Ways Young People Can Build A Strong Credit Record

Looking to build a strong credit history? Great. We are explaining just how to do that. It is not simple by no means, but if it was simple, everyone would have done it. Loan Away has attached a great guide by Forbes as a reference. Fobes was used because they asked 10 members of their Financial council on the subject. They all provided unique and useful advice that may just help young adults build a strong credit record.  This is important because when you need to make a significant purchase like a home or a car, the better your credit score, the lower the interest will be. The lower the interest, the more money you will save over the years. With over 10 suggestions, we can ensure you that you save money in the near future with these tips.

Ten Ways Young Can People Build A Strong Credit Record

Building a strong credit history is the cornerstone of financial freedom and spending power. For young people, it can be difficult to establish a strong credit score out of the gate and show a solid credit history that lenders take seriously.

According to a report by WalletHub, young people struggle with low credit scores partially because they don’t have the time behind them to establish wealth and experience.

Below, 10 members of Forbes Finance Council provide their best advice for young people looking to build a strong credit record as quickly as possible. Here is what they recommend:

All photos courtesy of Forbes Councils members.

Forbes Finance Council members give their best advice for young people looking to establish strong credit.

1. Set Up Automatic Payments

When it comes to building credit, late payments are your worst enemy. It’s critical that you make all of your payments on time and in full. Instead of leaving that to chance, be sure to set up automatic payments whenever possible. – Jason Crowley, CFA, CFP, CDFA, Divorce Capital Planning

2. Get A Low-Limit Credit Card 

Charging small items to a credit card and then paying it off in full every month builds credit in no time. You can find offers for these at creditcards.com and similar sites, with many offering cards with a $300 limit or so. Make it a point to charge $50-$100 per month on it, never maxing out the limit. Then, pay the balance in full. Your credit rating will increase rapidly within just a few months. – Danielle Kunkle, Boomer Benefits

3. Establish Good Financial Behaviors

In order to build a strong credit record, you have to understand how the credit bureaus operate. Credit card debt is a major factor in determining your credit score. However, I would also advise not to forgo common sense or sound financial advice purely for the prospect of building a better credit record. If you have developed sound financial behaviors, your credit record will reflect that. – Vlad Rusz, Vlad Corp. USA

4. Piggyback Off Of Others First

One smart trick for building strong credit fast is to piggyback off of others. By becoming an authorized user on someone’s credit card, you can start building credit from their payments. Of course, you want to make sure you use someone who maintains a good balance, pays on time and uses an issuer who reports authorized users to all three credit bureaus. – Elle Kaplan, LexION Capital

5. Build A Credit History

Apply for credit cards — even at the retail store level — making certain the interest rate is reasonable and systematically repaying over time. It is not uncommon to get a 0% or 2% auto loan these days, and this way of building credit history is brilliant. Keep your debt in line with your income; building credit history does not mean piling on the debt. – Perry D’Alessio, D’Alessio Tocci & Pell, LLP

6. Take It Slowly

Build your credit slowly and judiciously. Create a budget, and when you need to make a large purchase, include that in your budget so you know ahead of time that the payment for that item fits within the budget. Do not outspend your income. For revolving credit, always pay off the entire balance at the end of each billing cycle; do not carry balances to the next cycle, adding interest to balances. – Robin Hall, VARC Solutions

7. Scrap The Debit Card

There are infinitely more reasons to start using a credit card for all of your day-to-day purchases. Credit cards help users rake in cash, discounts and travel points, and they provide warranties, added security and more. Practice smart consumer habits, such as paying off your card in full and on time every month, and you’ll see your credit record improve significantly. – Don Pratt, jive.com

8. Spend Within Your Means

Using your credit and paying your bills on time goes without saying when it comes to building strong credit. The key is to not overextend yourself with large credit card balances and interest. If you couldn’t afford the expensive vacation with the cash in your bank account, you shouldn’t be using credit to spend outside of your means. Having credit is for larger purchases like a car, home, etc. – Jared Weitz, United Capital Source

Forbes Finance Council is an invitation-only organization for executives in successful accounting, financial planning and wealth management firms. Do I qualify?

