THE Cambridge Connection - Episode 67

You’re setting yourself up for failure. I just know there’s room for improvement. Right. Right. Yes.

So again, write more handwritten thank you notes. I think this is very important now we’ve gotten into the electronic age. Everything’s text or email, and you’re waiting for somebody to reply. So the two things that I’m looking at, pick up the phone, make a phone call, and send out a note of some kind. Right.

You know what? This has kind of just reminded me of something. A co-worker of mine, I was having a really bad day, and I left to go get a cup of coffee. And when I got back, there was a Post-it on my screen, and it said, you’re beautiful, and you’re doing great. See that?

And it just meant the world to me. Small. Wow. You don’t have to spend 5,500 in gifts during the holiday to acknowledge people, right? Right.

How about a little Post-it note? And this was a few months ago, and I tell the story all the time. It just meant so much to me. That someone took the time out to recognize, to give you something. I was having a bad day, and let’s see what we can do to help her.

And yeah. Yes. I like it. I love it. Here’s another one.

Mentor a young person. I think as we get on with it, we talk about wisdom experience. The youth doesn’t always have it, because their experience on the earth isn’t long enough, right? Right. So find someone young and mentor them.

And you know what? I like the next one. Go ahead. To find your own mentor. Because sometimes, as adults, we might want to take on a little bit too much.

And it’s- What’s the name of this? The Daily Coach that we’re reading from? There you go. Right? Does a baseball player need a hitting coach, pitching coach?

Yes. We’ve gone over this. We all need it. And we’re financial coaches. So we want to get people on some things to think about to get positioned better with their financial situation, financial wisdom, et cetera.

There’s always room for education. Yep. And how about, lastly, well, there’s a list of 20. I have this on my LinkedIn page, at GordonOCares. I will post it on Facebook as well, at GordonOCares.

But embrace curiosity. Be bold. That’s two of them in one. I like it. It depends on where you’re going with things.

It goes hand-in-hand to education, learning, what we were just saying. Everything just goes hand-in-hand. And that’s why this show is 60-plus episodes in, because that’s what we’re doing to help our listenership learn new things, new ways, new thoughts about managing finance and financial wellness. So bringing in 2023, we’re obviously going to take a quick break, but we planned on bringing some episodes that we thought were favorites of 2022. So we’re going to go over those.

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So we’ll take a quick break. This is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection. We’ll be right back. Inflation is pushing family finances to the brink. Don’t let that happen.

Find out how to pay down your credit card debt while saving money. To take control of your finances in 2023, call 1-800-CAMBRIDGE. Welcome back, everyone. Happy 2023. This is The Cambridge Connection.

Birthday mention and episode recap intro

I’m your host here with my co-pilot, Tina Marie, and we’re going to talk about some of the episodes from 2022 that we think stood out and are very important. So Tina, let’s start with you. Yeah. First of all, I want to acknowledge it’s not just happy 2023. It’s happy birthday to me.

Oh, well, surprise, surprise. Yes. COVID got me for the last couple of years. I wasn’t able to really celebrate, so we’re going to dinner tonight. I’m excited.

Just had to throw that out there. Well, I was going to bring that up at a different point. Well, 29 again. So with that, let’s celebrate it on your terms. So happy birthday to you, co-pilot.

National Foundation for Credit Counseling episode

Thank you. All right. What do we got? All right. Episode 22 with Bruce McCleary from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, also known as the NFCC.

Basically, they have a number of agencies that are nonprofit providers for financial and credit counseling. They do provide a variety of services, these credit counseling. And as you’re aware, I do work for a nonprofit credit counseling agency, Cambridge Credit Counseling. So of course, this definitely was one of my favorites. Yeah, it’s important.

Yeah. Just showing how these nonprofit credit counseling agencies can help an individual. And again, a variety of services, not just credit counseling, not just unsecured debts or your credit report, but housing counseling. Student counseling was a big one. Last year, this year, it’s going to go hand in hand.

