LFB Financial Summit "Your FICO score"

Financial Lesson: Know your FICO score

Who should ignore: The filthy stinking rich because you can pay cash on everything

Who should pay attention: If you sometimes barely have enough to buy yourself and ice cream cone. Then you may need a car loan, student loan, house loan, etc. Also if you get a little impatient to save for 30 years and pay for your first house in cash.

Why is it important? In a nut shell this is how important this score is to the credit world, the higher the score the more money you save, the lower the score then the more money you will have to pay. Suze Orman basically compares it to the SATs of the financial world.

How is this created? If you have any type of credit history of any kind, then it reported to the three major credit bureaus and remember that each of them has their own FICO score. You should purchase your score from them once a year, especially around the time you are planning on taking out a loan (it will not show up on the annual free credit report)

How does this relate to my money? Companies may use any one of the three or all three to determine the lowest interest they are willing to give you on a loan. You may not understand how interest works but most people at least understand the higher it is the more money it stands for coming in or going out. For loans, the more money taken out of your pocket.

Where can I go for further information? Go To the link below. Be sure to click on About FICO @ scores to see how FICO scores are calculated therefore you can see how you can improve it and it's not complicated

http://www.myfico.com/

Extra Info You Just Might Care About: FICO stands for Fair Isaac Corporation created by Engineer Bill Fair and Mathematician Earl Isaac in 1956

LFB Financial Summer Summits

Introduction of Purpose

Hello everyone,
During this time of the year I usually reevaluate my financial progress over the past year in order to see how well I have been doing and in what areas I would like to see improve upon and stretch myself to do much better financially for my new fiscal year. I usually implement a new budget plan by the beginning of September. During this time I usually read a few more books on numerous financial authors I have come to respect and appreciate their advice. So far I do read Suze Orman, Robert Kiyosaki, and Donald Trump. I will probably look into Dave Ramsey next. My goal is not to get rich quick, although I won't stop myself from pursuing wealth. My goal is to simply increase my financial literacy in which I think is helpful and necessary to anyone earning an income. I would like to share what I have learn in small educational increments that I feel is most important and set a strong educational foundation for financial literacy. I see too many people that really need to increase their financial education. Too many are really missing out or will suffer harsh and avoidable consequences from poor financial decisions throughout their early years and will still be hindered by the effects as they approach retirement. I am not a financial expert. In fact I am terrible with math which is why I studied English. But I understand that even though I am not a financial manager, I have a responsibility to still learn all that I can to improve my financial literacy if I expect to succeed in it. So if I can learn this stuff, so can you which is why I want to share what I learn as I learn it or re-familiarize myself with it. If you already know a great deal of this stuff, feel free to share some tips or future authors with me. Let's get started! Bowen Out!

Looking Back on Friday, Sept 5, 2003

Below is a typed version of my journal I wrote almost five years ago. Taken from my private collection. I would just like to share it.


Friday, Sept. 05, 2003
Journal
Washington, D.C.

I hearby write this journal at work at the Rosetta Stone booth in Union Station. I write to you journal to let you know that I applied for another job on-line but guess where this time. E...C....U in Greenville, NC. I can't believe I did this. I was online yesterday emailing ECU faculty trying to get advice on my job search on a college campus, especially Maryland State University and while I was searching for other contacts I decided to click the employment section to see what qualifications ECU would have since it is a University I am familiar with on an idea of getting insight on other Universities. There was a position open in their Admissions office that got me thinking and excited and I don't know what compelled me to do it but I applied for the position. I couldn't believe it. After I got off the computer I had to talk to God and asked what have I done? What is going on with me? Why did I do what I did? And the only answer that came to me was IT JUST MAKES SENSE!!! I'm only working for a year, I want to work on a college campus. I'm lonely, I'm homesick, I'm miserable here in D.C. without my friends. Basically at ECU I can have my cake and eat it too. It's the most practical solution to my predicament. I had it all at the very place I couldn't wait to leave out of. I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner, how could I have been SO STUPID!!! I should have looked into that while I was there. What could I have thought was going to happen after I graduated. George Bush was going to throw me a graduation party at the White House while I escort Hailey Barry and become interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. I leave a place with friends, opportunities, community, resources, and expeirence to be a fish out of water in Washington, D.C. and build from next to nothing and I 'm not saying that it can't be done but these things take time, presistence, patience, and faith. Of course it will happen but not in one-year what takes four years to build. Yes it is tough for me right now, very tough but it doesn't have to be that way right now. God gave me exactly what I asked for, and now I ask for something new. I'm glad I did experience all of this here in D.C. Jobs, people, place, and great guidance from Mike. I've seen Mike in a new light that I have never seen him before. I would call Mike up for advice and feel comfortable around him. I can appreciate Greenville people and events more so now in two months than any other time in my life. Man, there's so much to learn. My plans now are simple. I can't be sure if they are right but they feel right and I obtained guidance from Mike and Sonya (my older brother and his wife) and hopefully other people as well. I'm making plans to go back to ECU. I need things to happen. I need a job #1, I need a place to live #2. I need this place to be a convienent area or situation for me to get to and from work. I need to make good and more money. I need to be able to find joy and need to continue to have faith.

