So Money with Farnoosh Torabi

We are focusing on all-things credit today, thanks to our friends at FICO.Earlier, I asked you to submit your top credit-related questions and we've rounded up many of them for this episode. From how to boost your credit score to confusion around how credit scores get calculated and how marriage can impact your credit...we have all the answers!Joining me to help tackle your questions is Joanne Gaskin, the Vice President of Scores and Analytics at FICO. She is responsible for the strategic direction of FICO’s scoring products and business partnerships serving the needs of the mortgage industry and led the FICO Mortgage Recovery Initiative launched in 2009. Joanne has more than 20 years of experience in banking and financial services. She led efforts to address some of the most important topics impacting the mortgage market today: regulatory compliance, credit risk management, data security and e-mortgages. She is a graduate of the Mortgage School of Banking, earning the Accredited Mortgage Professional Designation.More about FICO: Founded in 1956, FICO is a data analytics company based in San Jose, California focused on credit scoring services. Its FICO Score, a measure of consumer credit risk, has become a fixture of consumer lending in the United States and is used in more than 90% of lending decisions today.Now more than ever, FICO believes in empowering communities by way of financial education and is committed to providing consumers with tools to maintain their financial health. Check your score: You can check your FICO Score via www.myfico.com, or www.experian.com, www.equifax.com. Additionally, many financial institutions provide consumers with free access to their FICO Score through the FICO Score Open Access program.Check your free credit report: www.annualcreditreport.com Learn more about Farnoosh's upcoming literary workshop Book to Brand. Early bird registration is now open! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

(A replay)For many women, especially women of color, access to financial education isn’t as readily available. But our guest today is trying to change that once and for all. Today we’re welcoming the founder of Clever Girl Finance, Bola Sokunbi. Bola received an early lesson in money when her father became ill and had to stop working unexpectedly. The problem with this was that he had used up all of his money to send her three brothers to college and didn’t have any money left over for Bola to further her education.Luckily, it was her mother, who began as a home maker, who told her that she would pay for Bola’s schooling from the money that she’d set aside from her side hustles and entrepreneurial pursuits over the years. Because of her mother’s hard work, Bola was able to leave Nigeria, get an education and go on to found her own business, empowering women to be financially savvy.Her company, Clever Girl Finance has helped thousands of women, over the years, receive coaching and financial education they need to advance their lives. Bola is also the author of the fourth coming book, Clever Girl Finance: Ditch Debt, Save Money and Build Real Wealth. It will be available on June 25th.Learn more about Bola at www.CleverGirlFinance.com and follow her on Instagram @clevergirlfinanceLearn more about Farnoosh's upcoming literary workshop Book to Brand. Early bird registration is now open! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can asking just three questions transform your relationship with money? Our guest today is called the father of financial life planning. George Kinder is a Harvard educated economist turned CPA, turned financial adviser. He’s known for revolutionizing financial advice for now 30 years. He’s trained over 3,000 professionals around the world in the field of financial life planning where he has three questions to help clients figure out what they value most and how to design their financial life around their values.He’s the founder of the Kinder Institute of Life Planning and his recent book is called A Golden Civilization and the Map of Mindfulness, drawing on 50 years as of mindfulness practitioner and over 30 years as a mindfulness teacher.George has been named one of the 35 most influential people in financial services.George’s website: www.georgekinder.comHis company website: www.kinderinstitute.comBook and Movement website: www.AGoldenCivilization.comLearn more about Farnoosh's upcoming literary workshop Book to Brand. Early bird registration is now open! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Ask Farnoosh, listeners ask about how to accelerate net worth in the few, critical years before retirement, as well as how to ask for a raise if you work in a government job. Plus: pensions and investing in the stock market. Is it a 'good' time to be investing? CFP and founder of Modernist Financial, Georgia Lee Hussey joins the show as co-host.Learn more about Farnoosh's upcoming literary workshop Book to Brand. Early bird registration is now open! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

