The Equifax Foundation is dedicated to helping people Build Financial Capability Because, a single financial opportunity Can change the trajectory of families and communities for generations.

Learn more at Equifax.com/foundation ♪ I've got a brand new feeling - I'm Jacqueline Schadeck and I'm soon to be your favorite certified financial planner.

♪ I'm feeling good - My name's Chris Corinthian, I'm a financial literacy expert and financial coach.

♪ Ready for action - We are a professional powerhouse.

♪ I've got a brand new feeling - So I handle the numbers.

- And I try to see what is their relationship with money?

- So we meld the two together to give you the most financial empowerment.

♪ And I'm feeling good (upbeat music) - So this is the lovely city of Marietta, Georgia.

- All right, you ready to talk about our next one?

- Let's talk about the next one.

- Our next mentee is Demetrio and he's 26 years old.

- My name is Demetrio Santa Maria, veteran was in the Air Force for four years.

(upbeat music) - [Chris] Okay, served in the military, that's great.

- Well thank you for your service, sir.

He retired in 2022 and went to school and got a degree in film studies and since then work has been kind of inconsistent and because work is inconsistent, he's accumulated over $8,000 worth of debt.

- My credit card debt, it is extremely high or a lot higher than usual and I could use some assistance on that.

- Okay, here it is.

- All right.

(upbeat music) (door clanging) - Oh, hey.

- Nice to meet you.

- Hey.

- Hi Chris.

- Nice to meet you, come on in.

- Hey, I'm Jacqueline.

- Jacqueline, nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

Thanks for having us over.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Hi, I'm Jacqueline.

- Hi, I'm Dylan.

Nice to meet you.

- Okay, Chris, nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

- Guessing you're the roommate?

- Yes.

- Okay, okay, gotcha.

- So you guys just moved?

- Yes, we just moved.

It was a, again, rough 72 hours.

But again, we're here.

We made it.

- Before we get into the conversation.

- Oh, what's up?

- Let's hear your perspective.

Like how is, how's Demetrio as a roommate, as a friend you know?

- Answer wisely.

(group laughing) - Demetrio, you know, he's a good friend, roommate, you know.

- We're working on it.

- Working on it., - Okay.

- I've known Demetrio for about two years.

We went to college together.

Demetrio is a very hardworking, driven person.

- Most important thing here is Dylan.

Does Demetrio pay his rent on time?

- Listen, that's the one thing he's always on it.

He always makes sure, you know what?

- Okay, all right.

(hand clapping) - Thanks for the intel, Dylan.

- I got a kitchen over here where we can sit and talk.

- Okay, perfect, well that works.

Awesome.

(upbeat music) - Well, you just moved into a new place and we know you have the credit card debt.

What was the biggest reason why you reached out to us?

- I guess just try to get more knowledgeable when it comes to finances and how to deal with said debt.

I've never really had that 'cause after high school I went to the military.

I knew what debt was, but I just never like actually was in it until I got a credit card.

That was my downfall.

(group laughing) - Okay, how did that get away from you, so to speak?

Or how did it accumulate?

- I just noticed, I was like, eh, it's a little, it's a little high this time.

I'll pay it off a little bit later.

And then it was just like building up that bad habit until here.

I was like, all right, well I actually can't pay it, but we can just let that ride for a little bit and a little bit more.

And then $9,000 later.

- Whoa.

At first we said it was $8,000 in debt.

Now we're looking at more than $9,000 in debt?

Sounds like he's doing some spending here.

So is the credit card maxed out currently?

- No, no, no, we haven't hit that point.

- Okay, so your credit card's not maxed out.

That's good.

- Yeah, because if you're maxed out on your credit cards or maxed out on your credit altogether, that means you're at 100% credit utilization.

And in order to improve your credit score, you need to bring that credit utilization down.

- [Jacqueline] Being closer to 20% on your credit utilization is better.

- What was some of the big purchases that you had on the credit card?

Do you remember or was it like everyday purchases or like what did you spend?

- It was all dumb stuff, I'm not gonna lie.

It's all dumb.

I bought a Katana at some point.

Didn't need it.

- What's a Katana?

- A katana is a, sword and he probably use that sword because we want to cut down that credit card debt.

- It doesn't sound like it.

- Well, maybe not.

- A lot of it is also just food and stuff.

Just, I just kept going out food sometimes.

Or sometimes I'd use it to pay my rent.

'cause you know, I'm in and out of work.

- Tell us about the work thing.

Like are you working right now or?

- Gig to gig or something like that?

