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Monica Taher when crisis sets the path to financial freedom

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Monica Taher

Monica Taher

A scary moment in our lives: who has not had it? But when everything crumbles around you, then it seems hard to see where to start and how to keep it going. An emotional crisis is usually the first step into a series of disasters that can include deep financial problems.

Monica Taher, a Latina in business who defines herself as a serial entrepreneur, faced the turmoil of splitting with her lifetime partner in 2011. Today, she shares some tips on how she came back from the ashes and acquired financial freedom doing what she loves.

“As much as I was devastated when she deserted me with a mortgage to pay and a daughter to take care of, today I can look back and find a real blessing in that moment,” Monica said.

Despite the emotional pain caused by their separation, she quickly realized that a huge part of the impact was financial. “I had enjoyed the flexibility of a dual income household and suddenly, I needed to reevaluate my personal finances, assets and most importantly, the business I wanted to launch. My partner of 13 years was never supportive of my vision, and that moment of cruel realization was a turning point in my life,” she said.

Like Monica, many Latinas do not think in terms of protecting their personal finances. It is a cultural “treat,” a behavior that is passed on from generation to generation by most women in our families. We trust that our partner, husband or significant other will take care of us, and eventually, we expect our children to do the same.

However, life is not as stable as it used to be and children have their own plans and problems to worry about. “We can’t make excuses not to prepare ourselves for the eventual situation of facing a crisis,” Monica said.

The first thing she did was to dive into research about personal finances and entrepreneurship strategies. “At first, I really didn’t understand much. However, the more I read, the more it made sense,” she shared. Finally, the opportunity to launch the startup of her dreams became an obsession.

She was taught by her parents that education was the path to financial freedom. But how would she manage to continue her studies while supporting her family, saving money for her daughter’s college education and her own retirement, and graduating without getting into further debt?

“Instead of taking out student loans, I founded fellowships at the university in exchange for registration fees, and consequently graduated with zero debt. I finished my Masters degree at UCLA while working full-time,” Monica said.

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Monica Taher at her house in Los Angeles, CA

Appointed in 2009 as Director of Business Development at a leading digital multimedia producer, Getty Images Latin America (GILA), Monica invested in that company some money she had put away and became a partner. In her current role, Mónica supervises the penetration of GILA’s digital assets in the US Hispanic and Latin American markets.

“I turned into an avid reader of financial literature, raising my credit scores from the low 600s to the 800s and realized I had increased my chances of maximizing wealth for my daughter and me,” Monica said. “It took about two and a half years to get out of the woods but now I own two properties and I’m financially stable.”

She is now in the process of launching a second startup, ClipYap, an app that would allow users to chat using movie and TV shows’ lines and actions in the form of motioned GIFs seamlessly put together.

These are some tips Monica shared with LIBizus about facing a life crisis and how to make the best out of it:

  1. If you own assets with a husband, partner or significant other, your name should be on every deed or investment;
  2. Do not make excuses; you cannot be so busy that you cannot take care of your own financial protection;
  3. If you have a vision, a dream, if you are an entrepreneurial being like I am, educate yourself and focus on it;
  4. Although it is easier said than done, you cannot be with a partner who is not supportive of your ideas or do not help you fulfill your dreams.

“I know I’m in a much better place today that I would have ever been if I had stayed in that relationship. As Latinas and as immigrants, we have to fight harder to get into places and prove that we have a brain. We need to make conscious decisions, and have the courage to work through the pain with tenacity, resilience and creativity,” she concluded.

Man identity theft

3 Easy steps to monitor your credit from identity theft

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Man without identity programing in technology enviroment with cy A few weeks ago, my bank called me within 20 minutes of a transaction they deemed suspicious –most banks monitor the patterns of your account’s movement. As they suspected, my checking account had been hit with a purchase in California for 160 dollars. The occurrence was not major and the bank worked with me to figure the item out. No big deal.

