eight hundred in change,

My mother is eight fifty four. If you can believe that, if on my block or in my neighborhood, if I'm the only eight hundred credit score and then everybody else is, you know, six hundred and five hundred credit score, even though I'm an eight hundred credit score, the average in my neighborhood's going to be more like six ninety or something like that, because my high average is going to be pulled down by everybody else's low averages. That makes

me sense. And so why is this important? Okay? Because culture is everything. Your neighborhood has a culture, your household has a culture, your block that you live on has a culture. America has a culture, and your cities have a culture. That's why New York City is different from Buffalo, New York. That's why Los Angels is very different from San Francisco. It's why Atlanta is different from Columbus, Georgia. That's why you move from one place to another and

travel one place the other. That's why New Orleans in Louisiana is different from Shreveport in Louisiana. These these places have cultures, they have personalities, right, and what is a personality in your household? What is a personality in your in your in your social circle? Do you hang around nine broke people, You'll be the tenth. You've heard me say this over and over again and trying to put these pieces together for you, so it starts to make sense.

Watch who you hang around. Because we model what we see. Why do kids in underserved neighborhoods want to be rap stars, athletes and drug dealers. They're not dumb and they're that stupid. They're brilliant, but they're modeling what they see. We got to give them something different to see, you know. And I talk about urban communities and poverty. By the way, you know, what do you think NASCAR came from? Came from moonshine running from poor whites in the Appalachian Mountains

who are running from the police. Did you know that? And they realize at some point that business model is not going to work, so they say, well, look what part of this is sustainable? Because I'm gonna get shot and killed or you know, murdered or in prisoned just doing the rate, the running them the police in the

moonshine thing. So I'm a good driver. So the driving went from driving on the on the streets and running from the police and then running behind the competitors on a circle on the dirt, and that turned into the stadium driving. You see the day in Nascar, and these families, many of these families in NASCAR are the descendants of moonshine runners. Did you know that? All? Right? Rainbows after storms?

Back to the story, Chicago, Take out your pen and paper or your you know, your iPad or your iPhone or whatever you use you write on it is digital world. Garfield six h six twenty four, average credit score five ninety seven. Actually not that bad. You'll see what I mean by that. In a minute. Lincoln Park credit score

is seven thirty nine. Meeting household income Garfield Park twenty five thousand and six forty eight dollars Lincoln Park fifteen minutes apart one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars average income unemployment rate eleven point eight percent versus two point three percent home ownership rate. Check this out now. The easiest plat, the easiest way to build wealth in America is home ownership. You've heard me said a million times. The biggest business

in the world is real estate. And every millionaire, including the one talking to you now, is steeped in home in in real estate and typically owns their own home, but they're certainly their portfolio includes real estate. Twenty seven percent. Home ownership rate in Garfield Park eight six h sixty two four. What's the meeting house with income for Black people in America? Forty one forty two forty three forty four percent. What's meeting house or income for white America

about seventy five percent. That thirty percent thirty five percent delta difference between black home ownership rate and white home ownership rate is the huge, the gaping gap of wealth creation of wealth. The wealth and wealth in quality in this country, and they are historic reasons for to go all the way back to slavery and Jim Crow era and the UH the forty eggs and mule and and all that stuff, which I covered in my book Financial

Newsy for All in great detail. And also the huge squash of land ten percent of all American land that was given to settlers who went west after the Civil War, ninety nine point nine percent didn't look like me, which which is one hundred million Americans today who benefited from that. So wealth creation and poverty UH alleviation or the lack thereof, are pretty obvious of why we end up where we

end up and and correcting it. All I'm doing with what I'm doing now is using math and formulas's and using the same system that enslaved us and that it

burdened us to set us free and to give us opportunity. Hello, that's a rap MI paying attention to my brother t II, paying attention to give you some some rap content from next your next album's Brothers, They'll be in our hopeful perform By the way, for home ownership rate for Garfield Park compared to forty five percent in Lincoln Park, which is actually a very low number, but there's a lot of apartment living in condos. Lincoln Park is basically downtown

in Chicago, so it's kind of living in downtown. And that was a suburban area, it would be seventy five eighty percent home ownership rate, but the Garfield Park is definitely residential neighborhood, so it's twenty seven percent is extremely low. Meeting home value one hundred and eighty thousand, eighty thousand versus almost seven hundred thousand in that same neighborhood. Violent crimes per thousand, get this, seventy five point zero compared to five point one four. One's safe and one is

incredibly not safe. High school graduation rates sixty three point eighty percent in six oh sixty two four Garfield Park compared to ninety two percent in Lincoln Park. Basically going to college, and like expectancy rate, again, this is not as bad as I've seen. If you get below the five hundred credit score, it's worse than this, but sixty nine years of age on average, so you get sob security with sixty five, so you're just getting so security

