Young Men| Why Build Good CREDIT Early

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]young man building your credit and why that is important for you to do at this young age you're at now. That's what I'm going to talk to you guys about tonight on the channel. Don't talk about this as much as I should, but I'm going to talk to you guys about it tonight. The problem that I am seeing when I talk to you young men when it comes to credit is one or two things. Either you haven't established any or the credit that you have established is junk, right? Tell you guys something that a friend of mine told me years ago. Jerry Volmer I worked with at the gas company. And he said a thing to me that stays with me to this very day and what uh I think about when it comes to keeping my credit together.

[00:00:38]And what he would say to me is he would say, "You know what, brother? I don't have a dime, but the bank has plenty."

[00:00:44]And what he meant by that is that as long as his credit is good, there's a place that he could go that has all of the money he would ever need. And if his credit is right, he can access that money.

[00:00:56]See, many of us came up If you came up like me, credit was just an extension of a weekly paycheck, right? I never used it as an investment tool. I never used it as something that I can do to access money to invest later on or access money to build some type of portfolio for myself. I never used it to be able to buy and purchase cars the right way or to purchase a home or right the right way. That is what credit is supposed to be used for. See, your paycheck and that, that's good for groceries and and little bills here and there. But man, you're going to get to a point in life rather it is applying for an apartment, rather it is trying to secure a loan for a house, a car, all of these things.

[00:01:40]You're going to get to a point in life where credit is going to be absolutely essential to you. And many of you, again, if you're anything like me, you're not even thinking about that now.

[00:01:50]My first credit card was a Elder-Beerman's card. And I can remember going in trying to get some clothes for the club or something.

[00:02:01]And you know, if you fill out a credit card or if you if you apply for this credit card, you can get XYZ. And I did that and they gave me a card. And because I really didn't understand what I was getting, that was just an extension of my paycheck is what it was.

[00:02:15]I didn't see it the way that I'm going to explain to you now, which is you can take this one card and it can be the foundation for you to be able to buy the bigger ticket in your life that you need. Whether that be your first car, your first house, all of those things. I didn't see it that way. Because I didn't know any better. And it it's not that I didn't know any better. My parents were trying to tell me, I just didn't see the value at that time, right? Again, that card was if something popped up and I didn't get paid right away, here's the answer.

[00:02:49]Young man, listen, another 90 days is going to pass either way. The question is, are you still going to be lost, scattered, stuck, and frustrated with yourself? Or there's another option. You can take the next 90 days to really rebuild yourself. Rebuild how you think, how you move, how you show up as a man.

[00:03:08]I have a 90 days to rebuild yourself video course that goes over all of that.

[00:03:13]So listen, if you're ready to go beyond just watching my videos and you want to take some serious action to start moving the needle in your life, my 90 days to rebuild yourself video course is exactly what you need. No rah-rah, simple, easy, laid-out framework telling you exactly what to do and how you need to be doing it. Listen, this course is for serious young men only. So if you're ready to take a serious step into getting your head out of your ass and getting your life together, this is the course that you need. The link is in the video description below. Definitely check it out. All right? Let's get back into the video. I didn't see it as let me use this right now as minimal as possible, build my credit score up, pay this thing on time, or pay it completely off every month, and let me use it to build so that I can access, like my friend said, so I can access the bank that has plenty of money. That was the furthest thing from me, man. Again, it was just an extension of my paycheck. And I paid dearly for that throughout my 20s because when I did go to try to buy the bigger ticket items, because I didn't do that credit right. Let me give you an idea of what I mean by I didn't do the credit right. The statement would come, right? And because I wasn't managing money right to begin with, instead of paying that statement off every month, I would just pay the minimum amount. Not realizing that they were charging me on the rest of the money that I owed every month. I was being charged for money that I borrowed. That's the game, and I didn't know it, and I didn't care.

[00:04:44]Either I was paying the minimum amount, or I would forget to pay it. It was no big deal, not realizing and understanding that by paying that thing on time every single month, it was building my credit score. It was building my credit score so that when I go in to buy a car, or when I go to make any purchase outside of what I can do on a normal week-to-week, not paying this stuff on time, not paying it at all will have a direct effect on that. And the effect that it'll have, man, is that you'll get denied, or they'll give it to you, and they would give it to you at such a high interest rate that you might as well not even take it. But again, because we didn't know any better, just as long as they gave it to us, we didn't care. And that is a horrible plan, man, as far as building your credit. Yo, man, before we get too far into the video, still doing the 30-minute coaching calls for you guys. I'm only going to be doing that for another couple of weeks, so definitely book a call with me. Whatever it is that you're dealing with, if you need help on a particular situation, or if you just need some guidance, book a call with me. Let me see if I can help you. All right? Now, let's get back to the video. You're coming to a point in life soon. You're going to figure it out when you go to get your first apartment and they run a credit check on you. They do a credit check for just about anything now. You're going to find out really quick how important it is when you go to try to get apartments and get loans for something that you need and you get denied because either you haven't established credit or the credit you have is junk. I had another guy that worked on my cars when I was in my 20s.