I do one pretty solid gig and it's a decent amount of money and it's been really nice.

There are some months where it's just, you get one project and it's 250 bucks.

- And so now you have benefits from the military?

Correct.

- Yeah.

- So are you really familiar with all the resources?

- I should say yes 'cause I definitely did a bunch of classes on it before I dipped.

Was I paying attention?

Probably not 'cause I was just ready to leave.

- So the benefits don't cover everything.

The gig work kicks in to kind of cover some of that makeup from the military, but then the credit card really kicks in where we have some gaps, right?

- Yeah.

- Okay, yeah, it does.

- Okay, but we have some work here for us.

- If you don't mind sharing with us, what is, or what are some of the reasons why getting out of this debt is so important to you?

- For the next stages in life, I want to be, that set good example, to be a better example for my siblings, for my future kids, I want them to see me, I guess financially free, but also financially educated as well.

So if they have any questions, I could educate them as well in some kind of manner.

- This is great.

I love to hear stuff like that.

Now we have a why behind the why, right?

The reason why is what pushes you to stay consistent, to do those things that'll lead to long-term success.

- Show us around a little more.

- Oh yeah, there's a bunch of empty rooms you guys can check out.

(group laughing) - Okay, let's check it out.

(upbeat music) Now it's time to come up with a plan for Demetrio, a solid one that he could take action on.

There are so many resources out there for veterans that a lot of 'em just don't know about.

So finding resources to help him gain more consistent income is one of the things that I really want to focus on him with.

- So while you're helping him tap into those resources, I want to talk to him a little bit about his spending habits, how exactly he needs to be setting up his income so that he can pay his bills, pay down his credit card debt, and save for the future.

- Yes, that credit card debt is really the top priority for him.

- So I want to make sure that he understands the implications of swiping that credit card.

(upbeat music) Today I've invited Demetrio into my office so that we can discuss his finances.

- Kind of nervous.

Never really met with a financial advisor.

- I want us to go over his budget so we can take a close look at where he's spending his money.

It's also important that he understands exactly how his credit card interest works.

And finally, I want us to have a conversation about his income and where is he going to get more money from so that he can pay his bills.

I'm excited that you could come today so that we can talk about your numbers.

- Yes.

- How are you feeling about meeting with a financial advisor?

- Kind of nervous 'cause it's about to be exposed.

All the stuff that I'd be buying, all the stuff that I waste my money on.

- Today is not to expose you.

- I hope not.

- But rather to help you build your financial confidence.

And also financial discipline, sound like a good agenda for you?

- Yeah.

- Okay, perfect.

Well, let's start with your income.

- Okay.

- Tell me a little bit more about the government benefit that you have.

So what's that number roughly?

- Ooh, I want to say 1300.

- 1300?

Okay.

So you have the government assistance coming in, you have gig work from time to time.

I don't like the word budget, but they are super helpful in helping us create financial discipline because what they're going to show us is the income that we have coming in and then money that we have going out.

Okay, so today I have a little exercise for you.

(upbeat music) So we're gonna have you fill in the income here.

All right, so your first one would be the government assistance that you receive.

Okay, so number two, you have some gig income that comes in as well.

Go ahead and put in ballpark what you think that is on a monthly basis, a monthly.

- 500, sometimes, sometimes a little way higher, but a lot times a little lower.

- So I'm gonna have you start by writing your expenses for me.

Okay, so our biggest expense is typically rent or a mortgage.

So let's start there.

What is your rent every month?

- My rent is 550.

- So utilities are included in your rent, so what other expenses do we have?

- Eat a decent amount of fast food.

- So 300 eating out plus groceries.

- 700 on food, supplements, gym membership, gaming stuff, car insurance.

It takes like 45 bucks to like fill up my tank roughly around that.

- And I really want Demetrio to be able to take his military discipline and translate it over to his finances.

And one of the best ways to do that is by starting with a budget.

- It is 2069.99.

- Okay, okay.

- Okay, I'm seeing, this is how I ended up in debt.

- All right, so we're seeing 1800 on the income side.

- Yep.

- And 2069 on the expenses side.

- Okay.

- That's not good.

No bueno.

- So we have about $200, yeah, bare minimum.

$200 that we need to make up for.

Okay, so you are able to make up with that with either gig work or another full-time job.

Okay, so the other thing that I want us to talk about is your credit card.

All right, so I want us to do a little bit of math around how the credit card works.

Okay, tell me a little bit about the interest on your credit card.

- It is 22, 15 point 15.

- Okay, 22% annually.

