295: [Christina Roman] From Debt to 800: A Journey of Credit Redemption

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>> Christina Roman: And then I started to see, okay, life's getting a little

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bit easier. Even, just, even knowing that I

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still carried that debt, but knowing that I was tackling it

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felt like things were, were lifting off my shoulder. I felt

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lighter on my toes. I was like, okay, this, this feels

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good. Now how do I make it even better? And from

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there I just started to work on my credit. And

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now today I hit the 800s, which is

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incredible. I'm like, really proud of myself for doing

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that.

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>> Anthony: Welcome back everybody to another exciting

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with about that water podcast where we help

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the Sadwich generation build strong financial habits so that

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they can talk about money, spend money

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and enjoy their money with confidence. And

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one of the things that I'm, um, having for this particular

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episode is talking about how to

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overcome your budgeting willoes,

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build up your credit and even talk about some of those

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money mistakes that you've been dealing with and how to overcome

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those. And one of the best people to actually

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have to talk about this is

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Christina Roman. How you doing today,

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Christina?

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>> Christina Roman: I'm doing well, thank you. Thank you so much for having

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me. I'm excited to be here to share knowledge and

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to talk about financial mistakes. That's one of the things I really love

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to talk about because I have made my fair share. I will say

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that.

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>> Anthony: Haven't we all?

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Uh, and you're coming from like, one of the,

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like you're currently working at one of the, the

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top three biggest

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ownown companies, which is

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experience. You know, what is the experience

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like being there?

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>> Christina Roman: Being anian has been

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incredible. It's an incredible company to work out. It's a company that's

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changed my life for the better. Um, um, when

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I first started working here in

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2015, I

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was on a credit rebuilding journey. I started as

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a social media specialist for them.

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And I remember when I was in the hiring

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process. So how it worked is one of my friends at the company

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that I was previously working at ended up going and working in

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itian and so every once in a while she

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would send jobs over our way. And um,

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she said, hey, Christine, I think this would be a great fit for you because I was

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doing social media at the company that we worked at before

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and, uh, I went through the process

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and um, my boss at the time, Mike

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Delgado, or the one that I interviewed with, it

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was incredible. Just coming into this big

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corporation, first of all, you turn, uh, into

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exper Experience. It's three huge buildings and I

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came from very small, uh,

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businesses previously. So it was like we were working in a

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warehouse. We were working in a back office

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somewhere. And then for this experience, I

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pulled into this huge campus with

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three buildings. And it was intimidating. I was like, I don't know

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if I'm ready for this kind of a job.

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For corporate culture, I don't know what that's like. But

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Mike Delgado, the first question he asked

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me was, where are you from?

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And I said, oh, I'm from Long Beach, California. Uh,

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and he's like, oh, they have a great food scene. And then we just started

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talking about lobster rolls. We started talking about

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our favorite restaurants. And that put

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me so at ease for the job interview. And

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that kind of was the telltale sign to how

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the company is in general.

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It's such, um, um, I don't know. The

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industry itself is an intense industry, right? The

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credit industry, data. Um, um.

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But the, the business itself, it doesn't feel that

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way. It feels like

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just you're with your family. I don't know if

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that sounds cliche to say, but it was just so

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easy going. Everybody that I interviewed with was very down to

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earth. Um, we clicked really

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quickly and I just felt like,

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this is a place that I want to be. This is where I meant to

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be. And, um, so

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when I was going through the interview process, I really

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wanted the job. I, I had interviewed

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with everybody, everybody I really enjoyed interviewing with.

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And I really wanted that job. I prayed

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for that job. And when I was talking to the HR

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person in the final step, I said, look, I know

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you're a credit bureau. My history with credit

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is not that great, and I hope it's not going

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to impact me. I've been on a rebuilding journey, I

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promise. Like, I'm, um, getting myself

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together. And she was like, it's fine,

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relaxed. You're gonna be okay.

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And so I was just hoping that that was not going

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to impact me. But once I came here, and I know this is

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a long winded story, and I apologize. I'm so

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passionate about this company that I work for

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because, um, Mike Delgado, when I started working

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for him, he said, okay, Christina, our goal is

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to, to do credit education on social

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media. And I said, well, I love

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social media. Let me tell you what I don't know a lot about, and that's

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credit. And so I was very honest. I said, look, I made

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every mistake with credit. I ruined my Credit. In my 20s,

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I've been rebuilding, but it's kind of. I've been

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piecing things together from different things that I've read

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online. And he's like, that's totally fine.

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I'm going to give you all the resources we have. He sent

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me article after article after article.

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He connected me to the team that I'm currently on now,

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where I attended a, uh, training session with them. I

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worked with, I read over every article that they put together.

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I worked with them on campaigns. And then I started

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to learn so much about credit that it started to

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improve my financial life. That's why I Saidian

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has been, has been the best place that I've

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worked at, and it's, it's honestly changed my life for the better

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in so many ways. Not just from

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the, the benefits that they offer, the

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corporate culture is incredible, but also,

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um, the tools that they offer their credit

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monitoring, the tools that they've made available to

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help consumers, to boost their credit. Um, it's

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all innovated over the past.

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Let's see, what is this? Almost 10 years, the company

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has grown in strides in the steps that they've taken to help

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consumers, and they've helped me, and I, in turn, get to

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turn around and join these amazing podcasts to help other

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people.

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>> Anthony: And because, you know, you say you talked about credit

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was bad, like, how bad was it?

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>> Christina Roman: Oh, it was bad. It was,

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it was, um. Um. So

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when I was in college, I

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made the mistake of opening a credit card

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and not really understanding

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how credit worked. So I didn't know what

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an interest rate was. I didn't know,

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um, like, I didn't know

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that missing a payment was going to impact me for seven years. I thought, oh,

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you missed a payment, you catch up. Not a big deal, you

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know. But, um, I. So what happened is

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I opened a credit card and they said, you have a

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0% interest for 12 months. Me not knowing how interest

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rates worked at the time, I thought that meant I didn't have

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to pay for 12 months. So then I started

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getting bills, and I was like, why am I

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getting a bill? I don't even OE for 12 months. But, okay, here's a

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track of everything that I owe and some. And then, I'll

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be honest with you, sometimes I didn't even look at the bill. I was like, oh, they're sending me

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another one of those bills. Like, I don't know them,

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though. And then, um, it

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got bad. I started getting collection

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calls. Um, one of

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the, the women was through

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my, my bank on campus. And

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I remember her by name. Her name was Simone.

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And, um, she was a big impact in my

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life. She's the one that talked to me

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like a parent almost, and said, okay, Christina,

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you clearly don't understand how credit works. Because she would tell me,

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hey, you need to pay. And I'd say, I don't have the money to pay. And

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she said, well, we're going to report you to the bureau's. And I said, well, I don't know what that even

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means. That. What do you mean you're going to report me to the bureau's? And she's

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like, okay, you really don't understand how this

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works, right? And I said, no. So she actually would take the

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time to talk to me, and then, uh,

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she would call me again when I missed payments, and she'd be like,

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christina Simone again. You know,

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let's talk. What are we going toa do? How are we going toa get you caught

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up? And so she was the one that really made me

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curious about, okay, how is this really

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impacting me? So I ruined

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my credit. I would say I think I was in the

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400s at one point. And

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what happened was, uh. And if you're not familiar with the

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credit range, credit range goes from 300 to

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850. Um, 850 being the highest,

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850 being, you know, your goal, or,

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you know, upper 700 to 8 hundreds is your goal.

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Right. Um, I had

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a car that was constantly breaking down,

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and so this car was eating through all my money, and

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I decided I needed to go and get a new car.