[00:06:17]And Dennis Harp was his name.

[00:06:20]Dennis would say that, you know what, man? We'll go without eating before we miss a payment on a credit card or something. And I'm like, that's crazy.

[00:06:29]Like you would you would let your family starve? And I don't think he meant that literally. I think what he was trying to emphasize is the importance on keeping his credit right, even at the expense of somebody not eating. Because we can always go to the bank and access whatever money we need to eat on. These are the things that I just didn't think about when I was 20. I just wanted the thing. When I went to go get a car, I didn't care about an interest rate that was predicated on my credit score. I just wanted that thing. And they'll give it to you. They'll give it to you. And by the time you get done paying all of the interest on it because your credit is shitty, you would have paid three or four times what the thing is even worth.

[00:07:06]But that's the game that you get put in when you don't take care of your credit.

[00:07:10]When you don't establish it or when you don't take care of the credit that you have. Man, credit is extremely extremely important. You're going to get beyond just wanting enough money to kick it on a Saturday night. Again, you're going to need that first apartment.

[00:07:26]You're going to need that first car.

[00:07:28]You're going to have to buy that first home. And the better your credit is when it comes to that stuff, the better off you'll be. And many of you will live lives of quiet financial desperation because you you either ignorant of the fact that you needed credit or you didn't take care of the credit that you already had. And that is exactly what I did. Again, making minimum payments.

[00:07:50]Another friend of mine that I worked with, Otis Roscoe. Otis would talk to me about and I was well into my 30s before I got hip to this idea of how credit cards and that worked.

[00:08:02]Otis would talk about how you pay the minimum amount on the credit card and they love for you to do that because as long as you're paying the minimum they can charge you on the remainder of the balance that you owe every month. So, month in and month out you're paying extra money on the money that you spent on that credit card.

[00:08:21]And a lot of people don't even know that. As long as they're making the minimum payment, that's cool. And I guess that's better than nothing because you are making timely payments, but you're getting further and further behind just by paying the minimum payment. And what Otis taught me is whatever you spend on a credit card in a month, you pay that whole thing when the bill is due.

[00:08:41]And that does two things. Number one, they're not charging you any additional money on a balance, which helps your credit. Number two, by doing that every month, they give you credit increases trying to get you caught up in that trap of borrowing so much or using so much that you have to pay the minimum payment. Because once they get you there, that's how they make all of their money. You are a liability every month when you pay that whole bill because they can't charge you. Now they try to give you increases so they can put you in that position. I was dealing with credit and credit cards for years before I understood that. Just paying the minimum every month, not realizing that that was keeping me trapped in that cycle. There is a reason, men, that you hear all of these people are caught up in credit card debt. It is for that very reason right there. If your credit ain't right, you go and try and buy a car. I have paid astronomical amounts on interest. And let me explain that to you guys, cuz I was older, too, before I learned that whole game.

[00:09:44]Interest and principal. I think I told you guys this story before. I had bought a whole house, got a mortgage from the bank for a whole house, and did not understand principal and interest. I remember learning about it in school, but I really didn't pay any attention to it. But let me give you guys a quick rundown on that. When you borrow money from a lending institution, you borrow, let's say, $500. That's your principal.

[00:10:07]But whoever you're lending it from is going to charge interest on top of that principal. It's a fee for borrowing the money. That's called the interest. And whenever you borrow, when you start paying back, you're paying that interest first. I found that out the hard way.

[00:10:23]When I was telling somebody about the home that I just purchased, and they had asked me, "Well, what's the principal on that? Or what's the What What interest rate did you get?" And I was clueless.

[00:10:32]And I came home from work, and I called my mortgage company, and I asked them, "How much of my monthly payment is actually going towards the principal, and how much of it is going towards interest?"

[00:10:44]And then my jaw nearly hit the ground when I found out that out of my $700 payment, $15 was going to the principal, and the rest of that money was going to interest. That's how that system works.

[00:10:59]So, the lower your interest rate on anything that you finance, the better it is. But when you have bad credit, it's always going to be a higher interest rate. They want their money back first because you're a risk. So, again, when you go to buy that car, and you just want it, and all you can think about is, "Oh, $500 a month, I can afford that."

[00:11:20]But you don't realize that the interest rate is 20-something percent. So, out of that $500 that you pay every month, $10 or $15 is going towards the principal.

