CIBS Helps Bed-Stuy Residents Grow Their Finances

“It’s not what we do for ourselves that makes us great – it’s what we do for others,” said Ryan Mack, president of Optimum Capital Management and author of the best-selling book “Living in the Village.”

Mack was the keynote speaker Tuesday night at “Getting Your Financial House in Order,” a financial empowerment seminar at the Skylight Gallery in Restoration Plaza, hosted by the Coalition for the Improvement for Bedford-Stuyvesant (CIBS), along with HSBC Bank and the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.

In the style of a preacher-come-financial guru, Mack asserted that life’s greatest motivator, love, requires we enable and prepare ourselves to do for others – whether it be for our children, our community or simply those in need. However, fewer opportunities exist to help those we love when we do not have the financial means.

In this way, Mack turned the need for financial literacy into a higher calling, a responsibility and life duty.

Other invited speakers included Loretta Abrams, SVP of community investment at HSBC and Cathie Mahon, deputy commissioner for Financial Empowerment at the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs.

Abrams outlined the “Rules of the Road” for attaining financial literacy. She said one of the most important tools everyone should have to begin empowering themselves financially is a plan. “Because, if you don’t know where you’re going, then any road will take you there.”

She added, it is also important that everyone knows and understands their credit score. “That credit score is the key to opening all sorts of financial doors,” said Abrams. “It is important to those who will lend you money or do business for you because it is a formula, an objective calculation of whether you will pay your bills on time.”

 She listed five key considerations factored into any credit score calculation:

• Whether you pay your bills on time
• Your current debt
• How you have handled credit in the past
• How you handle a mix of credit
• Whether you’ve applied for a lot of credit cards

Cathie Mahon also spoke about the free programs available through the mayor’s office to assist those who desired to begin to the process of pulling themselves out of debt.

“If you have an income tax refund coming your way, this is a great time to think about what you should do with it,” said Mahon.

She pointed to the city’s Financial Empowerment Center networks, such as the one that exists at BSRC, as a free resource for the community to begin developing a financial plan for themselves.

The counselors at Restoration provide a safe and trusted means to link you with a host of city services and asset building opportunities that will help you figure out where you are financially and exactly where you want to go, said Mahon.

Mahon also pointed out that 311 operators also are trained to advise any city resident about whether or not they are eligible for the earned income tax credit (EIC).

“It’s events like these that represent the backbone of a community,” said Mack. “And what is also so great about these events is that they [are free].”

Free financial counseling and other resources are a part of CIBS' asset building initiatives and are available at the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. For more information, contact BSRC at (718) 636-6930.

*See attached video