9. Minimize Unsecured Debt

The best way to build a strong credit record is to minimize unsecured debt and show regular payment history. Keep one credit card, make timely payments each month, and pair that with some sort of a secured loan, such as a car payment. Doing this at a young age should help build a very strong credit record. – Mahati Mukkamala, Klaviyo

10. Ask For Help

If you’re 21 or younger, you can start building credit by piggybacking on your parents’ good credit history. Get yourself added as an authorized user on one of their credit cards. As an authorized user, you will be issued a credit card linked to your parents’ account, which they can monitor. The real upside is that, if your parents have good credit, you can get a real boost to your own credit. – Stacy Francis, Francis Financial, Inc.

thumbnail courtesy of forbes.com

Did these tips help your understanding of building a strong credit record? I hope they did because they have had an impact on the Loan Away team. The team has taken the advice to heart for the month of January and has already seen great progress. The most useful tip comes from Stacy Francis, ask for help. Most of the time parents will be more than happy to add you as an authorized user because it does not affect their credit score. This is a great way to build credit without spending or taking out loans. Over the next few years, you will have a similar credit score as them. This is not an option for some because of several reasons, but if you have the opportunity, Loan Away highly recommends this method. Want to learn more about credit score and how to have a stronger credit record? Loan Away post at least one article daily for our clients’ stratification. Share and enjoy!

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Using Your Saving To Pay Off Debt?

Should or should you not? Well, this depends on several factors like if you have children, do you pay rent or a mortgage, debt interest rate, and more. We are using the example below from two cents Lifehackers. The question is “I have $2000 credit card debt at 6.9% and $4000 in savings. Should I just pay off my credit card debt in full, or continue to make payments every month and build up my savings account more? I own a home and am worried about having extra cash on hand in case something breaks.” What would you do? The experts have made their suggestion and Canadians have left their opinion too. Loan Away will also share our opinion on what we suggest. We have attached the entire article.

Should You Pay Off Your Credit Card Debt With Your Emergency Savings?

You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers. Each Monday we’ll tackle one of your pressing personal finance questions by asking a handful of money experts for their advice.

This is what individual experts have to say generally about an issue that affects each person differently—if you want personalized advice you should see a financial planner.

Make Short-Term Sacrifices Now

“Given the amount of the debt and savings you have, I would not recommend that use your savings to pay off your credit card debt in full,” says Patricia Stallworth, an Atlanta-based money coach and host of the Minding Your Money 360 podcast. “Doing so would severely reduce your savings and leave you vulnerable if you had an emergency.”

Instead, Stallworth suggests refraining from using your credit card until your debt is under control and making more than the minimum credit card payment. Ideally, you’d also work a little harder to get some extra cash flow. That could include trying to take on extra work on the side, or scaling back your spending for a few months.

“In this case, $200 a month would pay off this debt in less than a year,” she says. “You have an opportunity to eliminate your debt and keep your savings, and you can do it in short order. But it may require some diligence and determination on your part.”

An interest rate of 6.9% is pretty low (the national average tops 16%), as is the $2,000 debt. With that in mind, Ilene Davis, a certified financial planner, suggests a similar approach to Stallworth’s, though advocates attacking the debt a bit more aggressively.

“What I would recommend to this client is to buy nothing that is not ‘life critical’ until the debt is gone, and then pay $150 per week before spending money on anything other than bills and basic necessities,” says Davis. “The debt would be gone in four months, and if this person is wise, they will then invest at least $100 of that $150 to start building wealth while having $50 per week to spend on more fun stuff.”

Paying down your credit card debt will enable you to use the available credit for possible home emergencies in the future.

thumbnail courtesy of twocents.lifehacker.com

The experts say do not use your saving to pay off debt since the interest is at 6.9%. Although you should clear your debt before saving, if the person clears their credit card debt, they would only have $2,000 left in their saving account. What do you think is best? Use the saving to pay off the credit card or to keep your saving and pay your credit card off monthly? Loan Away does not agree with the experts in the article. Here are the reasons why we think the person should use their saving to pay off their debt.