Still going to be because there’s still uncertainty on what’s going on with the loan forgiveness from the Biden administration. It’s with the Supreme Court now. Right. And remember, last year, throughout the year, it was, oh, it’s forgiven. No, it’s not.

Oh, this amount is. No. And it was just so up in the air, and it still is. So it’s good to be able to contact a nonprofit agency to get valid information, which is obviously, this is something we’re going to go into later with one of your favorite episodes. I’m going to tell you why I think the National Foundation for Credit Counseling is important.

Because just like industries work, like you’ve got all your cons, right? Yes. Bank con, bank con, all of these companies that exist in an industry that they’re kind of meeting to talk about new concepts, new innovations. And they come with the mindset of it’s all about profiteering. That’s the business that they’re in.

NFCC is as much about regulating and having like-minded standards that the agencies have have to abide by. So they’re kind of in it together, because as nonprofits, they struggle for funding. They have to apply for grants and show how much education that they do. The banks only work with NFCC or FCAA-approved agencies. So you have to hold up to a standard.

And like you just said, I mean, they make sure these agencies do adhere to member and quality standards. And that’s so important in the financial industry, that you’re speaking with someone or an agency that they’re regulatory. And again, it’s very good to, when you’re doing your research, making sure that you are speaking with a member of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, or NFCC, so you know the information that you’re receiving is valid information, something that you can trust. Why is it important right now, and why do we choose this episode, Tina? Well, because now is the beginning of the year, and a lot of people are looking at their statements, at their credit cards.

Record levels from the past quarter of new application for lines of credit, record levels of balances held, interest rates increasing. Yes. And Gordon, we’re only a week into the year, and I can tell you, honestly, I’ve seen my workload, not double yet, but it’s getting there. We are very busy this time of the year. Reality, everybody, you got the Christmas spirit, you did this, you did that, you shopped, everything’s great.

And guess what? The statement comes in. Now what? You have to make sure that you’re speaking with a trusted nonprofit NFCC member. Absolutely, because there’s credibility there.

We talk about scams all the time, right? We’ve talked about the scam, about, oh, there’s a secret your creditors don’t want you to know, that you can pay them 50% of what you owe them, debt settlement, which does nothing but crush people, and is a solution, and there are some reputable companies out there, but that’s not the lead solution. And to advertise and be all over the place, we combat against that on messaging. And we went into that. Any agency, if you’re current on your bills and you care about your credit rating, and you have assets, you have things in place, the last thing you want to do is purposely fall behind because some agency said you don’t have to pay all that back.

Tax scams episode recap

It’s funny how you picked your two episodes and I picked mine, but it all kind of folds in. It does, it does. So number two, we just talked about scams. So episode 28, we had Steven Weissman, who’s a lawyer professor, teaching white-collar crime at Bentley University. com.

And in this episode, we talked about tax scams. Now, what time of the year are we in? It’s January. Everybody’s getting all their tax information, right? So the message of that episode, and again, episode 28, Steven Weissman talks about tax scams and what to avoid when getting your taxes prepared.

So number one, bogus tax preparers are definitely looking on the dark web for information. Oh my gosh, right now they’re on the prowl. On the prowl, changing passwords. We’ve gone over this, how important it is to change your passwords frequently. But if they find your social security number on, they basically can go and falsify tax returns on a person’s behalf.

Can you imagine the mess that would put an individual in? You know what identity theft does, right? It’s a mess. And we can’t be clear about this enough. This is an episode that everybody should listen to.

com. So everybody should sign up for it. The one that he talked about in the episode was there’s a African-American reparations where there’s, during the Civil War, there was a bill that everybody thought was passed called 40 acres and a mule, which never got through. But the Internal Revenue Service actually approved some returns that had this on it for those reparations, and then had to backtrack, go after the people that they approved the returns on, because this rule never was in place. And these people were unsuspecting.