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Um, again,

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being completely naive to how credit worked. I went to the

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lot and I found this car that I liked.

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It was affordable, it wasn't anything fancy. It

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was like, um, the cheapest, uh, the cheapest

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version that I could find. Um, low

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mileage, whatever. And they ran my

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credit, and my mom was with me, and she

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had always told me, don't get a credit card. Credit cards are

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bad. She didn't know my financial situation.

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And the person was like, ooh,

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okay, so we run your

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credit and

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you're go going toa need a coigner. And I

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was like, okay. He said, u, um, you're

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gonna need a cosigner or you're goingna need to try to accept it a

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loan at a 19% interest rate.

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And I was like, oh, I don't even know what that means, but

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okay, 19%. And my mom's jaw

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was on the floor. She was just like,

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she's like, we're gonna walk away right now

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and we're gonna figure this out. And I was like,

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what's wrong? Like, I didn't understand still at

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the time how high that truly was

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for a car. Um, so

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she was really mad at, she didn't talk to me the whole way home

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and I was just like, what happened? I don't

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understand this. Well, a few

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days later I went to my parents house just to pop in

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into visit and the minute I walked in my

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door, the door, my dad just

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started screaming at me about like

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what are you doing with your life? How could you be so

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financially irresponsible? U

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um, and I just,

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I got completely attacked from my parents

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about what I had done. It was, it was

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a tough situation to be in. It was the very eye

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opening situation to be in. They really explained.

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No, don't. I don't even say that. They didn't explain anything to me.

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They just yelled at. And then I went home

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and I started to say okay, clearly I've

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done something wrong and I need to figure

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out how to get out of this. So at the

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time I was dating my now husband and he's

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very financially responsible. U

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and we talked about everything that I was

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going through and he kind of knew but I

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didn't really want to tell him too much. But

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once this happened I kind of laid it all out

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and he's like, okay, I'm gonna co sign

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a car for you. And I was just like what

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he said? I he's like, he told me, I see

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a future with you. I'm go going to co sign on a car for

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you. But you need to know that

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if you do not make your payments, it's going

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to impact my credit. He's like, you've already ruined

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your credit. I need to help you rebuild. So if

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you miss uh, a payment, you're going to impact me

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negatively. And that

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also, that put a lot of pressure on me. So I was like,

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okay, I'm going toa get my bills in order. I'm

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gonna learn how to, how to manage my

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budget properly. So that way I make sure that I make those

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payments. And I did, I did not miss a single payment

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on that car loan. And that kind of started

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that snowball. Effective okay, I'm doing this

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right now. Let me bring my credit down. And so I

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started my credit debt down. So I started to look up

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ways to reduce credit debt and so I did,

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you know, the calculators, interest rate calculators, how much can I

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realistically afford to pay? And we just started

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doing that and I just started chipping away at my debt

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and then I started to see, okay,

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life's getting a little bit easier even just

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even knowing that I still carried that debt but knowing That I was

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tackling.

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It felt like things were, were lifting off

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my shoulder. I felt lighter on my toes. I was like, okay,

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this, this feels good. Now how do I make it even

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better? And from there I just started to work on

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my credit. And now today I hit the eight

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hundreds which is incredible. I'm like really proud of myself

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for doing that from knowing that I got that low,

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but also knowing, okay, now I'm in the eight hundreds,

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this is possible. And that's kind of what I try to

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share with consumers when we talk about credit. Doesn't matter

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where you are, you can take the steps to improve

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it. Um, and it's important that you do

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that.

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>> Anthony: You know, you hit the credit bur I got to ask these questions

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uh, because everybody going to have them. Um, I

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think this is beyond you now I guess at this

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point. But uh, u

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obviously what is the credit like the breakdown

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of a credit score, if you don't mind going through that

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and then what ways

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that you've seen has been the best for us. Like a

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budgeting strategy has been good.

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>> Christina Roman: Okay, so u

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credit scores. First of all, it's

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important to know that there are so many credit scores

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in motion. You know, um, you have

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your a lot of scoring models that are commonly

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known include FICO and Vantage score and they

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weigh information differently. They're the

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algorithms that calculate your credit scores. They are

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proprietary to them, so they're not the bureau's credit

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scores. And I think it's important to kind of separate

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credit scoring models from the credit

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bureaus. So the bureaus are responsible for

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managing and maintaining your credit report.

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So um, how the cycle works, you open

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up a line of credit, you make your payments,

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the lender updates their records, they report that information

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to the bureaus who then store that information

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in your credit report or your credit history.

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Then when you go to open credit in the future, we share

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that information with the lender. Now the

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lender then may choose to run it through a

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credit scoring algorithm to help them

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quickly analyze your credit report. So what that does that

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algorithm looks at your report and it assigns a three

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digit number, typically between 300 to 850.

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That's your credit score. Um, and then from there

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the lender will use that along with a variety of

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other factors, including your income, your stability,

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to determine if you qualify for that loan. Right. So

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what are the factors that make up your credit score?

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Your payment history is a number one factor

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impacting your credit score. So it's imperative that you make your payments

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on time. I always tell People set up,

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um, automatic payments if you can,

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or have that calendar in your phone that

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you plug everything in and then you, you know, make your payments

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on the day. I tend to like to be more involved

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in my finances. So I will go in and make that

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payment because I feel like that makes it click for me. I'm like,

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okay, great, I made that payment. We're good.

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Um, um, also, because sometimes you just want to make

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more, you want to pay more if you can. So that's

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another great way to, you know, reduce how much

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you owe on a loan that much faster if you can

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make extra payments. Great.

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The second factor that impacts your credit, the second biggest

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factor impacting your credit is your credit utilization. So how

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much of your available credit are you using? Um,

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each month? Now, this is particular to your credit cards.

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So you have a set credit limit and

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you get to charge, you get to determine how much you're going to charge

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each month and how much you're going to pay off. Are you

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carrying debt month to month? That gets reported to the

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credit bureaus. How much of your available credit are

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you using? So if you're using more

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than 30% of your available credit,

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then you'll start to see a little bit of a hit to

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your credit score. A lot of people say

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30% is that number that you should aim for. We

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actually, we tell people, if you can pay it off, pay it off because you

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don't want to carry debt over because you're going to pay interest

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on that, those amounts that you're carrying over, right? So who

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wants to pay extra on money that they're carrying over?

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Additionally, if you can't pay it off in full, if you can keep

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that usage at, uh, 10% or lower, that would

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be even more beneficial to your credit score.

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So your payment history and your credit utilization

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to this biggest factors, typically that's about

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65% of your credit score. Then you have

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your credit mix. So how, how many

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different types of accounts do you have? Do you have credit cards? Do

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you have loans? How are you managing both?

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Um, so that gets factored in your

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age of your credit. So how long have you been

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using credit that gets factored in? Um, a lot of

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people, you know, if they just get started using credit, they want to see that

Speaker: 00:17:09

800 credit score right away. Remember, your,

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your credit, um, report is

Speaker: 00:17:15

your history of your credit usage. So credit takes time to

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build. Give yourself that time.

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And then, uh, the last factor is new

Speaker: 00:17:23

credit. So are you applying for new

Speaker: 00:17:26

credit? Um, if, when you, every time you Apply for a form

Speaker: 00:17:29

of credit, then that will create a hard

Speaker: 00:17:32

inquiry in your credit report. So those get recorded in your

Speaker: 00:17:35

credit report. And that just lets, uh, your

Speaker: 00:17:37

lenders know or potential lenders know, like, hey, this person is

Speaker: 00:17:40

actively seeking out credit right now.