and you drop dead. You get two three years of chilling. Then you're dead. The average for a five hundredreditcore neighborhood is sixty one years. You don't even make it to solid security. What did Malcolm Xay, we've been bamboozoo, we've been tricked, we've been fooled. Hello. And then Lincoln Park, of course, eighty one years of age, which is the average forty seven hundred credit corred neighborhood. You can't make this stuff up right. This is not like John Bryant's

theory on relativity, relativity and success and failure. This again, I like math because it doesn't happen. Opinion. Let's look at Atlanta city that I've called home. I grew up

in La but I now call Atlanta home. Forest Park as an example, three oh two nine seven zip code sixty nineteen credit score not bad at all actually, But Virginia Highlands three three six seven forty credit score once again in how a meeting household income thirty thousand versus one hundred and three thousand, unemployment rate nine percent versus three percent. Home ownership rate not so bad, forty three

percent versus fifty eight percent. But as you see, as the credit score goes up in the underserved neighborhoods, the worst things get less bad and get as you or as I'd say, my grow up neighbor, I grew up mo Beta forty three percent is not good, but it's actually the national average for black folks by the way, as I've already mentioned. But it's not horrible, it's not. This is actually what I see normally in these five hundre creditscred neighborhoods is a home owners rate in the twos,

twenty five, twenty seven. That's why I'm saying forty three percent is not bad, but it's not aspirational either. You want to seventy five percent of ownership seventy five percent home ownership rate meeting home value fifty five thousand versus four hundred and eighty six thousand dollars. This is fifteen minutes apart. Violent crimes per thousand, seven point four versus two point eight. Not as bad as but I just

missed Chicago. But again, the credit score is in the sixes in the Forest Park versus the five hundreds in Garfield Park. High school graduation rate sixty percent versus ninety seven percent life expectancy rate. Get this seventy four years versus eighty two years. So again the seven credit score neighborhood is about the same, eighty one to eighty two years. And again the low wealth neighborhood. As that credit score goes up, that life expectancy creeps up. It's still seventy

four years, is not eighty two years. You're still living just under a decade less on average of lifespan. So now let's go to Let's go to Memphis, Tennessee. I was just there on the American Aspiration Tour for my new book, Financial Literacy for All, my Business Plan for America, and Operation Schulps Work. Average credit score in Memphis New Pathways area zip code three eight one two six. By the way, send me your zip code if you want me to do the work for you. Map this out.

Map out the tail of two cities in your area. You want to be on the American Aspiration Tour, Go to the American Aspiration Tour page and submit a request. We'll see if we can get a hold of your mayor and get them new advite me to come through. Mayor Andre Dickens kicked it off with me in Atlanta. Then I went to Mayor Paul Young in Memphis and coming to Mayor Steven Reid next, amongst others. So I

would love to come to your city. Here's Memphis again, five eighty four credit score in Memphis three eight one two six zip code Tyree Nichols killing a zip code where Tyre's Nichols was killed. It's three eight one four three eight one four one zip code. That's six one hundred and thirty two six point thirty two credit score in Germantown in Memphis zip code three eight one three nine, seven hundred and forty five credit score. And by the way, I don't even need to see these credit scores tell

you how about these neighborhoods. Seven forty five is completely stabilized. That's a middle class, upper middle class neighborhood. I don't even just see it. Somebody watching a list in this can just confirm yep, he's right. And I can tell you where five eighty four credit score is. That's toe up from the flow up. And the median household income is thirteen thousand dollars in five eighty four credit score. Neighborhood unemployment rate is ten percent, which is low actually

for that kind of neighborhood home ownership rate is thirteen percent. Oh, it just broke my heart. Thirteen percent, jeez, Louise meeting home value fifty thousand dollars on average, violent crimes per thousand, wait for this, thirty eight point zero compared to one point one. And then high school graduation rates seventy three percent actually not that bad compared to ninety six percent

in that wealthy neighborhood. I mentioned to you life expectancye sixty eight years in the three eight one two six credit zip code, where there's a five eighty four credit score in a eighty one years of age in the seven forty five credit score. So I think you're starting to get it. Like I can do this all day, but I think it's important. I want you to understand that math works, that there's a formula to success. Success is intentional and so is failure. And I want you

to create a formula for your success. Do the math, Understand the formula. Understand financial literacy. Understand how capitalism free enterprise works. Get my book Financial Literacy for All. Listen to this podcast every week. It's a literary library for success for your life. You listen to the whole year. Subscribe to your friends to subscribe, follow us on social media. Get your life coach through Operation help you financial Coach.

We are America's financial coach at Operation Hope. Because of scholarships, it's free to you. This is the silver rights movement, from civil rights to civil rights, from the streets to the c suites, rebuilding the ladder of aspiration opportunity in America and soon around the world too. John O'Brien and I believe financial literacy is a civil rights issue of this generation. Let me know what you think. Read this Time magazine articles, share it, Let's discuss to quote my

friend Charlemagne, Piece and Light. Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.