So let's use easy numbers for simple math.

All right, so we're gonna calculate the daily interest on your card and how much it's costing you.

You have your calculator.

Let's calculate how the interest is playing out for you on your credit card.

- Okay.

- So you have 22% interest, in your credit card.

Now we're gonna take that 22, .22 and divide it by 365.

- By 365.

- Our goal is to find the daily interest that you're paying because that's how they calculate your interest.

- Okay.

- So 0.22 divided by 365.

So now we're gonna take that long number, we're gonna multiply it by your outstanding debt.

So you owe them $10,000?

So we'll multiply that by 10,000.

What does that give us?

- 6.027.

- $6 and 27 cents.

- Okay.

What does that number mean to you?

- That's what they're charging me, right, yeah.

- When?

- Daily.

- Every single day.

So you're borrowing that money from them on that credit card and in exchange they are charging you a little over $6 every single day for you to be able to do that.

- I didn't even know I was getting charged $6 every day, right when I wake up, $6 gone next day gone, another day, gone.

That's 18 bucks.

- And that's just the fee that you're paying on the amount that you have now.

Imagine if you had 20 or $30,000.

- Oof.

- So let's move forward.

Let's make a plan to pay down the debt.

You have two levers when it comes to getting on the right page financially, okay?

You can either increase your income or you can decrease your expenses.

Which one do you want to go for?

- I would like to increase my income, but for right now, I'd probably just lower my expenses, which probably is the logical and responsible thing to do.

- So let's do this.

Let's set a monthly income goal for you.

And we didn't add in the credit card payment.

I'm guessing that's another couple hundred a month?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

So it sounds like your income goal needs to be somewhere close to 3000.

- Okay.

- So your monthly income goal is $3,000.

Okay.

Do you feel like this is something that you can hit?

- I could, I mean, hustling probably, but.

- Now we can make a plan and shift you towards paying down the credit card debt.

Okay, now, are you making a commitment to being more financially disciplined today?

- I have to, yes.

- Well, I do have one technique that may be able to work for you to help you pay down the debt a little bit faster.

Have you ever heard of a balance transfer?

- No.

- A balance transfer is a debt pay down strategy where you can take the debt from one credit card and transfer it onto a new credit card.

You want to do this in hopes of lowering the interest that you're paying.

So this is going to be one of your best tools if you are financially disciplined and you have good credit.

So if you are financially disciplined and you plan to pay down the debt that you have now transferred over, you're gonna be able to do that a lot faster because every day you won't be building up that 6%.

It'll be just sitting at zero.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- So there is a small fee to do the transfer from the first card to the second card, typically three to 6%.

And when you do that, the goal is for you to no longer be using either of the credit cards, but it may be a little bit challenging until your income increases.

- The balance transfer method, that was super cool.

Very helpful, very doable.

But I gotta lock in a little bit.

- I'm hopeful that in Demetrio's meeting with Chris, he's gonna get the insight that he needs to be able to push that income lever forward and pay down his debts.

(upbeat music) - Today I'm taking Demetrio on a field trip so we can find resources available to him as a veteran to improve his financial situation.

- Someone here in downtown and kind of excited.

I don't really know what to expect, but yeah, I think I can trust Chris.

- I reached out to my friend Raven, who's a veteran rep and she's gonna help Demetrio find resources and possible strategies that can help him transition from military to civilian life.

- My name is Raven Holstick, I'm the transition employment coordinator here at Georgia Department of Veterans Services.

- Raven, thanks again for meeting with us.

You know, this is Demetrio and I'll let him tell his story.

But one of the reasons why we're here Demetrio is because you've mentioned to me about some of things you do as far as in film and the gigs, and sometimes there are gaps in between.

And right now we just want you to know about all your options, especially those in-between times.

And you know, your monthly goal, right?

You already went over that, you know what your number is, but we need to find out ways that you can get consistent income, right?

And that's why we're here with Raven.

And she's gonna let you know about all the different options and resources that are available to you as a veteran.

- Let me ask you, have you ever heard of Georgia Department of Veteran Services before?

- No, I'm gonna say no.

- Okay.

We are Georgia Department of Veteran Services.

We are completely different from the VA, but we work alongside of them.

You've probably heard VSO, everybody say, Hey, go see your VSO.

Those are your state representatives, right?

- So what is VSO?

What does that stand for?

- Veteran Service Officer.

So we're their state level.

So we advocate for you, we advise you, right?

So you come and you say, Hey Raven, I need to do this.

Whether that's, Hey Raven, I need to learn more about my post-9/11 benefits.

