Finance expert, mompreneur and YouTuber Jasmine McCall joins ChedHER to discuss ways to take control of your finances and start building good credit, how to approach student loan debt, and how to go about becoming your very own boss.

Opening Bell

Tips and Tricks for Becoming Your Own Boss

final switching gears here a little bit to our first guest, it is always a good time to take a step back and look at your finances, but it's not always easy to actually get started, sit down and do it. So our next guest is a creator on a mission to show millennials and gen z, here's how to build credit, pay off loans, create income and so much more joining us now is Jasmine Mccall, jazzy Mac finance expert, mom, entrepreneur and Youtuber. So glad to have you on Chet heard this morning, I want to start here, Jasmine, can you just talk a little bit about young women starting to improve their credit, which is just so critical to your finances? What steps should they start taking now? Well, thank you so much for having me as far as improving, improving your credit. The first thing that you need to do is see what's on your credit. You know, go to my Fico dot com and pull your credit reports all three reports and make sure that the information is accurate. Make sure that there aren't any erroneous accounts that shouldn't be on there. About 72% of credit reports actually have errors on them and that's one of the biggest contributors for a lower credit score. So checking your credit score regularly is definitely something you need to be doing and there are other ways to start building credit, such as getting a starter, secure credit card or becoming an authorized user to someone else's credit card. I'm glad you pointed out the first set of just looking at that report, even if you think there's some stuff on there, you know, just just rip the Band aid off, look at it and tackle it and keep, continue to look at it cause that motivates you to kind of make some changes. Let's just talk about what I mentioned a moment ago in terms of credit being critical to your finances, just break down a little bit why on, you know, having a good credit score is really important. Well, a good credit score is just like a report card. You know, it is literally your golden ticket to buying a home, starting a business. But what a lot of people don't realize is that when you go through a background check for employment, they do credit checks. Um, everything from security clearances to lower insurance rates depend on your credit. So it's just super important to have that track record that someone can use to determine how responsible you are and how reliable you ultimately would be if they bring you into their company or their investment or any sort of business deal. Yeah, I mean, I always tell people that, you know, you look at good credit and you look at how the wealthy utilized good credit and credit is a way for them to kind of leverage their money better and just give them more opportunities to really make their money work for them. So it's an easy way to start getting to a place for, you know, starting to acquire and build wealth this time of year right now in particular, this is a time where we're seeing obviously, you know, college graduations, congrats to all those college grads out there and students starting to enter the real world, how did you go about approaching or how would you kind of go about approaching student loan debt and what do you hope others can learn from even your own personal experience? Well, as far as student loan debt, I'm someone that graduated with six figures of debt, 100 and $26,000 in debt. And as far as paying it off, I had to do two things, I had to start a budget. Um that was going to help me ultimately have a plan for payoff. Um And another thing that I did was I negotiated my credit card interest rates um so that I could take the money that I saved from having a lower interest rate and put it towards my student loan debt. Um And probably the other big thing that I did was I asked my employer for help, um many people don't realize that your employer actually received a tax credit um for helping employees with student loan debt. And so even through the cares act, you can receive up to $5000 in assistance from your employer and I had an employer that was super generous that actually pay a little over $10,000 towards my student loans and that alone, uh, really gave me a head start as far as paying it off quicker. Um, and just really helping me to stay motivated to stick to my budget. And so you know, three years later, um, I was able to get it all paid off. And so for anyone struggling with student loan debt, you know, start a plan, you know, ask your resources, your employers, even if you're negotiating, um, a job offer that is something that they can add as part of your job offer. Um, that would ultimately help you out such creative advice. The old adage is, it doesn't hurt to ask and your case is clear. Hey, I asked and I got it and I got better than, than most were kind of offering here. Let's talk about your client base that consists of future home buyers, influencers and, and so much more what motivated you to start your business? Well, I'm someone that's always been super expressive and I've always wanted to educate the masses. And when I worked in corporate, I just didn't have the space to be able to feed to, you know, ultimately, um, reach people the way that I wanted to, you know, to feed my community, the way that I wanted to, I always felt like I had to pick. And so I knew that the only way for me to ultimately reach the people I wanted to reach and to have the voice that I wanted to have was to start my own business. And so, um, you know, I've always wanted to share with people my struggles with finances and my struggles with credit and you know, I started my Youtube channel and so it's really allowed me to touch millions of people and that's something I'm really, really proud of. And so I think starting a business for me was kind of like just stepping into a new life. It was something that really, really gave me um, the confirmation that everything that I've been through was for a purpose. I imagine part of the key to that success even with your own channel is that the reality is that so many people deal with these challenges to get to a better place when it comes to understanding credit because it's not necessarily an intuitive thing, certainly not something that is even taught in school. Right. Um, lastly here before I have to let you go, what advice do you have for other women who want to be their own boss and look at you and say, I want to be that I would say do it, scared, do it now. Just get started. Don't wait on the perfect opportunity. Um, elevate yourself and surround yourself with people that will clap for you. Look for a community that will celebrate you. Um, I love my sister circle women in tech group on facebook because I get to meet so many different people that are business owners that have transitioned out of tech or transition from some other place. And so just find your community and just do it. It's as simple as that. Just do it. Just do it, take that first step, you'll find the next one as you're going along Jazz and Mccall, finance expert, mom, entrepreneur and Youtuber. Thank you again for joining us.