• Yes, you will have less cash available, but you will now have more credit available.
• You won’t have to pay the interest
• Credit cards are a source of emergency funds
• If you cannot pay your mortgage or rent with a credit card, you should keep the money in your account.
• Unless you have unstable income, paying debt is always the best option

In summary, paying off your debt is almost always the best option.

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No More PIN’s Needed For Credit Cards In 2018?

For the past several years, credit cards needed a PIN to be entered to complete a transaction. Recently, credit cards have introduced “tap”, which allows consumers to complete small transactions which a need of using your PIN. At first, this seems revolutionary to some and frightening to others. If your credit is stolen, anyone can use the tap function to make a transaction. The credit cards are aware of this issue and have been working diligently to solve this issue. Today, finance yahoo have discovered that Visa is working on a solution to this exact problem. Visa is beta testing Biometric credit cards. Basically, instead of using a pin, the credit card will use fingerprint recognition to verify the credit user. This is a similar technology found in smartphones. Is this a more secure and faster method of making transactions with a credit card? Perhaps. The entire Yahoo Finance article is attached below.

No more PINs: Visa testing biometric credit cards

People are just getting used to chip credit cards, but a new technology is already on the horizon.

Earlier this month, Visa (V) announced that it’s testing on-card biometrics for contactless payments at two different banks —Mountain America Credit Union in West Jordan, Utah, and The Bank of Cyprus.

Biometric technology uses physical characteristics to authenticate a person’s identity. In the case of Visa’s pilot, cardholders will use fingerprint recognition instead of PINs or signatures for authentication.

Visa’s biometric card is programmed with a securely stored template of your fingerprint. When the card is used, customers will be asked to hold their fingerprint against a small sensor on the card while inserting the chip into the cardreader or waving it for contactless payment. That fingerprint is then compared to the one stored in the card to verify the user’s identity. Green and red lights are integrated into the card to indicate a good or bad match.

“The world is quickly moving toward a future that will be free of passwords, as consumers realize how biometric technologies can make their lives easier,” said Jack Forestell, head of global merchant solutions for Visa.

Adding biometric features to credit cards is seen as a way to simplify card usage and also make it more secure. As the art of card skimming has evolved, magnetic strips are no longer able to thwart criminals looking to steal your money. By the end of 2017, most banks had issued new chip cards equipped with EMV technology. These chip cards are more secure and harder to hack, but still require a PIN which can be accessed by hackers.

Using biometrics could feasibly help with all of these issues.

Biometric data is unique to each individual, making it harder for criminals to use a stolen card.  Using a fingerprint is more secure than entering a PIN or signature, and these cards use EMV technology, so they’ll be immediately compatible with existing payment terminals.

 While Visa’s biometric credit cards are just being piloted, the company has already unveiled the use of biometrics with other services. Cardholders enrolled in Apple Pay can make contactless payments simply by using their fingerprints. This approves the payment without swiping the card, entering a PIN, or providing a signature.

The future of payments

Visa is just the latest issuer to test out biometrics and credit cards. In April 2017, Mastercard tested its own biometric credit card in Johannesburg, South Africa. The trial took place at a bank and supermarket, and allowed cardholders to use fingerprints for authentication.

Chaya Hendrick is the CEO of Smart Metric, a technology engineering company that develops biometric software for credit cards. She says that PIN technology is more than 30 years old, and that consumers are ready for a better option.

“Phones have already demonstrated the acceptability of biometrics for security, and consumers readily accept that biometrics are safer than passwords,” said Hendrick. “The market wants a better and more secure credit card.”

One thing that may hinder the popularity of these cards is the cost associated with having one. According to Hendrick, biometric credit cards contain a small circuit board as thin as a piece of tissue paper, a component that costs way more than an existing chip card. “At this point in time you’re not looking at a giveaway product,” she told Yahoo Finance.

This means that customers who chose to use the biometric credit card will likely have to pay for it. Hendrick speculates that this could be as high as a one-time fee of $69.95.

That fee, however, may be one that Americans are willing to pay. After the Equifax breach, more and more consumers are worried about fraud and looking for other ways to protect their identity. Perhaps that’s why a recent studycommissioned by Visa found that 86% of consumers are interested in using biometrics to make payments.