I need to learn about housing, I need to learn about my VA loan.

I want to know about veteran readiness and employment within the VA. Hey, I can assist you with that.

Let me ask you, when you talk about benefits, what are you more looking for?

Are you looking for more of housing, education, employment?

What would be your focus?

- Probably employment.

- Employment, okay.

- So what do you like to do?

- I like to, you know, work within the film industry.

- Okay.

- I like camera work and acting like sometimes you get a gig and then like for a month you may not have nothing.

- So have you ever heard of the Georgia Vector Center?

Let's say you were interested in learning a trade.

They have actually the trade schools there.

- You were talking about how there are gaps in between gigs sometimes.

And probably having a trade that may set you up to be able to have a constant cash flow, you know, while you're growing.

Because you gotta pay bills, right?

You have expenses.

- I know, yeah, I know.

- Is there something called VRNE?

Is that what you said?

Or did you mention what?

So what is that?

What is?

- So that's the Veteran Readiness and Employment Program.

So that's through the VA.

Right, so with that, they are looking to place you in employment.

They'll look at what can you do right?

They'll look at what you like to do.

That could be another outlet, when you're talking about employment, if you're looking at like your financial, if your financial goal and you know what that goal is, when the gigs aren't coming, what's something that you would say like, I could get up every day and I could still enjoy to go do this job.

Because I think that's the big thing coming out the military, right?

We all have been jobs and places that we didn't want to be.

So you want to think about, what can I enjoy?

What about like what I'm doing right?

Helping veterans.

- That'd be cool.

- Whether that's helping a veteran that may be going through a hard time, may need assistance with housing.

You know, finding those resources going out into the community speaking.

And the reason why I asked is because in our organization we do have openings.

So if it was something that you were interested in, I think we can definitely at least get your application in.

Get you in, get you in for an interview if it was something you were interested in.

- Yeah.

- I need a job.

(group laughing) - So we really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for everything that you shared with us today.

This is so priceless.

Thank you so much.

(upbeat music) Today we invited Demetrio out to Camp Southern Ground.

He has no idea what he's about to get into.

- We are gonna put his athletic capabilities to the test today, but also his financial capabilities.

(upbeat music) - All right, hey.

- Hi.

- How are you?

- Good, good.

How's this gonna help me with finances?

- Well, you're just gonna have to come over here and we'll tell you.

(group laughing) - We wanted to hit you with something that you probably wouldn't expect today.

So what you're gonna do is you're going to proceed through this ropes course.

Why are you doing that?

Because just like you're gonna proceed through this challenge, you of course have to proceed through your financial challenges to reach your financial goals.

- Okay, cool.

- So you're gonna go through each of these elements here, and then you're actually going to zip line down.

And while you're doing this, we're gonna be asking you some questions and quizzing you today on things that you've learned.

- If you've been paying attention to what we've been talking about, the time we've been together.

Those are the things we're gonna quiz you on.

- Okay.

- All right, so no pressure.

- No, there's a lot of pressure.

- Maybe a little bit, right?

- Well just to add a little bit more pressure to it.

You're gonna be timed?

- Timed?

- Yes., that part, okay.

- Wait, wait, is there like a prize at the end?

- Absolutely.

- Depending on the time.

And it might be a metaphorical prize, but there will be a prize.

- There is a prize.

- All right, let's go.

- Let's get you strapped in.

(upbeat music) We want this course to be a metaphor for Demetrio's finances.

We want him to take a look at the course, see the challenges, and understand he's gonna have those similar challenges with his finances as long as he pursues towards his goals, he can be successful.

You ready to go?

- Yes, I'm excited.

I'm actually really excited.

- Okay, good, so the average person gets across this in about 12 minutes.

So we think that you can do it in six.

- So we're gonna be drilling on those questions along with being timed, okay.

- Okay, yeah.

- So we want to have you timed here so that you can learn all of these things are important to do in a timely fashion.

- Okay.

- Got it?

- Yeah.

- All right, we think you can do this.

- Thank you.

- All right, let's do it.

- Let's go Demetrio.

(upbeat music) - I am very high up right now.

This is very nerveracking.

I don't know if I'm gonna do this in six minutes.

Everything's moving, if it's not stable ground, I don't like that.

But we're gonna see what's gonna happen.

- Demetrio, are you ready for your first question?

- Let's hear it.

- What does VA stand for?

- Veteran Affairs.

- Woo.

- All right.

(upbeat music) - Proceed through the course of life.

(upbeat music) - Ooh, ooh.

