THE Cambridge Connection - BEST OF SHOW

It would take every computer on earth 10,000 years to crack your password. So these criminals, what they did is they left their password out on the kitchen table for when they got raided, it was very easy to seize. But Bitcoin, for all intents and purposes, is unseizable. And then finally, Bitcoin is immutable. And what does that mean?

It can’t be censored. So I can pay anyone in the world of any type of person, I can pay them if they’re left wing, right wing, whatever wing they may be. And those three properties are what gives Bitcoin its value and what makes Bitcoin compelling for most people. What advice do you have for a beginner that is just going to start to, let’s say they want to start investing 5% of their income into cryptocurrency in the industry? Where does someone start?

Because that’s a lot of information you just gave, and it is a lot to know and understand. Yeah, and I totally get it, right? Like if you’re hearing this right now, you might be like, okay, Dan, that sounded compelling. That sounded interesting. But I’m still really confused.

Like, what is money? And I don’t even understand how the existing monetary policy, like how the current financial system works. Well, you’re not alone. As John Oliver puts it, the really well-known comedian, he says, Bitcoin is everything you don’t understand about money with everything you don’t understand about computers. Yeah, it’s a double whammy, right?

So you’re not alone for feeling confused. So this journey of fully understanding Bitcoin versus the existing system will take some time. If you do feel compelled to buy some and then learn, which is actually a really cool way of learning. In fact, I do that with traditional equities, is I’ll buy it just so I start to pay attention to it. Once you have some Bitcoin in your account, I think that’s a good way for you to start checking the price every day and reading news about Bitcoin or understanding why it’s important.

The ultimate goal that you want from this or where you should end up over time, and everyone’s journey is unique, and I don’t want to pressure people too much, is eventually you want to withdraw your Bitcoin and hold it yourself. It’s really cool that Bitcoin has this property. It’s kind of like gold where you can hold gold in a vault that someone else controls for you, or you can have the same quality of vault and store it at home. That way you don’t have to trust Kraken, you don’t have to trust these other exchanges. All you have to do is just trust yourself.

Kind of like the old put your money under the mattress type deal, is that what you mean? A little bit. Yeah, I think you’re directionally right there. Not necessarily putting your money under the mattress, but under your mattress is Fort Knox. Yeah, right.

It’s kind of a better way of putting it, but yeah, you’re right. And so that’s a really powerful quality of Bitcoin, but it does take a little bit of technical expertise, and I want to make sure people don’t feel pressured to do that right away. They should learn more about Bitcoin, they should understand it more. But yeah, I think when you look at portfolio allocation perspective wise, after you dip your toes into the water just to start to pay attention to it, then I would say portfolio allocation wise, and I’m not a financial advisor, you should talk to a professional about this, but what’s the harm in losing 1% of your portfolio? If you put in 1% and it’s lost, I’m pretty sure you’re not going to lose any sleep over it.

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Crypto wallets and security practices

Ben, thank you so much again for joining us. Thanks for having me back. Talking about investing in cryptocurrency, can you explain to our listeners what a wallet is? Oh yeah. Yes.

I’d like to start by saying, first, this isn’t financial advice, I’m not a financial advisor. However, I’ve spent a lot of time in cryptocurrency, so I’ll give my perspective. This is a common misconception because a lot of individuals will go to Coinbase and purchase their cryptocurrency, but they’re not maintaining custody of it. What that means is, essentially, centralized exchanges or exchanges like Coinbase have a vault, if you will, of these cryptocurrencies that you’re purchasing from them. To maintain a wallet is to create a address that is unique to yourself.

A lot of times, people will do this through browser wallets like Metamask or a hardware wallet like Ledger. This is a copy of the blockchain that you’re maintaining and your cryptographic key that is unique to yourself and creating an identifier for you to participate in this ecosystem. When you’re purchasing cryptocurrency, to actually then participate in the blockchain, you have to move those assets off the centralized exchange into your wallet. Then from there, you can interface directly with anybody else who has a crypto wallet in the world. If they provide me whatever that cryptographic key is that says, this is your wallet, I can plug that in.