However, I felt very vulnerable and started thinking of all the places I used that debit/credit card for my business account. Although I usually do not store credit information on any online transaction, I remembered I had that card with my PayPal account so I could receive and make payments. I immediately cancelled the card and replaced it with a regular credit card.

So this time the incident was easy to resolve but what if I get hit big time? And even worst, what if someone would use my credit card or any other element of my credit for big purchases, to conduct any business transaction or to just live the good life on my behalf?

Even if you keep your credit in good standing, your worst nightmare, however, is when your credit is hit by identity thieves. According to the Kroll Fraud Specialists and Licensed Investigators, monitoring your credit is fairly easy if you follow some simple steps:

1. Obtain your credit report at least once a year for free

Every consumer who has established credit in the last several years likely has a credit file with at least one of the three national credit reporting agencies (CRAs)—Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The Annual Credit Report Request Service provides consumers with a way to request a free credit report once every 12 months from each of the CRAs. You can order these by calling 877-322-8228, request by mail or online at www.annualcreditreport.com.

A consumer may order all three free reports at one time or choose to order one report from each bureau periodically (e.g., order the Equifax report in January, Experian’s in May and TransUnion’s in September). Ordering the three reports over the course of a year allows you to see snapshots of your current credit history at regular intervals.

 2. Check your credit report carefully and compare it to the previous year

Review each section of the credit report(s) looking for information that is not accurate. Understand that credit reporting errors do happen and inaccurate information on a credit report does not confirm identity theft but even simple errors need to be addressed.

Sections of your credit report include:

Account Information. The credit report reveals not just your current accounts, but the history of your use of credit over the last seven years or more. Are there accounts listed that you did not authorize?

Derogatory Accounts. These are usually collection accounts or accounts to which payments were 30 or more days late. If someone used your personal information but with a different address when opening an account with a creditor and then didn’t pay the debt, you may not find out about it until a collection action is taken.

Public Records, Judgments, and Liens. If you find data here that is not your own, verify that the information reported is really associated with your personal identifiers. This will involve a call to the court or records office in question.

Inquiries. Review only the inquiries that reflect consumer action; that is, the inquiries from companies that pulled your credit report because of an action taken, such as applying for a credit card, car loan, or utility service. If you find inquiries that do not reflect your own activity, it might be a sign that someone applied for credit or another service using your personal identifying information.

Note that inquiries related to offers of credit not initiated by the consumer are not indications of identity theft.

Demographics. This can include name, alias names, associated addresses, date of birth, Social Security number and phone number. If there are names you’ve never used, addresses at which you’ve never lived, or employers for whom you’ve never worked, it warrants further discovery.

3. Dispute the errors or verify fraudWoman calling while calculating bills in kitchen

When you find inaccurate information on your credit reports, the easiest first step is to dispute the inaccurate information by writing a letter to the CRA that is reporting the information. If it is an error, the data will be removed or corrected. If the CRA doesn’t correct an error it may be because the creditor has an error in the information they supplied to the CRA. You may have to call the creditor and have them correct the error.

However, if there is a credit account on your credit report that you did not authorize, then your first step should be to call the creditor involved. Ask to speak to the fraud department and have them search by your Social Security number to determine if there is an account associated with it that you did not authorize.

Although review of a credit report usually will reveal only credit-related identity theft, it may help you discover other types of identity theft as well. For example, an inquiry from a property management company may be a sign that someone applied for an apartment using your identity. An unfamiliar tax lien may indicate that someone did something with your information (i.e., started a business) that created a tax debt that was not paid.

When you find inaccurate information on your credit reports, the easiest first step is to dispute the inaccurate information with the CRA that is reporting the information. If it is an error, the data will be removed or corrected. If the CRA doesn’t correct an error it may be because the creditor has an error in the information they supplied to the CRA. You may have to call the creditor and have them correct the error.