Speaker: 00:17:43

Is everything okay? You know, um,

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are they over leveraging themselves with credit? So

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it's just, it'it's a very minor impact on

Speaker: 00:17:52

your credit report. The least impactful factor,

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um, it counts for, I think,

Speaker: 00:17:57

10%. Um, so those other

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factors you really want to pay attention to are

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your payment history and your credit utilization.

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>> Anthony: And it's awesome that you even found a

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job with such, you know, while you're building

Speaker: 00:18:11

your credit at one of the credit bureaus, which is pretty

Speaker: 00:18:14

cool. Um, um, but also

Speaker: 00:18:18

it's interesting that they complain to you.

Speaker: 00:18:21

Well, they put their frustrations out there

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without saying, like, hey, maybe us as

Speaker: 00:18:27

parents could have at least taken some time

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out to explain to you what is

Speaker: 00:18:32

to deal with other finances or even credit in

Speaker: 00:18:35

general. So do you have any kids

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now?

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>> Christina Roman: I do, I do. I have one son. He's five years

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old. And yeah, these are things

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that we talk about with my son. I talk about

Speaker: 00:18:47

budgeting. There's so many things in life and this is why

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I think it's really common that, um,

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especially in minority cultures, we're told,

Speaker: 00:18:56

get your education, get a good job.

Speaker: 00:18:59

>> Anthony: Yep.

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>> Christina Roman: Then what? Then what? Okay, I have a, I have a good job now. I have

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all this money. Okay, let me go shopping, let me buy the latest

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car. You know, you see this with a lot of people that end up having money

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really fast. Then they're like, oh, I have this

Speaker: 00:19:11

money, I can spend it. They don't realize

Speaker: 00:19:14

that they can invest in themselves. They can. They don't

Speaker: 00:19:17

realize that taking on too much debt over leverages

Speaker: 00:19:20

himself, you know, and so, um,

Speaker: 00:19:23

having those table conversations are so

Speaker: 00:19:26

important. Talking about money, talking about a budget. I

Speaker: 00:19:29

talked to my son frequently about, like, hey,

Speaker: 00:19:32

that's not in our budget right now. You know, he always wants me to buy him a

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toy that's not in our budget right now. And

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I set up a system for him to start to earn stars

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so that he can earn money. And that way

Speaker: 00:19:44

if he wants something, he can buy it. Now I'll

Speaker: 00:19:47

take him to Target. And I say, okay, you've got 10 bucks. You can

Speaker: 00:19:50

buy a 10$10 item, or you could buy something

Speaker: 00:19:53

cheaper and save a little bit, um, for

Speaker: 00:19:56

maybe your next trip. So the next time we come, you have a little bit more

Speaker: 00:19:59

to spend or you can just save it and spend

Speaker: 00:20:02

it somewhere else, you know, so we do talk to

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him about that. But that is my

Speaker: 00:20:07

goal is to set him up so that he understands

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how credit works. And so I also have an 11,

Speaker: 00:20:13

a brother who's 11 years younger than me. So

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when he entered um, um, the age where he could start using

Speaker: 00:20:19

credit, I talked to him about making sure that you don't

Speaker: 00:20:22

over leverage yourself with credit, that you don't take on debt,

Speaker: 00:20:25

that you pay it off. I talked to him about opening

Speaker: 00:20:27

401k because this is all information

Speaker: 00:20:30

that was not shared with me. It was like, oh, yeah,

Speaker: 00:20:33

you should do it, but why should I do it, right? I

Speaker: 00:20:36

didn't start to invest in my 401k until my

Speaker: 00:20:39

30s. I lost out on all those, those

Speaker: 00:20:41

years where I, I could have been accumulating interest

Speaker: 00:20:44

on a retirement account. So when my brother who started

Speaker: 00:20:47

working his company offered him a 401k, I said, Invest

Speaker: 00:20:51

in your 401k now. Okay? I want you to be set

Speaker: 00:20:53

up better than I was. So those

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are conversations that I have with my brother, with

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my cousins, with anybody that will listen

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to hopefully get them set up for their

Speaker: 00:21:05

financial future. This Christmas, I actuallyught bought my

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cousin who had m been complaining that she didn't know

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how to manage money. I bought her uh,

Speaker: 00:21:14

financial books for Christmas. So that way. Or financial

Speaker: 00:21:17

literacy books for Christmas. So that

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way. Yeah, because I want my

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family, you know, to rise to, to

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make the right choices with their money.

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>> Anthony: And that's really good that they at least approached

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you. But I guess obviously you got

Speaker: 00:21:34

the, the big brand behind you. It was like, obviously I'm

Speaker: 00:21:36

talking about here.

Speaker: 00:21:38

Uh, but can you go back and talk about

Speaker: 00:21:41

the star system a little bit? How does your child

Speaker: 00:21:44

actually earn those stars?

Speaker: 00:21:45

>> Christina Roman: Yeah, so, um, um, if he.

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So every day at school he earns colored

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dots. So green for he had good

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behavior, yellow for I. Hey. We had to give him a

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few instructions. Red is like, whoa. He

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really was not listening. And so he,

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he earned a red star, um,

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for the green dots, he'll get a star. He

Speaker: 00:22:08

has to earn stars for several things. He has to brush

Speaker: 00:22:11

his teeth, he has to get himself dressed. He has to

Speaker: 00:22:14

get the green dot. He's got to say his prayers. At the end of the

Speaker: 00:22:17

night. He has an option to do piano

Speaker: 00:22:19

lessons. Um, we have, we bought a keyboard

Speaker: 00:22:22

so that he could set up YouTube and we

Speaker: 00:22:25

do a piano less on YouTube. Only five minutes. That's all I asked

Speaker: 00:22:28

for. You know, and then there's other Extra things

Speaker: 00:22:31

that he could do to earn stars. So we have a dog. If

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he feeds the dog without being asked

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then he can earn a star. If he,

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if um, I asked him to let Ramy out

Speaker: 00:22:43

to use a restroom and he lets him back in,

Speaker: 00:22:45

he could earn a star that way. So there's different ways that he can

Speaker: 00:22:48

earn stars. Um, the one that we're having a little

Speaker: 00:22:51

bit of a harder time with is cleaning the room.

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>> Anthony: Ok.

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>> Christina Roman: In that.

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>> Anthony: So does each like star count to like a dollar amount

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or is it just kind of like.

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>> Christina Roman: So uh, it varies. Honestly. We will tell

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him we give him a target. So the first time

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that he did it we told him you could earn a ten dollar prize. And I said

Speaker: 00:23:10

you're not every week andna earn a ten dollar prize. I said some

Speaker: 00:23:13

days it'll just be a five dollar but so it's not

Speaker: 00:23:16

a set amount that we have. But I don't want to

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go over like $. I think

Speaker: 00:23:22

that's too much for a five year old.

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>> Anthony: Okay, well mean, he sound like you're making bank over

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there. So.

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>> Christina Roman: Yeah. And he does it.

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What was interesting to me is he's really incentivized by

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that. And he'll go to the refrigerator. Soon as he feeds the

Speaker: 00:23:37

dog he'll go and he'll put his star, it's a magnetic star

Speaker: 00:23:40

system. And he'll put a star next to the right one. And

Speaker: 00:23:43

then if he sees uh, like he didn't do his piano lessons

Speaker: 00:23:46

at all this week so he's got no stars there but he has

Speaker: 00:23:48

to complete it all for five days. So there's

Speaker: 00:23:51

like six categories that he has to complete. Otherwise he doesn't earn it.

Speaker: 00:23:54

He gets nothing.