I can just put however much Ethereum, Bitcoin, whatever, and click send, and it’s going to go to them. No middlemen whatsoever. This is what makes blockchain super interesting. It’s cutting out all the intermediaries that are checking and validating those transactions. Instead, it’s this computational system that’s handling it for you.

As an example, when you deposit even cash into an ATM, there’s still a waiting period for that to be available, even if it’s the end of the day, or if you deposit a check on a Friday, it’s typically not available to that next business day, which is a Monday. In this space, it’s instantaneous, a transaction, without any of that holdup. You’re not waiting for it to clear. Correct. And when you think about that as an extension of however much money transacts on a daily basis, so we’re talking billions, trillions of dollars moving from place to place, and the amount of float that happens in between these, we have a very inefficient system of moving money around.

And sometimes the further the distance, the longer the money can take to clear, or if the banks don’t have really great relationships, there can be complications with sending and receiving funds. With things like Bitcoin, Ethereum, you have transactions that can clear in minutes to at max, maybe an hour. And that’s still so, so much better than what we have already. So on a protection standpoint, I always have to get into this because I know even educating myself, there’s a lot of warnings about how people can get into your wallet. Can you spend just a couple of minutes talking about the to-dos and the not-to-dos when you’re dealing with a wallet?

Sure. So providing your wallet address is generally considered safe. At very most, what you’re doing is you’re exposing and identifying yourself as the wallet holder. So if somebody wants to be anonymous, that’s obviously not going to happen if you know that my name’s Ben and this is my wallet address that I’m sending to you. So that’s kind of your first risk.

But that’s palatable for most people. The cryptography, the security component here is really rooted in what we call a seed phrase. And that’s a series of words that are essentially like a code that help decipher who owns the wallet. And that is something that you do not want to give. You write it down in a book, you throw it in a vault somewhere.

You only drudge that up if you... Let’s say I cleared my browser and lost my password to my wallet. I can use that seed phrase anywhere in the world and essentially recover my wallet. But if somebody else gets a hold of that seed phrase, they can secure control of your wallet and then you’re in deep trouble. So that’s another issue, if you will.

However, it’s very, very complicated. Nobody’s just going to guess these seed phrases. They’re set up in such a way that it’s very, very complicated. It would take a great amount of computational strength to decipher and crack that code. The other thing is when you are interfacing in what we call Web3, and that is when you have like a browser wallet or your ledger plugged in, and you’re logging into like a decentralized website that says connect your wallet here, you have to be very careful because you can assign permissions that say, I’m going to allow what I’m connecting to, to transact on my behalf or to spend money in my wallet in a certain way.

This generally doesn’t happen without you having to click buttons, but you know how people are. Terms and condition things roll through and they just blindly hit accept. And what they don’t realize they’re doing is actually submitting a transaction on the blockchain. So the best thing is just to be very patient. If you’re dipping into kind of the unknown, just knowing where those pitfalls are will protect you greatly.

Spotting scams and credit repair fraud

Tina Marie here. com. As a parent, grandparent, and credit counselor, I can never know too much about the financial scams that keep popping up. Thankfully, Steve does, and he always keeps us in the know saying no. So Steve, in one of our past conversations together, I had talked about the student loan envelope that had the Department of Education logo on it.

So it made the person feel immediately that it was an official document. And I think the point that I had a customer in the past ask me, hey, should I respond to this to get my information? I’m like, no, go into your account, log in as who you are, follow that phone number, and call the number that’s in your account. And that is such good advice, because one of my mottos is trust me, you can’t trust anyone. And you’ll get something that looks official.

I teach at Bentley University. Years ago, I used to teach in the state prison system, and met some interesting people, including some old con men who talked about in their day, it took skill to be a counterfeiter. Now any 14 year old kid can pull off a logo and make something look really, really good when you’re talking about having an email come that looks like or even a letter that looks like it’s official. Absolutely. I want to bring up something for everybody.