Unsuspecting, why? Because the scam artist can say, look, the IRS approved these returns in the past and make it look real. All of a sudden, I’m due this reparation, right? So these are the things that we learned in that episode. And look, you can have your opinion about the Internal Revenue Service all you want, but we have to file tax returns.

We have to keep up with what’s going on. And this is just one category that Scamicide brings to light. Forget about the rest of the scams that are out there. So two things to take away. Listen to this episode number 28.

It’s an important time of the year when you’re dealing with tax fraudsters and scammers. And sign up for that newsletter, because they give incredible information on how to protect yourself from all kinds of scams. And the fact that they can do a scam a day. A scam a day. And some are updates, but you have to update, because that’s what they do.

They just keep moving and updating and changing. So again, to protect yourself and your finances, important. Listen to episode 28. com and sign up for the newsletter. We’re going to take a quick break.

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We’ll be back with our other two episodes. This is The Cambridge Connection. The holidays may be over, but the bills that come due afterward can put stress on your family’s budget. Cambridge’s budget counseling is free. So if you need help making a 2023 plan to deal with your debt, call 1-800-CAMBRIDGE.

Mortgage denial episode recap

Welcome back, everyone. Happy 2023. This is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection, here with my co-pilot, Tina Marie, reviewing some episodes that we thought were important to highlight. com. Click on Podcasts and just read the descriptions and pick one that you think that will help you.

We just covered a few very important ones, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, number 22, and number 28, which is Scamicide with Steve Wiseman. Now, episode 47, Tina, I thought was very important, not because you were not my co-pilot, because Lisa Riley, our producer, sat in for you on that day. But I’ve been in this business for a very long time, right? And one of the stopgaps that has never been available is when someone gets denied for a mortgage. They’re basically thrown to the wolves to go figure things out.

It’s not because of anybody’s intentions. It’s just systemically, it’s not a quick fix. You’ve got credit repair companies out there that are scam artists. We talk about scams that give people hopes and quick fixes. They pay fees.

Next thing you know, they can’t get any assistance. So our guest on this episode, Elizabeth Sedoukos, with CredEvolve, is a system that’s been set up with mortgage companies and nonprofit HUD counseling agencies like Cambridge Credit Counseling, where when a borrower gets denied a mortgage, they’re offered the opportunity to get coached. We talked about coaching right in the onset, how important it is, on what they need to do to get themselves to be underwritten for a mortgage. And the digitized software does the calculations on things that can be done to fix problems. So an example in the episode, if somebody has a 30-day late pay, like we talk about all the time with credit repair, you can’t fix the truth.

If it’s the truth, that’s what it is. But now, how do we look into your entire portfolio and coach on things that you can do to increase your score, to change some things that are not palatable for an underwriting agent? You can’t erase what’s already been done. No. You have to.

to know what to do. And the problem with consumers is, when they get denied, they’re not happy. They’re sad. They wanted their dream, their home, whatever they’re refinancing, whatever it is they’re doing. And now they have a systemic approach with a trusted HUD-certified counseling agency with HUD-certified counselors to walk them through as long as it takes to get back to getting approved for the mortgage.

So instead of no, the tag phrase is, it’s not yet. That’s perfect. And I think it’s wonderful as well because now the consumer is walking away with, like you just said, not no, not yet. A lot of people might walk away and not realize what they can do to improve their situation to get to where they want to be. And this is a better way because it’s calculated and software is now giving the information on what needs to be done, which is huge because the things that used to happen were, you’d go look towards a credit repair agency, right?

And then are you picking the right one? Do they do reputable service? And we know there are some really good agencies out there that have great intentions, but we also know that there are many shysters that use that desperation to take advantage of people. So it’s a way to achieve credible and responsible financial well-being. And again, with counseling, sometimes it might only take three or four months, five months, but sometimes it might take a little bit longer than that if their debt-to-income ratio is too high.