In the meantime, Visa says that it has plans to expand their biometric technology to more partners in the future.

thumbnail courtesy of finance.yahoo.com

Impressive right. In the past 5 years, credit cards with chips, payment via smartphones, and tap were all introduced soon after. Visa is projecting to have biometric technology implemented in most credit cards within a year.  Will consumer adjust to this change? According to Yahoo, 86% are interested in using these credit cards. However, how secure will this technology be? The biggest concern Loan Away has thought of is how will Visa have a fingerprint sensor on a credit card? Credit cards are 0.76 millimeters thick and most fingerprint sensors are almost double the size of credit cards. Only time will be able to tell how Visa will be able to accomplish this feat. For more information about credit card technology, check our blog as we will be keeping you up to date. Like this post? Great! Share it with people who you think would benefit from this article.

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Are you ready for a unplanned expense? (Most aren’t)

Can only 39% of North Americans cover a $1,000 unplanned expense? This report is according to Bankrate. Bankrate says that if a unplanned expense happened, 39% will pay from their saving, 19% will finance with their credit card, 13% will reduce spending, 12% will borrow from a friend or family, and 5% would take out a loan. This is concerning. Majority of North Americans do not have the funds for a $1,000 expense is the reality of a tough economy. What can we do to prevent this from happening to us? Simple. Create an emergency fund of 3-6 months worth of expenses. This fund can be used for unexpected.

Most Americans can’t cover a $1,000 emergency

Life happens: A broken-down car. A leaky roof. A broken bone.

If you were hit with a $1,000 emergency, would you be able to cover it?

For the majority of Americans, the answer is no.

Only 39% of Americans say they would be able to pay for a $1,000 unplanned expense, according to new report from Bankrate.

“Even though unemployment is down and there’s been a recent uptick in wages, we aren’t seeing the needle move savings,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.

Unexpected bills aren’t uncommon. More than one-third of households had a major unplanned expense last year, the survey showed, with half of those costing at least $2,500.

Related: 5 money mistakes to avoid in the new year

Nearly one in five Americans said they would put the expense on a credit card, the report stated, which usually makesthe cost even higher as you pay off the interest.

That’s why experts usually recommend you have an emergency fund.

“Having that emergency savings fund will help you sleep at night before and after that unplanned expense,” said McBride.

He recommended having six months of living expenses to help blunt the financial blow of a surprise bill. While that can seem like an insurmountable goal, every little bit helps.

Related: Tools to tackle your own savings crisis

“In the last recession we had nearly 7 million people who were out of work longer than six months,” noted McBride. “To someone who doesn’t have any or very little extra funds, accumulating six months of expenses sounds like climbing Mount Everest, but that is the destination.”

Here are four tips to help bulk up your savings:

Save first, then spend

Have a portion of your paycheck go directly into a savings account, McBride recommended.

“Too many people try to save what is left over at the end of the month only to find out there is nothing left over. You have to flip the equation around: save first, then spend what is left over.”

Start early

The best way to make saving a habit is to start early.

“The sooner you can get in that habit the better,” McBride said. “If you can do it when you are young and not making much that, the habit will stick with you as your age and income grows.”

Separate the money

Remove all temptation to spend your emergency savings by keeping the funds separate from your checking account.

Keep your emergency savings stash away from your checking account. “It has to be a dedicated savings account,” suggested McBride.

Find the best savings account

Interest rates on savings accounts are still recovering from their tumble in the wake of the financial crisis, so it’s a good idea to shop around to find the highest rates.

Currently, your best bet is likely an online bank account.

thumbnail courtesy of money.cnn.com

Are you now ready for an emergency? You sure be. With all of this information, you should be getting ready to increase or create your emergency funds. $1,000 should be the minimum everyone should have in cases of an emergency. There are thousands of scenarios that could happen that could require you to pay $1,000 or more. Shouldn’t you be ready for the unknown? Imagine if you saved $5 per day for an entire year? You would have over $1,800. Saving can be simple if you focus on the end. Like the article by Money CNN, we have agree that you should start saving money first and spend second. Starting early can make a difference in how much you save.  Lastly,  make sure you have the best interest rate possible. The difference between 1 and 2 percent for saving is vital. How much did you enjoy this blog? Let us know via social media or email. We are always happy to receive your feedback.