And ooh.

- Woo, yeah.

- Woo.

Okay, that was good.

How many more years left do you have on your GI bill?

- About a year.

- About a year, good job.

- Bingo.

- You're doing great.

- All right.

(upbeat music) - Okay, okay.

- Let's go, Demetrio, you got this?

- Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

- Whoa, whoa.

Nice and easy now.

- And woo.

- All right.

- Woo.

You did it Demetrio, good job.

- Thank you.

- Awesome.

- I don't know why we had any hesitancy about him getting straight through.

He was in the military.

- Yeah, he is really, really good at this thing.

- You have two levers that you can pull to get in a better financial situation.

What are those two levers?

- Increase my income or lower my spending patterns.

- Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

- Yeah.

He's getting through this course, but will he make it on time?

- What is your new monthly income goal?

- Oh, $3,000.

- Boom.

- $3,000.

- Nailed it.

All right, you got this.

- No pressure.

(upbeat music) Yeah, oh, ooh.

Ooh.

Balance, balance, balance.

(upbeat music) - [Chris] Balance.

- There we go.

- Whoa, all right.

- Way to balance yourself across those beams.

Your next question, tell us what a balance transfer is?

- When you take your credit card debt that you currently have, you put it into another account or another credit card that has 0% APR and you pay off that one, but you don't use any of the credit cards.

- Bingo.

(group cheering) - I got it.

I got it, okay.

- You're getting confident here.

Which is good.

- Good and confidence is good.

60 seconds.

He has 60 seconds left to get through this course.

(dramatic music) - There you go.

(soft music) Nice and easy, concentrate.

Yes, be one with the wire.

- One with the wire.

(upbeat music) Yay.

- You got it man.

You did it.

We're gonna ask you one more question.

Why is having a secure financial future important to you?

- So I can provide for my family and be a good role model to my siblings and future children.

- Respect, respect, respect, yeah.

- That's probably one of my favorite answers right there.

- Demetrio, you just fought your way through all of those challenges.

Not only physically, but financially.

Now you're ready to take the big leap and you're gonna coast your way to your financial goals.

Okay, but you have to take that big leap.

You have to lean into that financial confidence.

Are you ready?

- As I can be, yes.

- I didn't hear you.

Are you ready?

- Yes, coach.

I'm ready.

- All right.

- Let's do it.

(upbeat music) - Let's go Demetrio.

(group cheering) - I can't believe I did, I really did it.

I answered all the questions successfully.

Not too many slip ups.

- That was great.

- That was awesome.

That was really good.

- Wow.

(upbeat music) So Demetrio, how do you feel?

- I feel pretty good.

That was, that was exciting.

That was really fun.

- Well, you passed with flying colors.

- What did you think about everything that you've experienced up to this point?

- All of it has been educational.

I learned a lot, learned a lot from our meeting that was actually very, very insightful.

APR divided by 365 times, whatever the amount is equals what you're getting charged.

- Wow.

- Daily, yeah.

And then that meeting we had with Raven, Raven was so cool.

And possibly like interview, which was crazy.

So you guys may have gotten me a job, which is kind of cool.

- One of the things, this course wasn't easy on purpose, right?

Because it's really supposed to be unexpected things and that's what life brings.

No matter what you're faced with, you can always fall back on the basics.

You always know those basic building blocks to your personal finances that you always find that you'll always lean on.

Those main ones, we talk about increasing your income, decreasing your expenses, like that's a huge one for you.

And that's what we wanted to bring home.

- Transitions are tough and life can be challenging, but it's meant to be a challenge so that at the end of the day you can be proud of yourself.

I hope Demetrio is really proud of himself for getting through this and working on his finances.

- This experience has been great and looking forward, I know what I have to do now.

Set up that balance transfer but also staying disciplined with the financials and also getting a job that's very important in this next process.

- Now he has access to resources as a veteran.

He has a new job opportunity.

- The opportunities are truly endless for him and we couldn't be more excited for his financial future.

- Man, we're looking forward to this journey you're about to be on, man.

- Thank you.

Thank you guys.

- Super excited for you.

- Thank you.

(group laughing) All right.

- How do I get out of here?

(group laughing) - Let's figure it out.

(group laughing) (upbeat music) Find more My Money Mentors financial advice, tools and resources at MyMoneyMentorsShow.com The Equifax Foundation is dedicated to helping people Build Financial Capability Because, a single financial opportunity Can change the trajectory of families and communities for generations.

Learn more at Equifax.com/foundation - [Announcer] W-A-B-E.