So they’ve got to do something to get their debts down to get approved. Maybe that’ll take a little bit longer, but at least they know what they’re getting themselves into and they’re making progress, not making mistakes. It’s interesting that you say that because during some of my counseling sessions when I’m speaking with consumers that are a bit overwhelmed and, you know, closing a credit card, yes, it can impact your score negatively. However, it also, once you close that account, you might see a slight reduction in your credit score. But now you’re paying off so much debt in such little time with lower interest rates.

Ultimately, you’re improving your financial situation. So I always say, think about taking two steps back before 10 forward. Yeah. And maybe you shouldn’t get into such a major investment when you have that much debt. So it all works out for a reason, but it takes out the guesswork for the consumer and it actually has a systemic approach where it’s a monthly counseling that actually teaches them what to do.

com forward slash Cambridge. So Cambridge is one of the HUD approved counseling agencies that has HUD counselors that are available. And again, non-profit. Correct. One more important piece and then we’ll move on to your episode.

When you go through the mortgage transaction, there’s so much you have to do. You get paperwork. They actually make it easier to find out if you’re mortgage ready or not through Freddie Mac’s systemic underwriting principles to know if they’re ready. So they don’t have to go through so much pain to find out whether they’re eligible or not. So it’s really a great system and I encourage everybody to take a look at it.

Abundance book episode recap

If you’re interested in getting a mortgage and you don’t think you’re ready for it or you’ve been told that you’re not and for loan officers and mortgage companies that are interested, they can visit that website as well and see how to send their clients over. So what is your episode now? I still think of episode 53 with author Judy Bailoff, 365 Days of Abundance. Pretty much change your thoughts, change your life. And I just, you know, there’s days you wake up in the morning and you just don’t want to do it.

Yep. To be able to look at 365 days each day, you’re not going to have the best day every day. No, definitely not. But if you wake up and, you know, you just don’t want to do it, change your thought. Find something that’s going to get you out of that bed, that’s going to get you motivated, that’s going to get you to do what you need to do for the day.

And guess what? If you don’t do it, it’s okay too. It’s based on scripture? Yes. And the greatest part about it that I saw was it works every day, every year.

And it is a practice that all, like, as I told you, I got the audio version of it. And when I listen to the day, I actually write out what I’m going through because for me, I can’t just listen to it and it resonates. I’ve got to kind of put pen to paper, kind of old school. I’m listening at the same time as I’m writing, kind of like being taught by a coach. And then it just helps that that’s something I’m going to do every day.

And at least it helps me on a path, depending on what the day is bringing or something bad recently happened or whatever it is. It helps me just try to get focused on finding abundance, being well. So now we talked earlier about your busy schedule and we, you know, when do you find time throughout your day to be able to do something like this? Typically it’s in the morning. You do?

Judy said she wakes up at 530 to write this book because she needed to have it done before everything else is going on. For me, it’s the same thing. Or if I don’t get to it before I put my head on my pillow at night, I’m doing it because I need to set the table for the next day. And that’s why even the show, it’s brought in some incredible guests. We’ve had some incredible, incredible guests to offer this information to consumers, to our listeners, to our family.

And it is all up to the individual to take the steps. What better than being right here in the new year to talk about this episode because it is another way to try to change the way you think about things. And you know, we’ve had guests about mental illness and now it’s actually finally being recognized as a disease. Absolutely. And with her book, 365 Days of Abundance, the description is how to create a life of wealth, happiness, wisdom, and inspiration through the 12 universal laws of principle of success and his divine word.

What have we said on the show about debt stress? The mental health experts, Kimberly Lee has been on here multiple times to talk about debt stress and that it is a connection to mental health problems and vice versa. There’s a relationship with money. If you are stuck in a relationship with money until you do something to get out of it and you need help, maybe, maybe you need coaching, maybe you need some guidance, maybe you need some inspirational thoughts, whatever it is, it’s changing course. And when you have habits, it’s not always easy.