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Pay off your student loans this year

Another year, another year with student loan debt. It does not have to be that way if you have dedication, hard-working, and focus on paying off your debt. There are five steps that are sure to help you pay your student debt as quickly as possible. However, these tips will only work if you make a financial plan and are persist. The latest financial studies have proven that creating a financial plan or budget has the highest success rate compared to those who do not. The average Canadian student has mid to high $20,000 in student debt; wouldn’t it be amazing if you could pay that debt quicker than expected? If so, this is the article for you! Loan Away has referenced our source below.

5 Student Loans Resolutions For 2018

The new year is the ideal time for new resolutions.

It’s an opportune time to check your financial life, and create your 2018 student loan game plan.

According to Make Lemonade, there are over 44 million borrowers who collectively owe more than $1.4 trillion in student loans.

Here are five New Year’s resolutions for your student loans.

1. Refinance your student loans

Student loan refinance is often the single best strategy to lower your student loan interest rate, and potentially save thousands of dollars on your student loans.

Student loan refinance allows you to combine your existing federal and private student loans into a new, single student loan with a lower interest rate.

There are multiple private student loan lenders who offer interest rates as low as 2.50% – 3.00%, which is substantially lower than federal student loans and in-school private loan interest rates.

You can choose either fixed or variable rates and loan terms ranging from five to 20 years.

Each lender has its own eligibility requirements and underwriting criteria, which may include your credit profile, minimum income, debt-to-income and monthly free cash flow.

To maximize your chances of being approved to refinance student loans, you should apply simultaneously to multiple lenders.

Since interest rates are expected to rise again this year, now is an opportune time to refinance student loans to lock in a lower interest rate.

Recommended Calculator: Student Loan Refinancing Calculator

2. Consolidate your federal student loans

Federal student loan consolidation enables you to combine your existing federal student loans into a single federal student loan known as a Direct Consolidation Loan.

As its name suggests, federal student loan consolidation does not apply to private student loans. While the federal government does not refinance student loans (only private lenders do), the federal government offers a Direct Consolidation Loan.

Federal student loan consolidation helps you organize all your federal student loans into a single loan with a single monthly payment. You also have access to federal repayment programs and the benefits afforded by federal student loans such as deferral and forbearance.

The downside is that federal student loan consolidation does not lower your interest rate, so it is not a strategy to save money.

With federal student loan consolidation, your resulting interest rate is equal to a weighted average of your current interest rates on federal student loans, rounded up to the nearest 1/8%.

Recommended Calculator: Student Loan Consolidation vs. Student Loan Refinancing Calculator

3. Apply for public service student loan forgiveness

While public service student loan forgiveness may not continue as a federal program (in its current form or at all), Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Teacher Student Loan Forgiveness are still available to qualifying individuals.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness is for student loan borrowers with federal student loans enrolled in a federal repayment plan who are employed full-time in an eligible state, local or federal public service job or 501©(3) non-profit job who make 120 eligible on-time payments.

Teacher Student Loan Forgiveness is for full-time teachers with five years of teaching experience in a designated elementary or secondary school or educational service agency that serves students from low income families.

Recommended Calculator: Public Service Loan Forgiveness Calculator

4. Increase your monthly student loan payment

This may sound counter-intuitive, and it may feel challenging to find extra money to increase your monthly payment for student loans.

However, interest is always accruing on your principal balance. So paying any amount more than the monthly minimum — whether it’s $10 or $100 — can reduce the cost of your student loans.

Plus, there is no prepayment penalty for paying off your student loans early.

Recommended Calculator: Student Loan Prepayment Calculator

5. Make a lump-sum student loan payment

Another smart move is to use a portion or all of your annual bonus to make a one-time, lump-sum payment toward the principal balance of your student loans.

Instruct your student loan servicer in writing that you want your lump-sum payment to pay down principal only, rather than applying toward future principal and interest payments.