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>> Anthony: Oh he don't get not like not one. So

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he can do everything right and not do us piano lessons

Speaker: 00:24:02

all the way through. So he doesn't get not one get it?

Speaker: 00:24:05

>> Christina Roman: Nope. That's. That's the rul.

Speaker: 00:24:08

You have to complete the whole thing. Uh, but that's where the extra

Speaker: 00:24:11

stars come in because say he didn't do his piano lesson but he opted to

Speaker: 00:24:14

feed the dog. Those can take the place

Speaker: 00:24:17

less. Yes. Yeah. So that's where extra

Speaker: 00:24:20

stars kind of come into play. If he doesn't do any of that,

Speaker: 00:24:23

then no, he doesn't get anything.

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>> Anthony: That is smart.

Speaker: 00:24:26

Well I wanted to go back to that because for some people who are just

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have young children and just trying to figure out how to

Speaker: 00:24:31

create a system for that child and obviously everybody

Speaker: 00:24:34

does it a little differently. I'm just curious on how you all

Speaker: 00:24:37

do it with your family?

Speaker: 00:24:40

>> Christina Roman: Um, yeah.

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>> Anthony: Yeah. So now that you guys are

Speaker: 00:24:44

like doing well, Everybody's at the

Speaker: 00:24:46

800 mark and I. All that fun stuff,

Speaker: 00:24:49

like looking back,

Speaker: 00:24:52

what is it? What is the one of those habits that you

Speaker: 00:24:55

feel as though that you can actually just say, you

Speaker: 00:24:58

know what? This money habit should just go to trash. I don't want to say it

Speaker: 00:25:01

anymore. I don't need this in my life

Speaker: 00:25:03

anymore.

Speaker: 00:25:05

>> Christina Roman: The money habit that should go in the trash

Speaker: 00:25:08

is impulse spending. Honestly,

Speaker: 00:25:11

it's, um, I noticed so that this is one of the things I did

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this year was I, I,

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um, look through my

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spending to see, okay, where is my

Speaker: 00:25:22

money going? Because again, you always need to

Speaker: 00:25:25

check your spending. You always need to kind of

Speaker: 00:25:27

recalibrate, right? Um, sometimes you get

Speaker: 00:25:30

comfortable, you're managing money fine.

Speaker: 00:25:33

Your, um, your

Speaker: 00:25:36

credits looking good. So you kind of just go through

Speaker: 00:25:39

life. You're like, well, I'MAKE I'm paying my bills on time,

Speaker: 00:25:42

you know, um, I'm comfortable.

Speaker: 00:25:44

But just taking that extra time

Speaker: 00:25:47

to review your spending can actually really show

Speaker: 00:25:50

you just where all of your money is going. And

Speaker: 00:25:53

that was really eye opening for me. That's something I did in January

Speaker: 00:25:56

was I sat down and I looked at, okay, where's our, all of our money going?

Speaker: 00:25:59

And I realized our money is going to eating out

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and our, uh, money is going to Amazon.

Speaker: 00:26:04

Impulse spending. You know, I have the app on my

Speaker: 00:26:07

phone, I get the package the next day. So I'm like,

Speaker: 00:26:10

oh, I didn't know I always needed,

Speaker: 00:26:13

um, you know, this, this thing that I, that I

Speaker: 00:26:16

saw on social media. And so I see it on social

Speaker: 00:26:19

media, I go on the app and I buy it and then boom, it's at

Speaker: 00:26:22

my house eight hours later, it's at my house the very next

Speaker: 00:26:24

day. And so I said, okay,

Speaker: 00:26:28

well we're gonna stop that. And

Speaker: 00:26:30

so I told my husband, we're making our meals at home,

Speaker: 00:26:33

we're going toa eat out once a week. Um,

Speaker: 00:26:36

and no more

Speaker: 00:26:39

impulse spending. If I'm going to buy something on Amazon,

Speaker: 00:26:42

on Amazon, or on an app on my phone,

Speaker: 00:26:45

it has a purpose behind it. There was a plan for it,

Speaker: 00:26:48

there's a reason why I wanted it. But if I find

Speaker: 00:26:51

myself looking at social media and saying,

Speaker: 00:26:54

oh, that's a cool gadget, I need that. No,

Speaker: 00:26:57

I don't make that purchase. I'm trying to be really

Speaker: 00:27:00

intentional with my spending. And I feel like

Speaker: 00:27:03

that's really, actually saved us quite a bit of

Speaker: 00:27:06

money, is bringing to mind to

Speaker: 00:27:08

myself and to my Husband. Hey, we're spending a lot of

Speaker: 00:27:11

money without really thinking about it.

Speaker: 00:27:14

If we're a little bit more intentional with our money, we actually

Speaker: 00:27:17

save more. And it's been really good the

Speaker: 00:27:20

last couple of months. I've. We've seen a

Speaker: 00:27:22

change in just how we're able to manage our

Speaker: 00:27:25

finances.

Speaker: 00:27:26

>> Anthony: That is amazing. Um, um, to look at the impulse

Speaker: 00:27:29

buy, but actually have it with a purpose now, so I'll take it. You

Speaker: 00:27:32

only order from Amazon once a month?

Speaker: 00:27:35

>> Christina Roman: Um, no. So, like, when I say with the purpose.

Speaker: 00:27:38

So we're having a, um, like a tomorra

Speaker: 00:27:40

Gentine's event. Right. And so, um,

Speaker: 00:27:43

my mom said, you're in charge of like, some of the decor items. So

Speaker: 00:27:46

I went and I specifically looked at,

Speaker: 00:27:49

okay, what is a decor item that I'm going to bring? And I

Speaker: 00:27:52

purchased just exactly what I wanted to bring. And then

Speaker: 00:27:55

that's it. Um, so like, that's

Speaker: 00:27:58

what I mean by being intentional. But I'm not

Speaker: 00:28:01

just like looking online and seeing like, oh, that's a cool

Speaker: 00:28:03

yadget. I need that. Or hey, I like that shirt. I want that.

Speaker: 00:28:06

I don't need that right now. If it wasn't in my

Speaker: 00:28:09

closet. And one of the things that I noticed, and my mom

Speaker: 00:28:12

just did this today, I was talking on the phone to her. So my

Speaker: 00:28:15

mom, um, for holidays or

Speaker: 00:28:18

any events, she always bought us new clothing.

Speaker: 00:28:21

We always had a new shirt to wear. We always had. I always had a

Speaker: 00:28:24

new dress to wear, you know, for every event that

Speaker: 00:28:26

happened. And so we have a

Speaker: 00:28:29

wedding shower coming up. And she said, oh, what are you going

Speaker: 00:28:32

to get to wear? And I said, oh, no, Mom, I'm shopping my

Speaker: 00:28:35

closet because I have dresses in my

Speaker: 00:28:38

closet. But that is a habit that's been

Speaker: 00:28:40

ingrained in me all my life. My mom just always, for every

Speaker: 00:28:43

holiday, for every event, bought us new clothing. And

Speaker: 00:28:46

so I'm saying I've got

Speaker: 00:28:49

clothing, I have dresses. I've bought them for every event leading up

Speaker: 00:28:52

to this, you know, so I can find something

Speaker: 00:28:55

in my closet to wear.

Speaker: 00:28:57

>> Anthony: That's interesting because one of the things, like my mom

Speaker: 00:29:00

used to do the same thing when I was younger, but it was only

Speaker: 00:29:03

because the other kids in the neighborhood were getting it.