Prayer Request: "God if it is his will and he approves, to make this journey back to ECU a successful one, and for it to just start happening so I could have hope. Good Job, Good Place to live, I want it to happen soon. I don't expect spotlights or a red carpet but I would like ECU to welcome me back with open arms. I want to come home again like the protocol son. "

Well I have been unproductive

I hearby write this journal after entertaining my friend Ariel with Harry Potter the Order of the Phoneix at my apartment and in which she has not seen before. Memorial Day weekend is coming up and I have decided to pass on a few optional plans and just stick around in G-Ville and find ways to entertain myself. Actually, I am hoping that this might actually force me to finally get started on all the personal projects I wish to get a move on over the summer. But I have mainly spent most of my spare time too mentally tired from work that I play Civilization 3 all the time. One day this week I didn't even eat lunch but spent the break playing Civilization 3 the whole time. I was in the middle of a war with the Iroquois and I was determined to invade further into their territory. I also recently bought the fourth season of the West Wing at East Coast and you know that I have to give that some priority. It was calling out to me on the self. I have no doubt that I will eventually get to all the projects that I have been whining about not having much time to spend on them. In all honesty this is really not one of my big concerns these days. As most of my closes circle of friends are aware, I used to suffer from depresssion. A severe case of this lasted for about three-four years I call the Great Depression Era. Well the later years following wasn't all peaches and cream, I was still picking up some pieces of my life and trying to focus back on the true purpose of my life, especially as a Christian but mainly I was still putting out relapses I suffered here and there so it became mainly damage control and a healing time. This last for about another three years I call the Post-Depression Era. Well the Post-Depression Era officially ended for me around last fall 2007. And now, I am at a lost of myself. I have turned to God and still I search for something new. I am not sad but I am not really happy either. I know, who really is ever happy right? So I'll clarify, I am not really joyful at the moment. I am not unhappy. And there are many times I do feel joy but I used to always feel joyful despite a lot of terrible time in my past. Even in depression, I still felt a lot of joy. It seems contradictory doesn't it. I don't believe that I am without joy. I believe I am simply without my joyful task. A purpose to channel my joy through. Depression may have been hard and Lord know I don't want to go back to it but at least I knew my task. To "Get out of Depression" during the Great Depression Era, and it was a joyful task. During Post-Depression Era, it was "Staying Out of Depression." Now I am far from returning to that clinical depressed state. I am searching for something new. So I fill my time with the usual easy ambitions. Work, education, fellowship, family, friends, etc. I know I am close though. I will not be going into the fall with nothing to do. I believe all will be revealed in due course. In the meantime, I do love my life and I thank God for it. It hasn't been easy but it has been FUN!!!

I LOVE THIS COMMERCIAL. Probably because I work in an office and I care a lot about food and eating. What I am going to miss most about living on earth is at least two things. Eating and I must admit, doing number two in the bathroom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk1NGFfHU4w

"Mrs Landingham What Next?"

I hearby write this journal early morning before I head off to church at Koinonia with my good friend Jerry from the office. This has been a very quiet and relaxing weekend for me. It has been a while since I did not have to work on a last minute project for class and I did well in the class but I am going to have to tighten up and do better if I expect to become a competitive candidate for a Ph.d which I am seriously considering pursuing. But one step a time. Right now, let's get through the Masters first. Most of the college friends I have made this academic year have headed back home for the summer, especially those from the Baptist Campus Ministry. It is emotionally difficult to see people graduate and move away and go home for their summers when you have enjoyed their company and see G-Ville and ECU become a little dead before summer school starts back up but it isn't the same as the regular academic terms. I am a people person. Even though I can get a bit moody and need to be left alone from time to time, don't take it personally. However, I have come quite used friends leaving because working on a college campus, you are always going to meet new people. Although the older I get, the more disconnected I feel from college students even though technically I am still one. I don't have a heart for teaching public school but I do have a passion for teaching and connecting with college students. I discovered that this past year that my role on campus has changed over the past few years since I graduated with my Bachelors. I am serving more and more of a role as a mentor, teacher, and counselor. This is not something that I am trying to establish, it is just something that seems to be coming out more naturally during this transition I have made into young adulthood. This summer I turn 27 and will only be three years away from turning thirty and that seems wild to me. Yet I have made close friendships with people who are just graduating and around the age of 21 and observing them just beginning their transition. I used to be the youngest as well as the smallest person if about every event, situation, class, etc I have been a part of most of my life. And now, I am the oldest around most of my friends and it is a weird feeling to be a veteran. Still making friends with freshmen. For a long time I avoided it but I have met a lot of great people and I found myself to be an asset of information to them because I have been through college and from my job on campus. And it feels good to be a resource now rather than being the person always in need in which growing up under my circumstances constantly placed me to be in a position to need others. It feels great to be useful for a change. This summer will be the summer I finally get my first car and if you have kept up with me over the years, you know how much of a struggle that has been for me. "The Angels in Heaven Will Be Rejoicing" when that day finally comes and although I picked the perfect time with gas prices skyrocketing, I know that it will change my life for the better. I titled this blog with a quote from one of my favorite shows, "the West Wing." When the President finishes a big project he always say the quote to his secretary. And I am asking the same question for my life. "What Next?"