Reducing your principal balance directly will save you money on interest, and help you pay off your student loans more quickly.

Remeber, the advice given will only be effective if you are persistent and make the necessary lifestyle changes. Which step helped you the most? The staff at Loan Away have tested this guide for several weeks and have this to say about it. Mark said ” Increasing my payments and consolidating it helped the most. When all your bills are one payment, it helps you budget for the future. Increasing the payment has not changed my lifestyle at all. No that I have less spending money, I spend less and save more. I felt like I had little control over my finances, but this guide Loan Away recommend has been a true blessing”. Mark was always considered to be financially literate, so imagine the impact this guide can make on those who are financially illiterate? If you know someone who still has student debt, sending this guide might just save them time and thousands of dollars.

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Assets that make up wealth

Ever wonder what the profilio of the average person looks like compared to the wealthy? It’s quite different. The wealthy do not have millions of dollars in their bank account, instead, they have assets such as stocks, mutual funds, real estate, and business investments. What does the average person have? Most of their net worth is from their house. Next is vehicles and retirement saving funds. Even though the wealth has similar investments as the average person, the wealthy invest in businesses first. Meaning, the money they get back from investing in businesses is their primary income and asset of wealth. Does this mean you should do the same? Well, yes and no. Once you have cleared your debt with debt consolidation, you can start saving money. The article by visual capitalist explains everything you need to know in great details.

Chart: What Assets Make Up Wealth?

A LOOK AT ASSET DISTRIBUTIONS, BASED ON NET WORTH TIERS

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

A person’s wealth can be made up of many different assets.

Net worth, the measure we use to gauge wealth, is actually the sum of all of a person’s assets after subtracting liabilities (such as loans). Therefore, net worth can be comprised of liquid savings, stocks, mutual funds, bonds, real estate, vehicles, retirement accounts (IRAs, pensions), and many other types of assets.

But how does the composition of net worth differ for a person with $100k in net worth, versus that of a billionaire?

Today’s chart uses data from the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances from 2016 to find out.

SIMPLIFYING THE DATA

Based on this original work done by Ben Weber of Windfall Data, we’ve since taken the data and tried to clean up the categories to make it more digestible.

For example, residential real estate and non-residential real estate were combined into a single category, and bonds, savings bonds, and certificates of deposit were merged into a single fixed income investment category.

The end result is a net worth composition for each of the six different wealth brackets, which are each grouped based on size. For example, in the $10k bracket, all five-figure net worths ($10k-$99k) are grouped together, and so on.

DIFFERENT MAKEUPS

The composition of wealth ends up varying considerably between lower and higher net worths:

Primary Residence:
This is by far the most important asset class for all net worth tiers up to $1 million.

Vehicle:
For the $10k net worth tier, the value of a vehicle is more than investments such as pensions, IRAs, mutual funds, stocks, etc.

Stocks:
The proportion of directly-held stock increases up the tiers, and billionaires hold a significant portion of wealth in stocks.

Business Interests:
Most multi-millionaires or billionaires are not liquid, and have most of their wealth in business interests.

thumbnail courtesy of visualcapitalist.com

Now you know more the wealthy. What will you do with this knowledge? If you are planning to copy how the rich invest, you should consider somethings first. You do not have the capital to invest in companies yet. You will need to build your wealth first. To do this you will have to increase your salary or create a new budget for increase saving. Once you have saved thousands of dollars, you still may not be ready to invest in a business. Consider the stock market. Yes, it is risky, but the reward is great. Having your money in stocks will increase your investment much faster than if you had it in a saving account. Now that you have lots of liquid cash, now you can invest in businesses. If done correctly, your net worth will grow rapidly in the next few years. Loan Away understands that this process is very simplified and difficult to execute, but this is the method to increase your net worth. If this helped you increase your net worth, be sure to let us know in the comments, our social media, or via email.