And this is touching on what you said in regard to fixing the credit if you become a victim of identity theft. The credit reporting agencies, and I’m not real big fans of how they operate, but I will give them a little slack with the hundreds of millions of records that they have to deal with, mistakes will be made, honest mistakes will be made. And so it’s really incumbent upon people to check their credit report regularly. And this is something important, because there can be mistakes, it’ll also help you find if there’s identity theft. But the idea is if you do find there’s something mistaken on there, or evidence of identity theft, you want to deal with it before you’re applying for that car loan before you’re applying for that mortgage.

So it’s the kind of thing that people should regularly do. And in fact, what the we used to be able to get a free credit report once a year from each of the three major credit reporting agencies. Now, since the pandemic started, and it’s been extended a couple of times, you can get a free credit report weekly. And this has been extended to the end of 2022. So I don’t know if you need to necessarily check weekly, but it is something that people should do regularly check their credit report to see if there are any mistakes or indications of identity theft, because the sooner you can deal with it, the better it will be for you.

So yeah, so let’s talk about this credit repair scam article that you had written. Yeah, there’s been a lot of action by the Federal Trade Commission against various scammers for credit repair. And you know, the the idea behind credit repair our credit reports are incredibly important documents in our lives, because they your credit risk score and your credit report can really have a big effect on whether you’re going to get a job, whether you were going to get insurance, whether you’re going to get a loan, all kinds of things are affected by your credit score and your credit report. So during difficult times, in particular, people’s scores go down, and they turn to scammers, because there are a lot of scammers out there who look legit. They may even appear to have government approval and some of the social media or the emails they send.

But the bottom line is the what they end up doing is making things far worse. And one of the key ways to find out whether one of these scammers is indeed a scammer. There are two things that I always looked at one is advanced fees for credit repair companies that are operating in for profit are banned by the credit repair organization tax. So if you are looking to get some help from someone who says they can guarantee to increase your score by 200 points or whatever, but you have to pay them in advance. You know, they’re a scammer, they’re breaking the law.

The other thing is, there’s a common scam fraud that they do to try and manipulate the credit reports. And that is, you’ve got your credit report, it’s key to your social security. Security number. What they try and do is have you switch over to a tax ID number. And this idea of switching to a federal employer tax ID to use instead of your social security number when applying for credit, it’s blatantly illegal.

You know, anyone that tells you that they can get something negative off your credit report is just frankly, frankly lying. You know, the negative information, if it’s true, stays on there for seven years, bankruptcies for 10 years. Now, that’s not to say there is plenty of false or misleading information that may be on there and that you can get taken off, which can improve your credit score. But the big thing is looking at these companies that make guarantees they’re going to increase your credit score, charge you ahead of time. You’ve got to be wary.

The key to protecting yourself from scams, cybercrime, and identity theft is education. com comes in. com is the brainchild of attorney and Bentley professor Steve Weissman. com provides daily, up-to-date information that you can use to avoid the latest scams, identity theft schemes, and cybersecurity threats. com was named by the New York Times as one of the best sources for information about scams.

Fintech partnerships and credit eligibility platform

com today and subscribe for free to receive a scam of the day alert or check out Steve’s books, Identity Theft Alert and The Truth About Avoiding Scams. Because as Steve says, BS means be skeptical. If you’ve lost income during the pandemic and have fallen behind on your rent or mortgage payments, Cambridge Credit Counseling can help. Talk to one of our HUD-certified counselors at 1-800-CAMBRIDGE. It took us till show 47 to get Elizabeth Stukos of fintech company Creditvalve to find time to opt in on her credit and debt management education platform that allows lenders to transform underserved but deserving consumers into qualified applicants.

Because why say no when as a lender, you can simply say not yet. I know you had some thoughts, Lisa. I did. As I was listening to Elizabeth, I was thinking about, okay, that average person walks into their brick and mortar bank and they sit down and they apply for a credit card or they apply for a mortgage or whatever they’re applying for. And through the process, they find out that they have some things that need repaired.