Speaker: 00:29:06

So it's almost like the environment was feeding that

Speaker: 00:29:09

particular impulse. Buying and purchasing. Instead of just

Speaker: 00:29:11

saying like, hey, nobody's going to see or

Speaker: 00:29:14

even notice that this is new or not, just iron it, wash

Speaker: 00:29:17

it, use it.

Speaker: 00:29:19

>> Christina Roman: U. Um, yeah.

Speaker: 00:29:20

>> Anthony: So how important is the environment when

Speaker: 00:29:23

it comes to understanding and staying to your

Speaker: 00:29:26

budget to You.

Speaker: 00:29:29

>> Christina Roman: The environment is everything. Honestly,

Speaker: 00:29:31

um, within my

Speaker: 00:29:34

household, we have built a system.

Speaker: 00:29:37

Right. But when you go externally,

Speaker: 00:29:39

there's a lot of external pressures, especially

Speaker: 00:29:42

when, like, I'm from a Hispanic

Speaker: 00:29:45

family that is pretty big. We get together

Speaker: 00:29:48

all the time. And when we get together, it's a

Speaker: 00:29:51

birthday, it's, you know, an anniversary celebration,

Speaker: 00:29:54

or if you're not buying gift, you're bringing food. Right.

Speaker: 00:29:57

So you're buying stuff to make food for a lot of people.

Speaker: 00:30:00

And so, um, Josh and I

Speaker: 00:30:03

talked about how we need to set boundaries also. I

Speaker: 00:30:06

think there's a lot of expectation that, um,

Speaker: 00:30:09

um, you're always available, that

Speaker: 00:30:12

you're always going to, um,

Speaker: 00:30:14

um, be able to participate in.

Speaker: 00:30:17

In a ton of events or, you know,

Speaker: 00:30:20

um, um, show up on a whim.

Speaker: 00:30:23

You get invited to like, Sunday dinner or whatever,

Speaker: 00:30:25

but setting the expectation of like, yeah, we can be there,

Speaker: 00:30:28

but we're not going to purchase

Speaker: 00:30:31

anything or we're not going to bring anything

Speaker: 00:30:34

because it wasn't in the budget, you know, if you want us

Speaker: 00:30:37

to plan ahead for something, great. But we,

Speaker: 00:30:40

we need to be intentional about communicating that because that's

Speaker: 00:30:42

also where I realized we can spend a lot of money on our

Speaker: 00:30:45

family.

Speaker: 00:30:46

>> Anthony: Yeah.

Speaker: 00:30:47

Um, and coming to back to the parents side of the

Speaker: 00:30:50

house, um, you talked a little bit

Speaker: 00:30:53

about how they impacted you early on.

Speaker: 00:30:56

How is now in your position or where you at

Speaker: 00:30:59

now impacting their lives?

Speaker: 00:31:03

>> Christina Roman: U. Um, I think we're a lot more open

Speaker: 00:31:06

with talking about money. We actually have

Speaker: 00:31:09

a lot more conversations about money. Um, my

Speaker: 00:31:12

brother, he's been really good

Speaker: 00:31:15

about setting boundaries with them, with my parents

Speaker: 00:31:18

and letting even, you know. You know, he

Speaker: 00:31:21

moved about 15 minutes away and so

Speaker: 00:31:24

he. I was talking to him on the phone the other day and I said, hey, I miss you. I

Speaker: 00:31:27

haven't seen you in a while. He said, yeah, you know, right now things

Speaker: 00:31:30

are tight and so I can't come down all the time.

Speaker: 00:31:32

M. But, you know, let's set a date so that we can

Speaker: 00:31:35

get together. So these are conversations that are happening and

Speaker: 00:31:38

we understand that. Okay. You know, this

Speaker: 00:31:41

is just where we are. We're all at different places in our life. But I'm happy

Speaker: 00:31:44

that he's prioritizing his budget and

Speaker: 00:31:47

that he knows that he doesn't want to overextend himself.

Speaker: 00:31:50

You know, um, my

Speaker: 00:31:53

dad also. It's interesting. My dad's been talking a lot more

Speaker: 00:31:55

about investing and, you know, talking about the

Speaker: 00:31:58

importance of investing. And so he

Speaker: 00:32:01

doesn't invest a lot. He's always said, I want to figure out

Speaker: 00:32:04

how to invest and I want to figure out how to invest. I don't

Speaker: 00:32:07

really know how to invest in. To be perfectly honest, I'm not investing much

Speaker: 00:32:10

aside from my 401k and maybe I think I

Speaker: 00:32:13

own one, um,

Speaker: 00:32:16

like stock on, on Robinhood, you

Speaker: 00:32:18

know. Um, so I want to really

Speaker: 00:32:21

boost my investing knowledge this year. That's a goal that

Speaker: 00:32:24

I've set for myself. So my dad, he said, hey, when

Speaker: 00:32:27

you learn something, please share with me because I want to

Speaker: 00:32:30

learn too. I want to invest too. So that's

Speaker: 00:32:33

something that, that is new and it's exciting and I'm glad that

Speaker: 00:32:36

we're having these conversations too.

Speaker: 00:32:39

>> Anthony: That is really good. There's a book that I usually

Speaker: 00:32:41

give or recommend, shall I say, to a lot of people who

Speaker: 00:32:44

are just getting into investing in.

Speaker: 00:32:47

The book is called the Simple Path to Wealth by J.L.

Speaker: 00:32:50

collins. And the reason why, because he

Speaker: 00:32:53

wrote the book for his daughter who wouldn't listen to him when he was trying to tell

Speaker: 00:32:56

her about investing. So he was like,

Speaker: 00:32:59

well, here you go. Whenever you decide to read

Speaker: 00:33:02

it, it's here for you. But it's really

Speaker: 00:33:04

simple. Um, and I usually give that book away for

Speaker: 00:33:07

gifts as well for like the holidays.

Speaker: 00:33:09

So, you know, if you guys on my live show, I do

Speaker: 00:33:12

give away books around the holiday season. So make sure

Speaker: 00:33:15

you'all sign up. Uh, but that's just

Speaker: 00:33:18

one of the books is just a suggestion if you.

Speaker: 00:33:20

>> Christina Roman: Yeah, thank you.

Speaker: 00:33:22

>> Anthony: Yeah.

Speaker: 00:33:23

Um, so we're going to go into the futures just a little bit

Speaker: 00:33:25

here, um, which is talking about,

Speaker: 00:33:29

you know, what areas that you plan on

Speaker: 00:33:31

focusing on for yourself, um, um, or even in

Speaker: 00:33:34

your career.

Speaker: 00:33:37

>> Christina Roman: Yeah, I think for

Speaker: 00:33:39

myself. Um, um, I mentioned

Speaker: 00:33:42

investing. That's something that I really want to

Speaker: 00:33:45

research more. U. Um, that's a goal of mine. I

Speaker: 00:33:48

just recently actually up the

Speaker: 00:33:51

amount that I'm putting into my 401k

Speaker: 00:33:54

and um, so that way I can really start to

Speaker: 00:33:57

maximize it. But learning how

Speaker: 00:34:00

to grow my money is where I'm at right now. And

Speaker: 00:34:02

then also, you know, uh,

Speaker: 00:34:05

looking into high yield savings accounts.

Speaker: 00:34:08

I've known about these. I'm in this industry. I've known about

Speaker: 00:34:11

these for so many years. But uh, to be perfectly honest, I

Speaker: 00:34:14

haven't taken the actions there

Speaker: 00:34:17

to even just earn a little bit of money on,

Speaker: 00:34:20

you know, my savings. Why not? So that's something

Speaker: 00:34:23

that I'm looking into. U. Um,

Speaker: 00:34:27

what else am I looking into

Speaker: 00:34:30

for my own future?