Everyone with a credit history should review his or her reports at least annually. Remember, just because you aren’t using your identity to obtain credit, that doesn’t mean someone else isn’t.

credit cards credit history

Growing your business might mean growing your debt

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Falling credit cards - debt conceptby Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce Team

Over time, your business will—hopefully—grow, seizing new opportunities to expand and to flourish. As these opportunities present themselves, you may face the question of how you’ll pay for them on the front-end—how you’ll afford a new building, for instance, with larger office space, or how you’ll get additional inventory.

In these cases, you may find that you need to borrow money—which of course requires you to have some decent business credit. Building credit is as important for corporations as it is for individuals—and it can be just as difficult.

There are a few tips you can keep in mind to make the process a bit smoother, though—including the following:

  1. Start by acknowledging that it’s not entirely about the business credit; your personal credit is also going to be scrutinized, as likely as not. Because most new businesses don’t really have a credit history to speak of, lenders will look at the personal credit of the business owner. Your personal financial habits, then, could very directly impact your business’ long-term financial options.
  2. At the same time, it is important to maintain a separation between the company’s finances and your own personal finances. You shouldn’t be putting business expenses on your personal credit card, and you definitely shouldn’t be putting personal expenses on the business card. Either scenario could come back to haunt you.
  3. Apply for credit early—before you really need it, even. If you have no credit history to speak of then it could take months, even years for you to get approved. If you open up a business credit card or take out a very small loan early on, it gives lenders something to appraise—and could reduce your wait time when you need to take out a much larger loan.
  4. Keep an eye on your credit cards and loan payments—and pay them on time. This is obvious yet it cannot be emphasized enough: The better relationship you can maintain with your lender, the more likely you’ll be to get a more sizable loan down the road.

Building business credit takes time, and it takes a sense of direction—so start now. Remember, as you do, why you’re doing it, and how it might ultimately serve your business down the road.

Your credit history can make or break your small business

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credit history, credit reportLuis O De la Hoz, Vice President Lending Team at The Intersect Fund, addressed important issues related to access to non-traditional funding for small businesses at the Hispanic Chamber of e-Commerce Google Hangout.

De la Hoz also reminded small business owners that they can save up to $250K in their lifetime by having a good credit score. Where do these saving come from?

… saving up to $150 each month on your car payment.

…saving up to $80 each month in your car insurance.

…avoiding mandatory security deposits when opening an account for a public utility service.

…. up to $2000 in security deposit for the purchase of your cellular phone.

According to De la Hoz, microloan expert and small business advocate, there are three important elements to consider when building or maintaining your credit history:

Open at least three accounts (credit cards, car loan, mortgage, personal or small business loans, or similar) reporting to the credit bureaus that you are paying on time.

  1. Keep your revolving credit account balances below 30 percent (maximum of 50 percent)
  2. Always pay on time.

Not having a good credit record can impact your job search in some industries, complicate or impede your access to a college education, and even qualify for business loans and other small business services that are offered in the marketplace. Vendors will also look at your credit history to see if you are a reliable payer, and other organizations will rate your business credit according to your personal credit until your business is established.

Another issue that is common among Hispanic business owners is the lack of knowledge about their credit history. De la Hoz suggests that entrepreneurs and startups follow carefully their history through the credit bureaus such as Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. You can also receive one free report a year to check possible mistakes or errors.

A small business owner himself, De la Hoz’ journey as an entrepreneur made him passionate about supporting small business owners. “Latino business owners want an advisor who is specifically trained or certified in helping small businesses, speaks their language of preference, and is involved in the community,” De la Hoz said. Approximately 69 percent of Hispanic business owners looks for an advisor who is specifically certified to work with small businesses opposed to just 50 percent of general business owners looking for advice.

Six in 10 Hispanic owners say they want an advisor who can speak in their preferred language. Being involved in the community is more than twice as important (32 percent) to Hispanic owners as it is to the general market (14 percent).