[00:11:30]And that's why you end up paying two three times over what the thing is even worth. But we don't even realize and recognize that, or at least I didn't, because you just want the thing. And everything that can be financed is the exact same way. Credit cards, homes, cars, whatever. It follows the same rule. So this is why, young men, this is why you need to be thinking about this now. You need to be building your credit or establishing credit, right? How do you do that? How do you do that now? If you don't have credit at all, you need to establish it, because not having credit and bad credit, as far as lenders are concerned, are the exact same thing.

[00:12:12]So if you don't have credit, it's the same thing as having bad credit. So you need to establish some. First off, the best way to do that, young men, is with what's called secured credit cards. It is a credit card where you take money, you get this credit card, you take your own money, and you put it on that card. And that's like your credit limit. And then you pay on that card every month as if it was a card where they're giving you the money.

[00:12:39]That's the easiest way that you can start establishing credit. If you already have credit, you have to start paying the stuff on time. You have to start paying it on time. You have to start paying it on time, and if at all possible, whatever you're using that card for the month, the very next month, you pay the whole thing off. It's not that hard. It's not that hard, man.

[00:13:03]Those are the two things that you can do, that you can start establishing and building credit for yourself. You want to adapt a mentality that when it comes to anything that you have to pay on monthly, that comes first. If that means you can't go out, if that means you can't go on that date, you can't buy that bottle, you can't buy them clothes, they're going to have to wait. This credit card bill, this car note, these things must come first. They have to be prioritized and you have to take them seriously, men.

[00:13:33]Because you're not going to be able to buy a car cash. You're not going to be able to buy a house cash. You are going to need credit out here. And if you dick around and don't do it right, men, you're going to pay a horrible price for that, right? I had to do that when I went to repair my credit. That's a whole 'nother video as far as, you know, repairing bruised credit, getting your credit report, paying stuff off on there, putting disputes in. I'll do a video on that later. Bruised credit can be repaired, but it takes time. And it's just easier It is just easier to start paying your bills on time. That is the biggest factor when it comes to having credit.

[00:14:14]There's your payment history, there's the amount of time you've had the account.

[00:14:19]There's another thing I can't think of, but paying on time is like the biggest thing that you have when it comes to dealing with credit. The earlier you start getting this thing together, the better you can start buying stuff. The better you can start buying stuff, the more money you're going to have. If you take nothing from this video, men, credit is not something Credit is not an extension of your paycheck. Credit is a tool that you use to access more money to build better credit with. This is the whole game behind credit that I didn't realize when I was 20.

[00:14:53]A credit card was just money that I didn't have that I can use whenever. I just didn't understand the backside of that, which is that those people wanted their money back. And if you didn't pay it back on time, there's a good chance you weren't going to get more of it. So, two things, men, that you need to start doing immediately, right now. If you are over 18, you need to get you a secured credit card, maybe a couple of them. You put $100 if you're working. You put $100 on that card and you use it for gas only. Now, you have the money for gas every month. But instead of paying cash for that gas, you use that secured card.

[00:15:28]You You take that money that you have for the month that you would have put on the gas, and you pay that credit card.

[00:15:34]You do that every month for about 6 months. Your credit score is going to move. And eventually, you'll be able to get a unsecured credit card, and you do the exact same thing. And you do that for a while. Now, when you go in to buy a car, you can get what you want instead of settling for what they give you with this enormous interest rate because you are a credit risk, because you don't either have credit or the credit that you have is junk.

[00:15:59]So, because you can buy that car better, and you're going to pay that the same way you did the credit cards, now when it comes time to go and buy your first home, you can buy it right at a low interest rate. And by the way, a lower interest rate means lower payments. Let me add that in, too. So, now you have the credit cards that you're paying right. You have the car that you're paying right. You have the home that you're paying right. Now, you can go to the bank and borrow money for an investment property. You're off work, and you need to borrow some money to get you through. You can go to the bank and do that. Cuz again, you have good credit. This is how important it is, man. So, you don't have to struggle the better part of your young adult life finding this out. Please just take my word for it. I didn't take my mother's word for it. My mother told me, I can remember as plain as day, "You better pay these people. You better pay these people." She would see the statements coming in the mail. "You better pay these people. You better pay them.

[00:16:54]You're going to be sorry if you don't."

[00:16:56]And she couldn't have been more right. I absolutely was.

[00:17:00]Establish you some credit. Once you get it, pay it right. Credit is not an extension of your paycheck. It is a tool for you to use to access money that you can use to invest in yourself in.

[00:17:14]That's the whole game.

[00:17:16]Young man, that is the whole game. So, listen, hope that helps, guys. That is all I have for tonight. I am the over 50 guy / the online dad. We'll be back with another one soon.