Looking forward to the Summer

I hearby write this journal after jogging with my friend Jared from the BCM and after I took my last test and turned in my last paper for my class in African American Literature. I must say it was a great class and I really learned a great deal but it was also a lot of reading and I must admit that I did not manage to get through all my readings this semester. I don't understand how I procrastinate so badly. I mean I am getting better but as I get better the work load becomes greater so I never catch up. Of course, I do well anyway but the stress and suffering, and nightmares. Have you ever gotten a nightmare that you were in a classroom and everyone is turning in work for a final and you have no idea what the class is and don't have any of the final work to turn and you know you are about to get a BIG FAT F!!! And all you can think about is, "HOW IN THE WORLD HAVE I MISSED THIS CLASS ALL SEMESTER!!!" Now that is worse than any of my reocurring nightmars of stumbling over rotting dead aminals and falling on top of coffins in graves. I have had those type of nightmares since I was a kid. Probably due to my unstable family environment and my dad shot and killed in my front yard and no boby told me they loved me when I was six, I believe Dr. Phil would describe it. But nevertheless whatever the childhood tramas, I have gotten quite used to my nightmares that I sleep just as soundly with them now as with any dream. I am looking forward to focusing on a lot a recreational reading this summer. I have got quite a few books lined up and I really want to focused on a lot of spiritual issues of growth this summer. It is time a really take charge of my true potential of what God has for me. Work is still a bit overwelming in the season but we will push through. Humbling Forward in a New Era of Faith in 2008!!!!

I WANT TO BE RICH!!!

Yesterday, I stopped by my bank to transfer funds from my savings to my checking in order to return my travel advance I receiveD for my job when I do a lot of travel in Fall and Spring. While I was there, I decided that I could afford to open up at least one CD and have it sit there for eight months because it was going to sit there anyway as part of my emergency savings while I still will continue my search for my first vehicle. The lady was very helpful, I decided to gain a bit more information about opening up a IRA eventually. Now I have been reading a lot of financial books lately, so I am pretty familiar with the advantages to IRAs and Mutual Funds especially for saving for your retirement. The days of depending on your jobs to do it for you is going to the age of the dinosaurs. It is time Christians that we take a more AGGRESSIVE approach with our finances. Now I am trying to figure out what preacher or what Christian friend you have been listening to that says that the pursuit of money is the root of all evil. It that were true then we are all evil anyway with the little money we are pursuing. I never met anyone who turned down a raise and if you did, you would think they were crazy. Who told you that you should feel guilty of the desire and overflow that God has waiting to give you. Now of course, I am no fool. You cannot put money before God or before people. You cannot love money for the sake of greed or status, otherwise it is no better in your hands than a sinners. BUT I AM TIRED, of seeing the wealth of this world in the hands of the wicked who are using their financial power to influence economical, political, and socialogical changes in our society which makes it that much harder for Christians to make an impact for God's glory in the world and in their homes. I need to see some more wealthy Christians out there, and since most Christians I meet tend to ignore Wall Street, I guess I will volunteer to be in the wealthy number. Now if you truly, don't lie to yourself now. If you truly do not care about being wealthy, if you are satisfied with a simple income and storing up just enough to live comfortably for yourself and your family, then by all means that is just fine. God will still take care of you. But I am talking to those Christians out there who secretly desire to really want to go all out in life and see what you can accomplish financially while still maintaining your Godly principles, integrity, and objectives. I want to become a GREAT WRITER and I want great wealth to see what can I really accomplish out here in the world. And I am not just saying this. I really mean it because I understand it is meaningless, and I can't take it with me. I pay my tithes and offering, I try to stretch myself to give more, and do for others. I used to be really stingy so I know that if I am not giving now, I won't give when I do have more. Now don't confuse me, I have no attention on giving it all away and not to just anybody so don't bother calling me up for a loan or you might get your feelings hurt. I'll share your financial pain, I'll cry with you, I'll pray for you but I going to eventually say LOAN DENIED if it is not in my heart to give. I can't be manipulated and my family will definitely testify to that and you can call me a hypocrite all you want, I won't lose any sleep over it. I want to grow and be wise with my wealth and quite frankly, I already feel rich with the blessings God has instilled in my life. Now I can be satified with the modest lifestyle. But I won't lie to God, I pray for a lot of things but I do tell him that "I won't MONEY, lots and lots of MONEY, I want the pie in the skyyyyyyyyyyy. I WANT TO BE RICH!!!!"