Speaker: 00:34:35

Yeah, right now I think it's really investing and

Speaker: 00:34:38

growing my wealth and then also investing for my

Speaker: 00:34:41

son. That's another thing that I contacted um,

Speaker: 00:34:45

my, my 401k company and I said I

Speaker: 00:34:48

want to open an account for my son because I really want to set him

Speaker: 00:34:51

up for success. He has already uh, a

Speaker: 00:34:54

college savings plan so we did that several years

Speaker: 00:34:56

ago. So we put money into that account and

Speaker: 00:34:59

for Christmas, you know, I have family members that uh,

Speaker: 00:35:02

put into that account. But I want to open up an

Speaker: 00:35:05

investment account for him as well so that way I

Speaker: 00:35:07

can, you know, have something for him when

Speaker: 00:35:10

he gets ready to enter adulthood, you

Speaker: 00:35:13

know.

Speaker: 00:35:14

>> Anthony: Yeah, that's really good. Uh, uh, especially starting them

Speaker: 00:35:17

off young, you know, things that you wish your parents would have done

Speaker: 00:35:20

for you. It's good that you'like you know what I'm doing

Speaker: 00:35:22

as soon as I get a Social Security number. We

Speaker: 00:35:26

yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker: 00:35:28

Now when it comes to adding your child owner,

Speaker: 00:35:31

the authorized user. Mhm. I know

Speaker: 00:35:34

it changes from child to child,

Speaker: 00:35:37

but is it a good thing to do that?

Speaker: 00:35:40

>> Christina Roman: Yeah, it can be a good thing. Um, and

Speaker: 00:35:42

honestly the good thing about having an authorized user

Speaker: 00:35:45

or having your child as an authorized users, you get to

Speaker: 00:35:48

determine u, um, if they're going to have

Speaker: 00:35:51

access to a credit card to that account that

Speaker: 00:35:54

you're going to be signing them as an authorized user for. You get to

Speaker: 00:35:57

determine if they're going toa even be able to use it. Um,

Speaker: 00:36:00

I, I know people that have added their children as authorized

Speaker: 00:36:02

users but they never get to touch a card. They

Speaker: 00:36:05

just benefit from their credit history.

Speaker: 00:36:08

Now does that teach them how to use

Speaker: 00:36:11

credit? Maybe a better option would be to give

Speaker: 00:36:14

them the card and say this is your

Speaker: 00:36:16

limit and this uh, and this is what

Speaker: 00:36:19

I expect you to pay back. You know, you can only charge

Speaker: 00:36:22

when you have the amount to pay back. But that has

Speaker: 00:36:25

to be coordinated between the two of you because

Speaker: 00:36:28

you are the one, the parent is the one that's legally

Speaker: 00:36:31

responsible for what's charged on their cards.

Speaker: 00:36:34

So even if they call and say well my son

Speaker: 00:36:36

charged a thousand dollar, you know, computer on

Speaker: 00:36:39

my charge, that wasn't me, there's nothing that they can do,

Speaker: 00:36:42

they're gonna have to pay it back. You know, so

Speaker: 00:36:45

that's a contract that you need to develop with your child,

Speaker: 00:36:48

that's a conversation you need to have with your child but

Speaker: 00:36:51

still you as the parent, ah, are responsible for what's owed on the

Speaker: 00:36:54

account.

Speaker: 00:36:55

>> Anthony: That makes sense.

Speaker: 00:36:56

>> Christina Roman: And then, sorry, one more thing there. You just want to make

Speaker: 00:36:59

sure that when you add the child as an authorized user that they

Speaker: 00:37:02

do report it to the credit bureau. So if you're

Speaker: 00:37:05

asking your, your creditor, okay, do I, uh,

Speaker: 00:37:08

if I had my child, is that going to be reported to the

Speaker: 00:37:10

bureaus? And they say yes, then that's going to help them to build

Speaker: 00:37:13

credit.

Speaker: 00:37:14

>> Anthony: Oh, I didn't even know that they had that option to

Speaker: 00:37:17

not send it over.

Speaker: 00:37:20

>> Christina Roman: It depends on the lender, honestly.

Speaker: 00:37:22

>> Anthony: Okay. And since you just rece received the

Speaker: 00:37:25

information when it comes to a credit dispute,

Speaker: 00:37:28

because this is the biggest thing, uh, uh,

Speaker: 00:37:32

what is the best way to do it? Is it to go through the

Speaker: 00:37:35

lender or talk to you guys directly?

Speaker: 00:37:37

>> Christina Roman: If you're doing a credit dispute, you want to go to

Speaker: 00:37:40

your credit report and you.

Speaker: 00:37:43

So you can contact the lender and say,

Speaker: 00:37:46

you know, hey, you made a mistake on my credit report.

Speaker: 00:37:49

But I think it might be, I think it's more

Speaker: 00:37:51

beneficial if you go through your credit report. On

Speaker: 00:37:54

every credit report, there's dispute instructions. You follow those

Speaker: 00:37:57

instructions. If you're doing it online, typically it's as easy as clicking the

Speaker: 00:38:00

button next to the item that you want to dispute.

Speaker: 00:38:03

You explain in detail why

Speaker: 00:38:06

you, uh, feel as though what's been reported is incorrect.

Speaker: 00:38:09

And then if you can upload any supporting

Speaker: 00:38:12

documents that can help us. When we're going to your lender

Speaker: 00:38:15

on your behalf and saying, this consumer says that this

Speaker: 00:38:18

information is inc. Torrect, here's the supporting documents.

Speaker: 00:38:21

Please review this and let us know,

Speaker: 00:38:23

um, the results of your findings. Um,

Speaker: 00:38:26

they have, ah, 30 to 45 days to let

Speaker: 00:38:29

us know. Often it happens even faster.

Speaker: 00:38:32

We'll know within a couple of days the results of that

Speaker: 00:38:35

dispute.

Speaker: 00:38:36

>> Anthony: That's amazing. Is there any laws that we can kind

Speaker: 00:38:38

of tack on to say, like, hey,

Speaker: 00:38:41

well, we didn't sign up for this particular

Speaker: 00:38:44

thing. There was no signature with this new

Speaker: 00:38:47

lender. So, like, if it's going through, like, collections

Speaker: 00:38:50

for that point, is there something that we can

Speaker: 00:38:53

go.

Speaker: 00:38:54

>> Christina Roman: If you didn't sign up for it, then that's likely

Speaker: 00:38:57

fraud. So you want to go through the fraud process.

Speaker: 00:39:00

So, um, you know, contacting

Speaker: 00:39:03

the lender, letting them know I was not the person that opened that

Speaker: 00:39:05

account, that's not even my signature on it. And then

Speaker: 00:39:08

you go through the process. You may have to file a police

Speaker: 00:39:11

report, but all of that information backs up your

Speaker: 00:39:14

claim that that was not you. So

Speaker: 00:39:17

you want to look into the steps for reporting fraud

Speaker: 00:39:20

in that case. Got, um, it.

Speaker: 00:39:23

And if at the end of the dispute process

Speaker: 00:39:26

you determine, you know what, we did not come to an

Speaker: 00:39:29

agreement here, I'm showing Proof that I paid,

Speaker: 00:39:32

they're saying that I didn't pay. You can put a statement of

Speaker: 00:39:35

dispute that gets added to your credit report, letting

Speaker: 00:39:38

them, letting you explain your situation. The only thing

Speaker: 00:39:41

about a statement of dispute is that,

Speaker: 00:39:43

um, the information will fall off

Speaker: 00:39:46

typically after seven years. So if

Speaker: 00:39:49

at that point it's probably a good time to, to

Speaker: 00:39:52

go on and remove that statement of dispute, otherwise

Speaker: 00:39:55

it's going to stay there and lenders are going to wonder, what is this

Speaker: 00:39:58

even for?