And rather than be sent on their merry way and just told no, which I know you alluded to a lot of banks, is your organization and are you personally working to change that pattern so that partnerships between fintech companies like Creditvalve can be a partner with the Chases or the Amexes or whatever other types of bank and financial institutions are out there and that that person sitting on the other side of the table will say, oh, well, Mrs. Jones, you know, we work with, here’s a list of four different fintech companies that could help you repair that. When that’s fixed, come back to us and we’ll be happy to work with you. I love that question. And yes, right, through our digital integrations with lenders and credit counselors, Creditvalve is that platform, the credit education and debt management platform that helps consumers who don’t need loan requirements become credit eligible and gain credit skills for life.

And they do that by working with the counseling agencies that are on our platform. And what we’ve seen is that this transition usually happens in five months or less. To me, five months sounds a little long, but is that a shorter timeframe than what maybe used to happen? So when we look at this, sometimes it’s just the know-how, right? So if you’re one time 30 late, and let me just give an example, you’re one time 30 late on your credit report, it could drop you 70 points overnight, right?

And so if that’s the only thing that negatively impacted you, of course, a counseling agency through our platform can give the necessary guidance and share additional examples and review your report, but that takes time to resolve. So our agencies such as Cambridge, we’re looking at what else, what else can help you and through the platform, through the digitalization, it’s pulling this information to give that necessary guidance so that consumers know, okay, I might’ve dropped 70 points, but my gosh, within the next 30 days, these are the actions my coach is going to take, which I call the counselor’s coaches because we’re really coaching them and what I’m going to take. And through the platform, there’s that communication. Yes, we touch base on a daily, on a monthly basis with the consumer, but there’s that platform that ensures that we’re all taking the necessary steps to improve not only our credit, but our overall financial wealth. Just going back to my example, right?

A consumer comes in, the normal traditional process is you go to your bank, you get denied for whatever product you’re offering. We looked at that and said, there has to be a better way. And that’s what CreditVault does. We connect and help lenders connect with credit counselors to work together to help consumers achieve credible and responsible wellbeing, right? And so how does that happen?

Well, through API integration, our platform that the nonprofits work on, it’s a SaaS platform, right? So what does all of this mean is that if you have an internet connection, if you have great wifi, you’re able to work and see the activity on your credit, on your budget. We’ve also added a really cool feature working with one of the GSEs, Freddie Mac, on our platform, which counselors can now do a light version of an automated underwriting system and get an assessment report, which really helps consumers become mortgage ready. There is no longer the secret, right? We wanted to stop having this mentality for consumers that, well, the only way I’ll know if I could apply is if I go through this long lengthy process.

No, working with a counselor on our platform gives them the necessary guidance and understanding on a monthly basis to provide them those resources. Saying no to applicants who don’t qualify for a mortgage costs you business and means you’re less likely to help the hardest to serve consumers like first-time homebuyers and low to moderate income and minority borrowers. CredEvolve helps you turn no into not yet for consumers who aren’t currently credit eligible. Through integrations with highly qualified coaches who leverage the same digital validation and automated underwriting services lenders use, we ensure consumers remain in your sales funnel and qualify for your products in as few as three months. Do well by doing good.

Author’s story of resilience and abundance

Well, Gordie, our last guest for today is a top favorite of mine, Judy Bailoff and her book of 365 Days of Abundance. It was so inspiring and empowering, but what she left me with, and I wrote it down, all of us are born rich. The life we dreamed of is already within us, and we just need to learn how to let it out. I went right to Amazon and I saw another book that she wrote called Flipping the Script on Negativity, and honestly, I tied it immediately into my everyday life as far as a credit counselor. People call in and they’re just so beside themselves, and usually they don’t want to make the call.

They make the call and they’re just, and everything is just not going to work, not going to work. And by the end of the call, it’s so nice to say, oh my God, look, I have an answer for you. Flip the script, turn that frown upside down. It’s just, it’s amazing. I actually just bought the book for my daughter.