(Replay from August 26, 2019) Daniela Pierre-Bravo has a lengthy roster of accomplishments: She is a booking producer for MSNBC’s Morning Joe and recently co-authored a book with Mika Brzezinski, providing straight-talking advice for millennial women in the workforce, entitled Earn It!But none of these opportunities were handed to her. Moving to the U.S. from Chile when she was a teenager, she found out she was an undocumented resident when applying for college...and, as a result, was unable to work, drive, or receive financial assistance for school.How she persevered is a story of grit, determination and optimism.Daniela became a Dream Act student and took the opportunity to side-hustle her way through school to graduate on-time and debt-free. That drive continued as she entered the workforce.Follow Daniela on twitter @dpierrebravo and on the Know Your Value website: https://www.nbcnews.com/knowyourvalueLearn more about Farnoosh's upcoming literary workshop Book to Brand. Early bird registration is now open! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’ve ever felt like budgeting just doesn’t work for you, my guest Kumiko Love can relate. Frustrated by traditional budgeting methods, she created her own technique to pay off almost $80,000 of debt in eight months. And this technique helped launch her business, The Budget Mom.A few years ago Kumiko was struggling to pay down her debt. As a single mom, she knew that she needed to get out of the cycle of making minimum debt payments each month, but she had tried and failed to stick to a budget numerous times. So, she created a method that she could actually stick to. She calls this her Budget by Paycheck method and as she was using it to get out of debt, she started a blog to share her journey. That blog has now turned into a business that just launched its first physical product, the Budget by Paycheck Workbook™.You can learn more about Kumiko on her website https://www.thebudgetmom.com/ and you can follow her on Instagram @thebudgetmom on Facebook @thebudgetmomLearn more about Farnoosh's upcoming literary workshop Book to Brand. Early bird registration is now open! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's Ask Farnoosh, a discussion on the best places to store cash in a recession, collecting unemployment while on the Paycheck Protection Program (how does that work?) and a recap of Farnoosh's latest Bloomberg Opinion piece on why it's OK to spend money right now (with caveats.)Learn more about Farnoosh's upcoming literary workshop Book to Brand. Early bird registration is now open! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to leverage video in today's world to grow your business, brand or career? How to stand out from the crowd and create compelling video on a budget? Kristian is a professional video content producer that teaches entrepreneurs how to incorporate video into their business and everyday life. He believes video is still an underused tool that can help businesses thrive (even in a pandemic). He started his career in TV commercial advertising. Soon after, he started his own business as a wedding videographer. After devoting years to the wedding industry, Kristian realized that his skills and business mindset could better serve the entrepreneurial market. His current projects include online course creation for clients and online consulting for people wanting to learn how to incorporate video into their business.Connect with Kristian https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristiangolick/Instagram: @KristiangolickfilmsLearn more about Farnoosh's upcoming literary workshop Book to Brand. Early bird registration is now open! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The pandemic has disproportionately impacted women in this country in terms of unemployment, stress and family care. Guest Lacy Garcia, founder of financial startup Willow, discusses the challenges and the long-term impact of the toll.Willow’s mission isWomen face a unique set of challenges when it comes to navigating life events and transitions such as divorce, loss of a spouse, career changes, family planning and finances and retirement – particularly in the new reality we find ourselves today. Women have been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, the unemployment rate for women was lower than for men. Now, it is the opposite. Women are bearing more of the burden when it comes to childcare, homeschooling and taking care of aging parents. More women’s longer-term career prospects are at risk as they are having to either leave or remain out of the workforce for longer. It is no surprise that the financial stress combined with quarantine is pushing many marriages to a breaking point and an increase in divorces is expected.Lacy Garcia is the daughter of a Cuban refugee who says her money mindset was shaped early on. She combined her work in education and financial services to launch the virtual fintech company Willow and financially empower women throughout their life journeys including divorce, retirement and more.Learn more about Willow and Lacy Garcia at www.trustwillow.com.Learn more about Farnoosh's upcoming literary workshop Book to Brand. Early bird registration is now open! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to invest in a rental property when you're in a different country? Should you just ignore your federal student loans while the automatic deferment is in place? Is there any benefit to paying them down? And what about cash-out refis? Are they worth it? Farnoosh addresses the latest money questions from the So Money mailbag.Learn more about Farnoosh's upcoming literary workshop Book to Brand. Early bird registration is now open! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.