Speaker: 00:39:59

>> Anthony: That makes sense.

Speaker: 00:40:00

All right, now this question came

Speaker: 00:40:03

from the credit chat that I really wanted to ask

Speaker: 00:40:05

you, uh, because I thought this was

Speaker: 00:40:08

interesting, which is how can

Speaker: 00:40:11

a credit history impact the ability to

Speaker: 00:40:14

build wealth and what steps that individuals

Speaker: 00:40:16

can take to improve their financial standing?

Speaker: 00:40:20

>> Christina Roman: Yeah, so we, Sorry.

Speaker: 00:40:23

So anytime we talk about credit, we always emphasize

Speaker: 00:40:26

the fact that credit is the financial tool

Speaker: 00:40:28

and what cred your credit

Speaker: 00:40:31

history does is your credit history, if managed well, when

Speaker: 00:40:34

you go to apply for loans in the future,

Speaker: 00:40:37

um, um, your credit history is what that

Speaker: 00:40:40

lender is going to use to determine

Speaker: 00:40:43

the interest rate that you're going to qualify for. Right? That's notn.

Speaker: 00:40:46

It's not going to be the sole factor in determining if you

Speaker: 00:40:49

get, ah, approved for a loan. A lot of times,

Speaker: 00:40:52

again, they'll take into account, um,

Speaker: 00:40:55

your savings, your income, your

Speaker: 00:40:58

job, um, how long you've been at your job, your stability,

Speaker: 00:41:01

things like that. So those are things that they'll factor in. But

Speaker: 00:41:04

your credit history specifically will impact

Speaker: 00:41:07

the interest with which, uh, you'll qualify for

Speaker: 00:41:10

a loan. Right? The better your credit score, the lower the interest

Speaker: 00:41:13

rate. The lower the interest rate, the more you're going to save

Speaker: 00:41:16

over the life of your loan. So when you have

Speaker: 00:41:19

a goal in mind, like purchasing a home,

Speaker: 00:41:22

the better your credit history and your credit

Speaker: 00:41:24

score, the better that interest rate is going to be.

Speaker: 00:41:27

That's going to help you to qualify, that's going to help you to save

Speaker: 00:41:30

money. It could, that, that interest rate could be the

Speaker: 00:41:33

difference of 10 to, uh, thousands to

Speaker: 00:41:36

tens of thousands of dollars on a loan,

Speaker: 00:41:39

you know, maybe even a hundred thousand. But

Speaker: 00:41:42

that's why we always say before you're going to make a major

Speaker: 00:41:44

purchase, check your credit report three to six months in

Speaker: 00:41:47

advance to determine if there's anything that

Speaker: 00:41:50

you need to change. If there's something that looks, um,

Speaker: 00:41:53

off on your credit report, you have that time

Speaker: 00:41:56

to, uh, bring your debt down. You know,

Speaker: 00:41:59

that's one of the quickest ways that you're going to impact your credit score.

Speaker: 00:42:01

So, okay, I want to, I Want to apply for a

Speaker: 00:42:04

home? I need to reduce my debt. Let me, you know,

Speaker: 00:42:07

take the steps to do that so that way you

Speaker: 00:42:10

can qualify for the best possible interest rates. That's why we say it

Speaker: 00:42:13

does matter when you're trying to build wealth. We know

Speaker: 00:42:16

that home ownership is one of the. The best

Speaker: 00:42:18

ways to build wealth. Um, in the

Speaker: 00:42:21

United States, you have that home, you have that

Speaker: 00:42:24

equity. So the better you manage your

Speaker: 00:42:27

credit, then the better you're going to be able to get

Speaker: 00:42:30

that process rolling.

Speaker: 00:42:32

>> Anthony: Thank you so much for that info.

Speaker: 00:42:35

Uh, is there anything that you want to leave that

Speaker: 00:42:38

the person that's listened to this right now, before we dive

Speaker: 00:42:40

into the final four questions?

Speaker: 00:42:44

>> Christina Roman: Yeah, I just want you to be

Speaker: 00:42:46

curious about your credit. Um, um.

Speaker: 00:42:50

Check your credit score. A lot of Check your credit

Speaker: 00:42:53

report and your credit score. Um, um, A lot of people

Speaker: 00:42:56

think that checking their credit report is going to negatively

Speaker: 00:42:59

impact their credit. That's not true. I was actually sitting with

Speaker: 00:43:02

my husband while he was getting his hair cut in a

Speaker: 00:43:05

barber shop, and I remember hearing them have this

Speaker: 00:43:07

conversation, say, don't check your credit report. You'renna you're gon

Speaker: 00:43:10

toa hurt your. Your credit score. Only check it, like,

Speaker: 00:43:13

when you absolutely have to. And, and I had to interject

Speaker: 00:43:16

because, no, that is not true. And I don't want

Speaker: 00:43:19

that myth to continue. Check your credit

Speaker: 00:43:22

report as often as you want. You can check your credit report

Speaker: 00:43:25

weekly at annual credit report.go. um,

Speaker: 00:43:27

annual creditport.com from

Speaker: 00:43:30

Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Those are the

Speaker: 00:43:33

three major credit bureaus. So you can check it for, uh,

Speaker: 00:43:35

there for free. Weekly, you can get your

Speaker: 00:43:38

FICO score and your Experian credit report from

Speaker: 00:43:41

experian.com. um, and

Speaker: 00:43:44

remember, it's the information that's in your credit report that's

Speaker: 00:43:47

informing your credit score. So you want to make

Speaker: 00:43:50

sure that you know the information that's being

Speaker: 00:43:53

reported about you to your lenders. So be

Speaker: 00:43:56

curious with your credit.

Speaker: 00:43:58

>> Anthony: That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. So you're

Speaker: 00:44:00

ready for the final four?

Speaker: 00:44:02

>> Christina Roman: Yes.

Speaker: 00:44:03

>> Anthony: Alghty

Speaker: 00:44:11

number one, what does wealth mean to

Speaker: 00:44:14

you?

Speaker: 00:44:17

>> Christina Roman: Wealth means freedom.

Speaker: 00:44:20

To me, that it means

Speaker: 00:44:23

having the freedom to live

Speaker: 00:44:26

an authentic life. Live life the way that I want

Speaker: 00:44:29

to live it, be the person that I want to be.

Speaker: 00:44:32

I often feel like when I'm

Speaker: 00:44:34

most financially strapped, I'm stressed

Speaker: 00:44:37

out. I'm, um, um,

Speaker: 00:44:39

um, unhappy.

Speaker: 00:44:42

I tend to put the things that give me joy

Speaker: 00:44:45

aside. And wealth, to me

Speaker: 00:44:47

means having the freedom to do all the

Speaker: 00:44:50

things that I love and

Speaker: 00:44:53

um, um,

Speaker: 00:44:56

joy and

Speaker: 00:44:59

yeah, that's what, that's what wealth means to me.

Speaker: 00:45:02

Freedom.

Speaker: 00:45:03

>> Anthony: Number two, what was your

Speaker: 00:45:06

worst money mistake?

Speaker: 00:45:09

>> Christina Roman: My worst money mistake

Speaker: 00:45:12

was opening a credit card without

Speaker: 00:45:15

understanding how it worked. Um um.