I can’t flip her script. She’s a little too... No, that never works. But maybe Judy can help her. One of the things we focus on, this is a show about financial wisdom, financial empowerment, financial wellness, and we really do our best to stay away from doom and gloom.

And obviously we know we’re in a rough economy right now, and household debt is skyrocketing, and there’s many reasons for people to be negative. So we’re going to get into the book that you have produced to help people. But before we do that, can you tell our audience a little bit about your story? Okay. This journey began...

I’m Not a young chick, a chick I just found like a young chick, her 70th birthday is next month. And what a great decade the 60s were. My 60s, not everybody else’s 60s. I can tell you that seven years ago, my physician at my annual physical said, Judy, I’m concerned about what your echocardiogram looks like, I want you to go see a cardiologist. Well that started a lot of tests, I ended up having open heart surgery, which is a big seven hour surgery with a giant scar down the middle of your chest.

And when I woke up, they told me that unfortunately, some of the calcification around the heart valve had broken loose during the surgery and floated up to my cerebellum and caused five strokes. Wow. Good Lord. And so those strokes robbed me of my ability to read, to write, to use my right hand, to use my complex thinking. I guess they thought I had it at one point, or so they said I lost it.

And my thoughts of balance was pretty troublesome because I kept falling all the time, even though there was nothing to trip over. And then I lost my job. I went back, after 10 weeks, I worked really hard. I used auto-suggestion, which we were talking about a few minutes ago, offline, and in gratitude and prayer, and I made nearly a full recovery and I got to go back to work. I got back to work and they got rid of me.

So I lost my job too. And I ended up having to use all the tools in my tool bag to figure out how to go forward. I was 64 and I just lost a 27-year career in the financial services industry. And I was like, huh, anyway, I took a job with a huge, one of the top insurance companies in the country. And in the last five years, I killed it.

I have been agent of the year, top six in the company, made over half a million dollars, actually came back from that group. And that is what happened. The bad thing is what caused the good thing, which is what we need to remember. Because I got introduced to Bob Proctor through the company I was with. I took a class with him.

I ended up being mentored by him. He wrote the forward for my book. And I got up one morning in January of 2021 and I said to my husband, David, somebody should write a book that would help people live these principles every day. Because they’re all connected. The Bible, Think and Grow Rich, Bob Proctor’s stuff, the 12 Universal Laws.

And so then God tapped me on the shoulder and said, why don’t you write it, Judy? I believe that if you read this book every day of the year for one year, it would change your life. The reason I think he said that is because I can’t change your thoughts, your spouse can’t change your thoughts, your business partner can’t change your thoughts. You are in charge of your thoughts. New author Judy Bailoff has had eight careers, two husbands, four children and six grandchildren.

All those numbers add up to a ton of life experience, yet she will tell you they are not as important as what she learned through having open heart surgery, five strokes and losing her 27-year banking career. That watershed event led her to a discovery of life-changing abundance through the 12 Universal Laws and the principles of success and wealth in Think and Grow Rich. Judy’s first book, 365 Days of Abundance, is a daily dose of inspiration meant to transform your life in just a few minutes a day. Get your copy on Amazon or visit Judy Bailoff, B-A-L-L-O-F-F dot com. Grateful to be with you here again.

Closing quote and show wrap up

This is such important information in very difficult economic times. And of course, I have a quote to leave us with that I prepare each week to share our motivation. I look forward to your quotes. Here we go. Even though there are days I wish I could change some things that happened in the past, there’s a reason the rearview mirror is so small and the windshield is so big.

Where you’re headed is much more important than what you’ve left behind. Join us every week on this show. Great experts like Deb Jordan on the horizon. m. com, click on podcasts and listen to any shows of the past.

We want you to be part of the conversation just like this important one today. You can email connect at Cambridge credit dot org or feel free to call 1-800-CAMBRIDGE.