And the fact, again, that it’s recognized. As an example, I just counseled a consumer who suffers from bipolar and schizophrenia. And this person is now taking their medication and she pretty much said to me, I’m OK now. I need to stop the spending. So she used the schizophrenia or the bipolar when she was going through a high, oh, I’m going to buy this, I’m going to buy that, or when she was going through a low, I’m going to buy this, I’m going to buy that, either way to offset her mood.

And it’s recognized. And it is a disease. And to be able to change your thoughts, you can change your life. We need help. Absolutely.

We need coaching. We all need it. I don’t care who you are. If it’s the most abundantly rich person, they have business coaches, they have coaches that help them through things. So again, I’m looking forward to this year because it is bringing guests like this that we look to all of our guests.

We’re grateful that every guest came on the show last year. This is a 28-minute segment. We picked a couple out that we thought were important. But to all of our guests, thank you so much for being here. All of our guests, a huge thank you coming into this new year for coming on the show in the past.

Summary of featured episodes

And for many of you, we’ll be reaching out to have you on again, because we can’t give enough information to be helpful. Every week, here at 28 Minutes, we’re going to continue to work to help consumers, family, and friends work on financial wellness, financial wisdom, because we want people to live a prosperous life. And we’re in rough economic times, so there’s no better time to bring all this to light and to continue what we do here each week. And in summary, Tina Marie, you had episode 22, which is the NFCC, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. If you have credit card and unsecured bills and you need assistance with those, the sponsor of this show is Cambridge Credit Counseling, which is a member of the NFCC, and it’s 1-800-CAMBRIDGE.

org. Then we had Steven Weissman. Again, I cannot. Coming into the new year, no time like the present. I cannot urge people enough to be in the know, in the listening, in the understanding, and in the education of how you can get scammed.

Because if we can prevent one person from being scammed on this show by having a guest like Steven, it’s great work. Obviously, we’d like to have it by the hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands. But if we can impact one person that won’t get scammed because of learning this information, we’re doing our job. Then we had episode 47, which is if you are applying for a mortgage and you’ve been denied or you know that you possibly can’t get approved, it is not no, but it is not yet. com forward slash Cambridge if you would like to get with a HUD coach and start working down the process of getting approved for a mortgage.

And then lastly, abundance. We all need coaching there, in my humble opinion. I’ve had my own struggles throughout my life. Having Judy Bailoff on was just refreshing to discuss it. I even remember saying to her something like, even to people that are atheists, how bad is church?

You go in, you sing some songs, you shake hands with your neighbor, you smile for an hour. You’re really not going to get burned or get caught on fire. Right, no. Again, none of that stuff. But on self-practice, there are plenty of resources, self-help resources like that, that are out there to help you make a plan and get some other people guiding you towards changing the way you think.

Quote of the week and closing

Been involved with some incredible people this year. Tina, you, again, as my co-pilot, it’s been such a pleasure working with you. We have much more work to do. And of course, our producers, Leah and Lisa, have done an amazing job for us. But it’s time to give my quote of the week.

And here it goes. The simple truth about human existence is that the only place you ever need to be is where your feet are. As creatures who constantly are trying to achieve another goal, obtain a new mindset, or reach a new level, we repeatedly try to get to the next stage of our lives without appreciating the stage we’re currently in. But the only way you can get over to the other side is by accepting the current place you’re in and making decisions that feel in alignment in the now. Surrendering to where you are will get you to where you want to be.

So live the actual moment you’re experiencing. That is the only moment you can truly call your life. And that’s Karen Haddaden from Beauty in the Stillness. 30 AM on Saturdays. Of course, if you have questions, we are here to answer them and to bring light to any topics that come our way.

org. As we’ve reviewed on this show, we have great experts coming on to teach you, our listeners, and our family, and our friends, all about everything financial wellness and financial wisdom. com. Go on the podcast, and you can choose any of the episodes. And lastly, if you’re looking for help with your credit card or unsecured bills, feel free to call.