Speaker: 00:45:18

I highly encourage you if you're going to use the

Speaker: 00:45:21

financial tool, understand how it works, read the terms and

Speaker: 00:45:24

conditions and talk to

Speaker: 00:45:27

your family members about

Speaker: 00:45:29

these tools as well. Share the knowledge

Speaker: 00:45:32

that's so important.

Speaker: 00:45:35

>> Anthony: Number three, is there a book that inspired

Speaker: 00:45:38

you U uh, your journey or

Speaker: 00:45:41

change your perspective?

Speaker: 00:45:45

>> Christina Roman: It's not a financial book. I will say that

Speaker: 00:45:48

um, I when I was was just learning about money, I

Speaker: 00:45:51

would say I was. It was podcasts more than anything

Speaker: 00:45:53

that, that helped me to kind of

Speaker: 00:45:56

navigate. I remember I listened frequently to like

Speaker: 00:45:58

Rait Sety. I listened to um, Stacking

Speaker: 00:46:01

Benjamin'aaron um Lowry

Speaker: 00:46:04

wrote a great book Broke Millennial. Those were all great

Speaker: 00:46:07

financial books. But a book that truly

Speaker: 00:46:10

changed my life. God can I say to I

Speaker: 00:46:13

have two that are really o say but

Speaker: 00:46:15

okay, the book that the books that changed my

Speaker: 00:46:18

life for the better or the for agreements.

Speaker: 00:46:21

Um um. I love that book so much.

Speaker: 00:46:25

I It's just that book is truly

Speaker: 00:46:27

freeing about letting go of

Speaker: 00:46:30

judgments. U um,

Speaker: 00:46:33

it's such a fantastic book. And the other book that

Speaker: 00:46:36

I love that I still reference to this day, I read it I think two

Speaker: 00:46:39

years ago. U um, Atomic Habits.

Speaker: 00:46:42

That's a book that, that

Speaker: 00:46:45

made me take action right away.

Speaker: 00:46:47

>> Anthony: Yeah.

Speaker: 00:46:47

>> Christina Roman: And it made it so simple and it's a the

Speaker: 00:46:50

be just 1% better every day. That's

Speaker: 00:46:53

something that I live by.

Speaker: 00:46:55

>> Anthony: Love it. It's such a great book.

Speaker: 00:46:58

Yeah, I watch what that one.

Speaker: 00:47:00

>> Christina Roman: I still make my bed. I made my bed this morning. You

Speaker: 00:47:03

know, like. Yeah, it's things that that just

Speaker: 00:47:06

little things that, that I live by.

Speaker: 00:47:10

>> Anthony: Number four, what is your favorite dish to

Speaker: 00:47:13

make?

Speaker: 00:47:15

>> Christina Roman: My favorite dish to make

Speaker: 00:47:18

is um. Um. I

Speaker: 00:47:20

love breakfast. Breakfast is my favorite item or uh,

Speaker: 00:47:23

my favorite meal of the of the day. But

Speaker: 00:47:26

my favorite dish is shakshuka. It's

Speaker: 00:47:29

like a, it's a tomato dish

Speaker: 00:47:32

uh, with eggs and it's

Speaker: 00:47:35

so savory and good and I eat it with a piece

Speaker: 00:47:38

of I'll havem um,

Speaker: 00:47:40

either nonaan or I'll have it with sourdough

Speaker: 00:47:43

bread. But it just has really

Speaker: 00:47:46

nice spice flavors. It's a really

Speaker: 00:47:48

um, robust

Speaker: 00:47:51

flavor profile and

Speaker: 00:47:53

um, it's really good.

Speaker: 00:47:57

>> Anthony: Sounds like a forty dollar dish to me.

Speaker: 00:47:59

>> Christina Roman: No, it'it's uh, actually not. Actually not. It's made with

Speaker: 00:48:02

tomatoes, onions, a Ton of

Speaker: 00:48:05

spices and eggs. Like you could just put

Speaker: 00:48:08

two eggs in. You make a little pocket for them. I guess the egg

Speaker: 00:48:10

part is the right.

Speaker: 00:48:15

But yeah, but yeah. And I

Speaker: 00:48:18

cheat a little bit. I honestly use stew tomatoes,

Speaker: 00:48:20

um, in my, in my cabinet. But

Speaker: 00:48:23

it's so good at the um, the

Speaker: 00:48:26

flavor profile is wonderful.

Speaker: 00:48:28

>> Anthony: We won't tell anybody.

Speaker: 00:48:29

>> Christina Roman: So.

Speaker: 00:48:32

>> Anthony: Uh, the last question of the show, which is where could people

Speaker: 00:48:35

find out more about you?

Speaker: 00:48:37

>> Christina Roman: Yeah, um, first. Well, I hope you go

Speaker: 00:48:40

toian.com if you have credit questions.

Speaker: 00:48:43

If you want to learn about credit, uh, check out

Speaker: 00:48:46

our Askian blog and then you could find

Speaker: 00:48:49

me on X. Every Wednesday at Ah, 3:00

Speaker: 00:48:51

Pacific, we host a credit chat. It's been going

Speaker: 00:48:54

since 2012. Every week we touch on a

Speaker: 00:48:57

different personal finance topic that matters to um,

Speaker: 00:49:00

um, everyone. We touch on life, um,

Speaker: 00:49:04

financial topics. We talk m this,

Speaker: 00:49:06

uh, I think this next week we're going to talk about

Speaker: 00:49:08

taxes. But yeah, so whatever topic is timely,

Speaker: 00:49:11

we're usually talking about it on X. So you can

Speaker: 00:49:14

find me there. I'm tweeting at or I'm

Speaker: 00:49:17

xing ha. What is it now? Um, Tina,

Speaker: 00:49:20

underscore Ro and you can find

Speaker: 00:49:23

me on LinkedIn at. Ah, Christina Roman.

Speaker: 00:49:26

Um, um, yeah, come in and message

Speaker: 00:49:29

me, chat with me. I'm always happy to answer

Speaker: 00:49:32

any questions, general questions you can you have about

Speaker: 00:49:35

credit. I can't give specific advice but, um, I'm

Speaker: 00:49:38

always happy to answer general questions about credit.

Speaker: 00:49:41

>> Anthony: And they also have a podcast called

Speaker: 00:49:43

Credit Chat check out.

Speaker: 00:49:45

>> Christina Roman: Yes. And Anthony was just our guests on that

Speaker: 00:49:48

wonderful podcast. I had so much fun talking to you on

Speaker: 00:49:51

that episode and I'm glad that because of that I get to be

Speaker: 00:49:54

here talking with you again.

Speaker: 00:49:56

>> Anthony: I appreciate it. We got to dive in a little bit more, which is

Speaker: 00:49:58

great.

Speaker: 00:49:59

>> Christina Roman: Yeah.

Speaker: 00:50:00

>> Anthony: So I appreciate your time. Um,

Speaker: 00:50:03

and for you who are listening right now that you've made it

Speaker: 00:50:06

this far, I just really want to let you know that you have what it

Speaker: 00:50:09

takes to go to the next level. Just be

Speaker: 00:50:12

sure to ask. You

Speaker: 00:50:15

never know what somebody might know and they might be

Speaker: 00:50:18

able to be able to guide you to that next level that where you

Speaker: 00:50:20

want to be, um, with your credit. And I wish

Speaker: 00:50:23

that you achieve the

Speaker: 00:50:27

level that you need to order to get that

Speaker: 00:50:30

interest rate that you want because you have the good credit and by

Speaker: 00:50:33

listening to this episode. So if anything,

Speaker: 00:50:36

you'all be safe. Re out. Peace.