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Jay-Z Inspiring Financial Author

Jay-Z has recently released his latest rap album”4:44″.  In this album, Shawn Carter explained lots of financial topics that amazed his audience. Shawn knows who his target audience is, which is why he was talking from a young black man perspective. Arguably the most memorable line in the song “The story of O.J” is “Please don’t die over the neighborhood, that your momma rentin’ take your drug money and buy the neighborhood. That’s how you rinse it.” Jay-Z was able to launch his career because he sold drugs to pay for his music productions in his earlier career. We recommend to take out a online loan before resorting to illegal practices. We do not endorse any illegal practices in any form. This was his only option as a young black male in New York. What makes Shawn different from other people in his community is he invested his money in himself instead of buying consumer goods. Once he started making a conformable living, he invested in art and real estate. Shawn does admit he made mistakes like buying expensive cars with V12 engines, but he clearly explains that was a mistake that he regrets. A great article was written by Brittany Jones-Cooper of Yahoo Finance. We have included it in our article for your convenience.

Jay-Z inspired this new book of financial advice

There is power in music. It can uplift, motivate and transform lives. In some cases, it can even inspire you to create a strong financial foundation.

As was the case for personal finance expert Ash Exantus, who wrote and self-published the book, “The Wake Up Call: Financial Inspiration Learned from 4:44,” after listening to Jay-Z’s latest album “4:44.”

The book quotes financially themed lyrics from songs on Jay-Z’s album, and provides tips for how readers can implement certain strategies into their own lives. Music critics have commented on the maturity of “4:44,” with the the hip-hop mogul focusing more on his family life, businesses and life approaching 50. As Exantus listened to the lyrics of the songs like “Story of OJ,” “Family Feud” and “Legacy,” he knew there were lessons to share.

“I listened to the whole album 100 times, and every financial principle jumped out at me. I wanted to write about it,” Exantus told Yahoo Finance.

The son of a Haitian immigrant, Exantus, 36, was raised in Harlem’s St. Nicholas housing projects by his single mother. She found work in a factory, but didn’t have a good grasp on the English language, and struggled to understand the financial system in America. At the age of 8, Exantus started working by bagging groceries, and selling T-shirts and CDs on the street.

His early struggles are what inspired Exantus to study money, and at 19 he became a bank teller. By 24, he was vice president of the branch.

Exantus started listening to Jay-Z as a teen, and reveled in the rapper’s tales about drugs, women and cars. “Music raised me because I didn’t have a father figure,” he told Yahoo Finance. “Between the streets and hip hop, that’s what shaped me as a man.” As Exantus matured, so did Jay-Z, and today both men are focused on a more important goal — accumulating wealth for their families and the black community.

“African-Americans have such a history of oppression that it’s still a reality for us in our minds. We don’t walk out the door feeling victorious,” he said. “If you change your mindset and apply certain principles, you can really change the trajectory of your life.”

Exantus hopes that writing this book will make everyone, especially those in the black community, feel empowered and motivated to build strong financial foundations for future generations. Here are a few Jay-Z inspired financial tips to consider.

thumbnail courtesy of finance.yahoo.com

The story behind the song is powerful. So powerful, an author named Ash “Cash” Exantus wrote a book to cross-examine the financial benefits behind Jay-Z’s lyrics. Its one thing to listen to lyrics like “F*%! livin’ rich and dyin’ broke” and having nothing explaining to the audience “how do I change my lifestyle?”. That’s where Ash comes in. He explains how to actually apply these words of wisdom from Shawn into real life. The Loan Away hasn’t had the chance to read the book yet, but we can assume that ash would explain everything from saving to investing money. We can only hope that ash explains that each investment should be diverse and not just in real estate and art. Jay-Z said “I bought some artwork for one million, two years later, that shit worth two million, a few years later, that shit worth eight million, I can’t wait to give this shit to my children.” and “I coulda bought a place in Dumbo before it was Dumbo, for like two million. That same building today is worth twenty-five million. Guess how I’m feelin’? Dumbo”. I could only hope that the audience understands that these are just examples of his investments and you should invest in what you think would be profitable. If you unsure how to start invest, read financial books. The best investment is usually funds sold by banks. You should expect 5-7% interest rate while having little risk.  Happy investing Jay-Z fans! Did you enjoy this article? If so, share it on social media!

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