New Year, New Goals!

What would you buy if you had perfect credit? A new car? A new house? That motorcyle you've always wanted?

I had decent credit as a newly married 24-year-old. I didn't have any money, but I had access to $5000 on a credit card. I decided to take advantage of my good credit and access to a cash advance and I bought my first property. It was a beat up duplex in a rough part of town. I fixed it up, using that same credit card, and had it painted, added a privacy fence and a few other things to improve it.

I learned so much in this process. I was also trying to finish a degree, just had a child with my beautiful young wife, who was also going to school. I had a job, a side hustle t-shirt printing business, and now I was a landlord in a not so nice neighborhood.

I talked my wife into moving into the duplex to save money. I should mention that I got the duplex for $32,000. My tenants' rent in one of the 2 units covered my mortgage. They were very nice, hard-working, and spoke very little English.

She reluctantly agreed, but only after I promised to spray for cochroaches. I bought one of those bug bombs from Home Depot, we set it off, went to the movies and by the time we came back, we witnessed the absolutely disgusting crime scene of 1 billion dead 2 inch cochroaches still wriggliing on their backs, covering every square inch of that 2 bedroom apartment.

We stayed in that little duplex for a year, continued to fix it up and then sold it for $65,000. The proceeds paid for student loans, paid off all debt, bought a brand new computer and scanner needed to expand my business, and left us with $18,000 cash.

I could hardly believe that we pulled all that off. My wife and I were just kids! And we were broke! Struggling students, who just happened to have good credit and we were willing to dream big and work hard and use our credit to make something happen.

Good credit is given out by the bureaus pretty quickly. But, it's also taken away even faster. Great credit comes over time and is a reflection of a responsible person who keeps their word with those creditors willing to take a chance on them.

Excellent credit opens doors to excellent opportunities. A bank was willing to take a risk on a 24-year-old student and it paid off for them. It also paid off for me and opened my eyes to how credit works.

Today, because I have excellent credit, I could use that credit to go into more debt, I could buy a bunch of fancy cars or a motorcycle... an ivestment property. And who knows, maybe I will. But because I know how credit works, and know how quickly finances can change, I use my awesome credit today to do things like, refi a mortgage to save money on interest. Or I audit my insurances to make sure my family is getting the best possible value we desrve for our good driving "credit." I use my excellent credit each month and run lots of business expenses through AMEX cards and get both cash back and earn skymiles. We took a trip to France last year with skymiles. It saved us $3,000 or more! All because we used credit responsibly.

I have a wealthy friend who is able to put his company's marketing expenses on his credit card each month. As a result, he earns back $7500 a month from AMEX. Can you imagine? And these are expenses his company is making each anyway! Now, most of us aren't in this kind of position to be able to get such an amazing benefit for using credit wisely. But, I'm sure that eveyone has some creative ways they can start applying this principle of learning how to make credit work for you -- instead of the other way around.

My credit journey has not always been so romantic. Like most people, I've had ups and downs and my credit has been dinged, at times, very badly. I'm careful to remind myself that while I do want PERFECT credit (for bragging rights), Goal850 isn't about having perfect credit. It's about setting your goals high. It's about shooting for the stars and making sure your dreams still excite and even scare you. Goal850 is about shooting for a more perfect financial situation. It's about protection and awareness and knowledge. So that when those hard times come your way, and they surely will -- you're smart, resilient, and have options.

I've spent more than a decade working with people who have bad credit and as a result, have fewer options when they need really money. Goal850 has been inspired by working with these good people. My hope and my goal is to help as many people as I can build and protect their credit and achieve finacial dreams never before thought possible.

Happy New year my future GOATS! Let's work together this new year to do amazing things!